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A lawyer representing the families of two teenage girls killed by notorious serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo says they have been denied their right to present their victim impact statements in person at Bernardo’s next hearing.

In a letter to the president of the Parole Board of Canada and others, lawyer Tim Danson says he was recently informed that the victims’ families would not be able to attend the Nov. 26 hearing at Quebec’s La Macaza Institution because the board was “unable “. to ensure the safety and security of all participants in the hearing.”

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Danson says the families are asking that the hearing be postponed until next month or another date so they and their lawyers can travel to La Macaza and read the victim impact statements in person.

Bernardo was transferred from Ontario’s maximum-security Millhaven Institution to medium-security La Macaza last year, a decision that sparked public outcry.

Bernardo, who is designated a dangerous offender, is serving an indeterminate life sentence for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Kristen French, 15, and Leslie Mahaffy, 14, in the early 1990s near St. Catharines, Ont. .

He was also convicted of the December 1990 manslaughter of his wife Karla Homolka’s 15-year-old sister, Tammy.

In a statement, a spokesman for federal Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the Parole Board, as a quasi-judicial body, makes its decisions independently.

“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims, who continue to live with the trauma of this individual’s abominable crimes,” wrote LeBlanc’s press secretary, Gabriel Brunet.

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Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill on Wednesday morning, Tory MP Frank Caputo said the decision to deny families the right to attend was “so wrong on so many levels”.

“Why is the safety and security of the prison in this case preventing people from exercising their rights under the Victims’ Bill of Rights?” said Caputo, one of the party’s Justice and Public Safety critics.

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