How did Paul Bernardo get a prison transfer? CSC set to share review – National | 24CA News
Correctional Service Canada (CSC) will reveal Thursday the result of its evaluation relating to the controversial jail switch of infamous assassin and rapist Paul Bernardo.
CSC Commissioner Anne Kelly will current the outcomes of the evaluation at a news convention scheduled for 1:45 p.m. Eastern in Ottawa. She will likely be joined by France Gratton, assistant commissioner of correctional operations and applications, and Kirstan Gagnon, assistant commissioner of communications and engagement.
24CA News will likely be live-streaming the news convention.
Bernardo’s switch to a medium-security jail in May set off a firestorm throughout the nation and engulfed the Liberal authorities in controversy.
Bernardo, 58, has been serving a life sentence for the kidnappings, tortures and murders of youngsters Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy within the early Nineties. He and his then-wife Karla Homolka additionally killed her youthful sister, Tammy Homolka.
Bernardo has been dwelling out his sentence in maximum-security prisons, however in May was moved to a medium-security jail in Quebec.
CSC launched a evaluation of the choice in June, and mentioned in an announcement on the time that whereas legal guidelines prohibit it when it comes to what it could actually say about an offender’s case, it could actually place inmates in higher-security prisons “at any point” if deemed obligatory to make sure the protection of the general public and establishments.
Newly launched emails obtained by Global News via an entry to info request revealed senior officers inside the CSC and Public Safety Canada mentioned Bernardo’s then-looming switch wanted to be stored “low profile” and below a “close hold” simply days earlier than it occurred.
The emails additionally confirmed CSC advising Public Safety Canada that the households of Bernardo’s victims would get “a heads up” previous to the switch going down — one thing the households’ lawyer mentioned didn’t occur till afterward.
Officials have struggled to clarify why Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned they weren’t knowledgeable till the day the switch occurred, and the day after, respectively, regardless of their places of work realizing in regards to the chance for months.
The data obtained by Global News present that on May 25 — 4 days earlier than Bernardo was transferred — the CSC’s assistant communications commissioner emailed media traces flagged as excessive significance to 5 people.
The emails present a Public Service Canada official then forwarded the knowledge to senior division officers, together with the assistant deputy minister of communications at Public Safety Canada and the chief of employees to the director normal of Public Safety Canada, advising them to maintain it a “close hold and for Deputies’ awareness only.”
Mendicino and his workplace have beforehand mentioned the minister was not made conscious of Bernardo’s switch till May 30, the day after it occurred.
Trudeau’s workplace says he was briefed the day the switch occurred.
Both have confronted heavy scrutiny over why their employees had been suggested in regards to the matter courting again to March after which once more on May 25, within the case of Mendicino’s workplace, however had apparently not knowledgeable them till the day of or after the switch.
The Conservative Party has referred to as on Mendicino to resign or for Trudeau to fireside him over the difficulty, arguing it was a part of a sample of mismanagement relating to vital public security issues.
Mendicino’s workplace and the CSC have mentioned that “notification in the form of communications products came to the minister’s office on May 25 ahead of the May 29 transfer.”
The jail service has additionally confirmed it first knowledgeable the minister’s workplace in March in regards to the chance Bernardo could be transferred, then once more on May 25.
News of the switch made headlines on June 2.
Despite the emails obtained by Global News exhibiting CSC meant to tell the households of Bernardo’s victims about his switch forward of time, the households lawyer Tim Danson instructed Global News final month he solely discovered in regards to the transfer after the very fact.
“The call isn’t to say it’s going to happen on a certain day and time,” he mentioned upon first confirming the switch.
“The call is that it just occurred.”
The media traces included within the emails obtained by Global News match the general public statements launched by CSC on the time the switch turned public.
They embrace assurances the switch was rigorously thought of with public security in thoughts, and be aware that inmates are in a position to request transfers to different establishments.
— with recordsdata from Sean Boynton
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
