Bernardo transfer exposed bad system that won’t change
So, murderer and rapist Paul Bernardo will remain in Quebec’s medium-security La Macaza prison, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino couldn’t have changed that decision even if he had been told about it in advance and Correctional Services Canada will set up a process to determine how it can better inform the families of victims when such decisions are made.
Going forward, Mendicino — or his replacement — will be directly informed by Correctional Services Canada Commissioner Anne Kelly of any transfers involving high-profile prisoners, but the policy of CSC will remain to rehabilitate prisoners even if they pose a high risk to public safety and are unlikely to ever be freed.
That’s the upshot of a media conference by Kelly Thursday which released the findings of a three-person panel she convened to review what happened in the Bernardo transfer.
It found CSC followed the rules when it quietly transferred Bernardo from maximum security Millhaven prison to medium security La Macaza in May, but that it could have done a better job of informing the families of two of Bernardo’s murder victims — Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French — who were told mere hours before it happened.
