Retired Quebec senator tells parole board daughter’s killer should remain behind bars

Hugo Bernier in a police car after he was charged in the death of Julie Boisvenu in 2002. (CTV FILE)

Nearly 23 years after his daughter’s brutal murder, retired senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu stood before the Parole Board of Canada to request that her killer remain behind bars.

He told a hearing on Tuesday that the thought of Hugo Bernier being released “chills me to the bone” and that for an offender to be released, “the risk analysis must be zero.”

“I cannot remain silent about how much I fear that he will claim another innocent victim, another Julie Boisvenu, given his history of recidivism and his past disregard for the conditions of his parole,” Boisvenu told the parole hearing in prepared remarks.

Boisvenu, who served as a Conservative senator for Quebec from 2010 to 2024, said his daughter, Julie, would have been 50 years old today if she were still alive.

On the night of June 23, 2002, Bernier raped her and strangled her to death.

She was 27.

Bernier was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Bernier is requesting to visit his father in the Gaspé region to mourn the recent death of his brother with a police escort.

The parole board is still reviewing the decision after finding out his father also has a criminal history.

A decision is expected at a later date.

The board also rejected his request to visit a minimum-security penitentiary and a resource centre for Indigenous people.

Boisvenu is asking the parole board to ensure his daughter’s murderer stays in prison since releasing him presents too great a risk to women in Quebec, he said.

“Playing Russian roulette with women’s safety, resulting in the murder of a woman by a killer who was released when he should have remained incarcerated, is unacceptable. Taking an unacceptable risk means accepting the risk that innocent victims’ lives will be violently taken, that entire families will be torn apart, and that too many collateral victims will suffer for the rest of their lives,” Boisvenu said.

“Quebec women no longer want to accept such a risk, which the Board continues to publicly refuse to take responsibility for.”

Julie was killed while Bernier was out on probation after having kidnapped and raped another young woman in 1999.

He had been sentenced to 18 months but was released after a few months — a sentence, Boisvenu said, that “gave him a licence to reoffend.”

In an interview with CTV News, he said Tuesday’s hearing reinforces his belief that victims of crime and their families often don’t have the same rights as offenders during the parole board process.

“We don’t have the right to ask questions to the criminal, to ask questions to the correctional service. We don’t have the right to ask questions to the [parole board], so it’s a very passive role we have there,” he said.

Before his retirement, Boisvenu tabled a bill in the Senate, Bill S-265, which would establish a framework for implementing the rights of victims of crime.

The bill died on the order paper when Parliament was dissolved in March 2025.

Had he had the chance to question Bernier, Boisvenu said he would have had some tough questions for him: “Why you still have the same sexual deviance, sexual problems? Why you cannot explain to us your responsibility in that crime?” he said.

“And that’s why I said you cannot make that guy free.”

With files from CTV Montreal’s Max Harrold.