Change ‘incomprehensible’ laws in Bernardo transfer: lawyer for victims’ families – National | 24CA News
The lawyer for the households of Leslie French and Kristen Mahaffy, two of serial killer Paul Bernardo’s victims, is looking on the federal government to utterly re-evaluate the necessity for transparency within the corrections and parole programs.
Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the households, stated in an announcement Thursday that the households don’t settle for that Bernardo’s switch was “sound” or lawful, as a evaluate into his contentious switch to a medium-security jail asserted.
He stated they’re calling for legislative modifications that will tackle confinement requirements for probably the most harmful offenders, and that switch selections ought to totally issue within the unique sentences, citing the decide’s feedback at Bernardo’s 1995 sentencing that his likelihood at rehabilitation “is remote in the extreme.”
“There cannot be a one fits all criteria,” Danson wrote in a preliminary assertion despatched to the media, noting he and the households had not but reviewed the total evaluate report intimately.
“As the government has already said publicly, the decision to transfer Paul Bernardo from maximum security to medium security, was ‘shocking’ and ‘incomprehensible’. The families accept this government’s position to be genuine and sincere.
“No law that is ‘shocking’ and ‘incomprehensible’ can stand and must be changed to address the specific challenges faced when dealing with Canada’s most dangerous offenders.”
Danson stated he had “constructive” conversations with Correctional Service Canada Commissioner Anne Kelly and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino on Wednesday in regards to the report into the evaluate and agreed to remain in additional contact.
Danson’s assertion didn’t point out the report’s findings about sufferer notification, which referred to as for higher notification for households. But he did recommend the Privacy Act allowed the CSC to guard itself from accountability by not sharing details about notable inmates like Bernardo with Canadians “under the pretext of protecting the offender’s privacy rights.”
His feedback come after Danson beforehand issued an open letter on behalf of the French and Mahaffy households, including he was not notified of the switch previous to it taking place on May 29.
A CSC news launch from June 5 states: “Throughout Paul Bernardo’s sentence, we have continued to provide information and updates to all registered victims through our National Victim Services Program, and will continue to do so moving forward.”
Danson writes that he acquired two “non-descript” voicemails from CSC that day, one at 9:06 a.m. and one other at 1:48 p.m. According to Danson, the voicemails simply stated “that CSC had some information for me.”
He described returning the afternoon name shortly thereafter, solely to seek out out Bernardo had already been transferred to the medium-security jail. Danson stated he then contacted the households to see if that they had been notified that morning.
“To be credible, the advanced notice would had to have occurred days before or at the latest the day prior. Yet apparently, the Frenches were advised on the morning of Mr. Bernardo’s transfer without any explanation,” Danson wrote.
“Ms. Mahaffy was left with the distinct impression that the transfer had already taken place, or at best was imminent.”
At the July 20 press convention on the switch evaluate, Kelly stated that La Macaza focuses on managing “this type of offender,” and any inmate will be transferred to the next safety stage facility if deemed mandatory.
Referencing Bernardo’s final parole listening to in 2021, Danson writes that the parole board discovered Bernardo confirmed no regret, perception or empathy. He wrote {that a} psychiatrist at that listening to stated Bernardo nonetheless met the factors for sexual sadism, narcissistic persona dysfunction and displayed psychopathic traits; and stated that these circumstances weren’t treatable.
“No one can suggest that in the last two years, Bernardo has been able to affect a miraculous rehabilitation within a maximum-security federal penitentiary, which he could not achieve in the first 28 years,” Danson wrote.
“Despite the fact that he is at a medium-security institution, does not negate the fact that he is a psychopath,” Kelly stated on the July 20 press convention.
Despite being classed as medium-security, La Macaza has comparable perimeter management as a maximum-security facility. This contains excessive partitions and armed guards on patrol.
In each the evaluate’s open letter and response to the findings, Danson notes {that a} hallmark of psychopathy is manipulative behaviour and argues regular analysis standards mustn’t have been utilized to Bernardo.
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