Canadians want revenge on Bernardo, but that's not how prison works: ex-official
CTV
One of the architects of the law that governs Canada's prison system says it's understandable people want revenge on killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo, but that's not what the prison system is designed for.
One of the architects of the law that governs Canada's prison system says it's understandable people want revenge on killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo, but that's not what the prison system is designed for.
Mary Campbell also says it is regrettable the Correctional Service of Canada has not been more transparent in how it handled the matter -- which the law allows it to be.
Campbell, a lawyer who retired from her role as director-general of the corrections and criminal justice directorate in the Public Safety Department in 2013, said that without question Bernardo's crimes were horrific.
Broadly speaking, the corrections system has a mandate to rehabilitate offenders.
Politicians from all parties and levels of government have decried Bernardo's transfer from a maximum-security penitentiary to a medium-security prison in Quebec.
News of the transfer was confirmed last week by the lawyer for the families of two of his victims, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, who want him sent back.
Both teenage girls were kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered by Bernardo in the early 1990s. He was also convicted of manslaughter in the death 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.
