Staff in Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office knew for three months that serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo would be transferred from a maximum to a medium-security prison — but didn’t inform the minister until after it had happened — CBC News has learned.
The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) said it first emailed Mendicino’s office on March 2 to inform it that Bernardo would be moved to a medium-security institution. A final date for the transfer hadn’t been determined at that time.
CSC said it sent a second email on May 25 to Mendicino’s office saying Bernardo would be transferred four days later.
The minister’s office now confirms it did not tell Mendicino about Bernardo’s transfer until May 30, the day after the transfer happened.
A lawyer representing the families of two teenage girls murdered by Bernardo said it’s alarming that the minister and the victims’ families were kept in the dark for nearly 90 days.
“If that is true, that staff truly kept this a secret from their boss, then that is an egregious abdication of responsibility and is profoundly unfair to the minister,” said Timothy Danson, counsel for the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.
“This is precisely the kind of information that must be communicated to the minister because the buck stops with the minister.”
Bernardo was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 for the killings of Mahaffy and French. He was also convicted of manslaughter for his role in the death of 15-year-old Tammy Homolka and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for the first 25 years.
Bernardo was quietly transferred on May 29 from the maximum-security Millhaven Institution in Kingston, Ont., to a medium-security prison in La Macaza, Que. Danson said the victims’ families only learned of the transfer the morning it happened.
A three-person review committee at CSC is now reviewing the decision to transfer Bernardo. CSC said it expects that review will be completed in the next few weeks.
A lawyer representing the families of Paul Bernardo’s victims says they weren’t given enough notice about the serial killer’s transfer from a maximum security prison to a medium security facility. They have joined advocates who say there is a gap in the law that needs to be amended so victims can be consulted in future transfer cases.
CBC News asked Mendicino’s office if his staff was trying to protect the minister by not telling him about Bernardo’s upcoming transfer. A spokesperson said staff weren’t protecting him and that they were examining the minister’s options.
Mendicino’s office said on background that it “looked into the authorities available to the minister and came to learn” that it “has no powers over transfer decisions.” The CSC also confirms decisions about transferring offenders and notifying victims fall under its purview, not that of the minister.
Mendicino publicly acknowledged Bernardo’s transfer on June 2 — three days after his office says he was told about the transfer for the first time. After news of the transfer leaked that day, Mendicino tweeted that CSC’s “independent decision” to transfer Bernardo “is shocking and incomprehensible.”
On June 5, Mendicino told reporters he spoke to CSC commissioner Anne Kelly that morning to state “that I was profoundly concerned and again shocked by this decision.”
Danson said the minister’s remarks left the impression that he had just learned about Bernardo’s transfer that day — not that he’d known about it for days.
“The families and myself had the distinct impression that when the minister said that he found the decision both shocking and incomprehensible, that he had no advanced notice,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any other interpretation.”
Danson also said the commissioner should have called Mendicino ahead of the transfer to let him know.
“When you’re dealing with someone this dangerous, this notorious and high-profile, how is it possible that the commissioner or deputy commissioner didn’t pick up the telephone and call the minister directly so there’s no question he’s aware of the situation?” he said. “And what is the explanation for a failure to do so?”
CBC News asked Mendicino on Tuesday why he wasn’t briefed ahead of the transfer and why he didn’t speak to the commissioner earlier.
Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino says his department communicates with the Correctional Service of Canada on prisoner transfers. In the case of Paul Bernardo’s transfer, he said, he ‘personally found out the week the decision was rendered.’
“There is back and forth between the Correctional Service of Canada and the department when it comes to decisions around transfers,” he said.
“And so, in this particular case of Paul Bernardo, there was back and forth in the lead-up to the decision.
“It’s important as well to underscore that these decisions are not typically public because of security concerns, because of privacy concerns that are well established in the law. But once the decision to transfer Paul Bernardo did become public, I obviously took the opportunity to express very clearly to the commissioner the concerns of Canadians in regards to the transfer.”
After those comments, Mendicino’s press secretary Audrey Champoux said in a media statement that during that “back and forth” with CSC, the minister’s office was informed of “some of the steps” involved with the inmate transfer.
“The decision at every step remained independent from our office,” she said.
Families kept in the dark
Mendicino’s office said the minister wasn’t in a position to notify the victims’ families ahead of time or speak publicly, adding “it is not within our authority to share this information” due to privacy law.
“There are still clear processes in place when it comes to notifying victims and families of transfer, and it is not appropriate for politicians to reach out directly,” said Champoux. “CSC has a process in place to notify families.”
Danson said the government is avoiding accountability by using “privacy concerns” as an excuse.
“Our view is that they’re actually protecting themselves,” he said.
Mary Campbell, who retired in 2013 as director general of corrections and criminal justice at Public Safety Canada, said Mendicino’s original reaction to Bernardo’s transfer “came across as though he was quite surprised.”
Campbell said that, after a 40-year career in criminal justice under 14 ministers, she would have expected staff to brief a minister ahead of such a high-profile transfer.
“This is probably the biggest case in the public eye in Canada right now,” she said. “You would want to be extremely prepared for the reaction that is going to be [coming] from a lot of people.”
Campbell also said that it would have made sense for the minister to “pick up the phone” and call the commissioner after he was briefed, rather than the following week.
“It’s such a high profile case I would have thought that every measure would have been taken so nobody was surprised and everybody was prepared to speak to it,” she said.
More Stories
What Trudeau’s podcast appearances say about the Liberals’ next ballot box question
ANALYSIS | In videos and podcasts, Poilievre and Trudeau are eager to explain themselves — at length | CBC News
South Africa celebrates 30 years since end of apartheid, but discontent grows – National | Globalnews.ca