Prison transfer not about revenge, former official says after Bernardo moved | 24CA News
One of the architects of the regulation that governs Canada’s jail system says it’s comprehensible folks need revenge on killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo, however that’s not what the jail system is designed for.
Mary Campbell additionally says it’s regrettable the Correctional Service of Canada has not been extra clear in the way it dealt with the matter – which the regulation permits it to be.
Campbell, a lawyer who retired from her function as director-general of the corrections and felony justice directorate within the Public Safety Department in 2013, mentioned that with out query Bernardo’s crimes had been horrific.
Broadly talking, the corrections system has a mandate to rehabilitate offenders.
Politicians from all events and ranges of presidency have decried Bernardo’s switch from a maximum-security penitentiary to a medium-security jail in Quebec.
News of the switch was confirmed final week by the lawyer for the households of two of his victims, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, who need him despatched again.
Both teenage ladies had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered by Bernardo within the early Nineties. He was additionally convicted of manslaughter within the loss of life of Tammy Homolka, who died after being drugged and sexually assaulted. Tammy was the 15-year-old sister of Bernardo’s then-wife Karla Homolka.
Karla Homolka was launched in 2005 after finishing a 12-year sentence for her function within the crimes dedicated in opposition to French and Mahaffy.
Bernardo admitted to sexually assaulting 14 different girls. He has been declared a harmful offender and is serving a life sentence.
Bernardo has spent 30 years below most safety, which Campbell mentioned is a very long time for any offender.
And whereas she understands why folks need to see him saved there, she mentioned the factors for transferring an inmate to a different penitentiary “is not based on revenge.”
“We, as a country, gave up torture quite a while ago, ” she mentioned in an interview Tuesday. “And we’re pretty critical of other countries that engage in torture.”
After the news broke, Ontario Premier Doug Ford mentioned he thinks Bernardo must be locked up for “23 hours a day,” whereas Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has known as on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authorities to enact adjustments that will power those that are convicted of a number of murders to serve their whole sentence in most safety.
The correctional service is reviewing the choice to switch Bernardo. Under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, inmates are given safety classifications primarily based on elements together with escape danger, which inform the place they serve their sentences.
In the case of Bernardo, who’s now in his late 50s, the correctional service says a transfer to a medium-security jail poses no danger to public security.
The purpose behind his switch, nevertheless, is a thriller, with the federal correctional service saying it’s “restricted by law” in what it may possibly expose.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino mentioned Canadians are owed a proof as to why Bernardo was transferred.
Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the French and Mahaffy households, mentioned he was not given the data due to Bernardo’s privateness rights.
Campbell mentioned the regulation spells out that the commissioner of the nation’s jail system has the ability to open up to victims a abstract of the explanations for the switch of a selected offender, in circumstances the place it’s decided their curiosity outweighs any invasion of the offender’s privateness.
She mentioned the commissioner may select to launch info below the federal privateness regulation in circumstances the place they decide the general public’s proper to know overrides an inmate’s privateness.
“When (the Correctional Service of Canada) says they can’t release details because of the law, that’s not entirely accurate,” she mentioned. “There are exceptions.”
“It is unfortunate that CSC maybe hasn’t been a little bit more transparent, explaining things.”
She added that there are greater than 20,000 different folks serving a sentence in Canadian prisons and jails, and the foundations have been designed to use broadly.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
