The National Parole Board has been the focus of intense public scrutiny in recent years, largely due to widely publicized crimes and violence committed by parolees and offenders on temporary absence or under mandatory supervision. In the past decade, two major coroner's inquests, several inquiries and studies, and the 1987 Report of the Canadian Sentencing Commission raised fundamental questions about the purpose and functions of parole. In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was introduced in accordance with the evolving concept of the "duty to act fairly." The National Parole Board must keep up with such evolution of Canadian jurisprudence. In the face of this challenge, the Board has committed to a strategy based on three related themes of professionalism, openness, and accountability and has shifted its decisionmaking emphasis from offenders' rights to victims' rights and public safety. (Author abstract modified)