Corrections chief briefed Mendicino's chief of staff weeks before Bernardo's prison transfer
CBC
Then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino's chief of staff was briefed by the head of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) about Paul Bernardo's upcoming prison transfer almost two weeks before it happened — but the minister wasn't told about it until after Bernardo had been moved, says an internal government email.
The Privy Council Office (PCO) email, obtained by CBC News, also shows Corrections Canada was in contact with the minister's office about Bernardo's transfer from maximum to medium security a total of seven times between February and May 2023, before Mendicino was briefed.
Those contacts included the minister's communications staff being told about a possible change to the infamous serial killer and rapist's security level three months before it happened.
Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the families of two of Bernardo's victims, said it's "very disturbing" to learn that there was so much communication about the transfer that didn't reach the minister.
"It's quite incomprehensible," said Danson.
"The fact there has been so much communication says to me that everybody was well aware that this would be entirely unacceptable to Canadians, and so ... they proceeded in a way that would make the transfer a fait accompli."
Bernardo was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 for killing teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. He was also convicted of manslaughter for his role in the death of 15-year-old Tammy Homolka. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years and has been designated a dangerous offender.
The victims' families are outraged by the fact that they were only told that Bernardo was moving from a maximum to a medium security prison on May 29, 2023 — the day it happened.
CBC News reported exclusively in June that staff in Mendicino's office knew for more than three months that Bernardo could be transferred — but staff said they didn't tell the minister until the day after the transfer happened. The story set off a political firestorm and calls for Mendicino to resign.
Before being shuffled out of cabinet, Mendicino maintained he wasn't told about Bernardo's prison transfer in advance and said he should have been "briefed immediately."
Mendicino also issued a directive ordering that the minister be notified personally of such transfers in future, and that victims be told earlier. He never said who had failed to brief him.
CBC News has obtained hundreds of pages of internal emails from the Privy Council Office (PCO) about Bernardo's transfer through an access-to-information request. The emails contain a detailed "sequence of events" written by Corrections Canada and PCO.
Mendicino said on June 5 that the decision to transfer Bernardo was "shocking." Janice Charette, the clerk of the Privy Council at the time, asked her staff the next day to look into why Mendicino wasn't made aware of the transfer earlier and whether the commissioner of Corrections Canada did know about it.
"HI - From the Clerk this morning re CSC Bernardo — Can you follow up with the department?" reads an internal email between two Privy Council Office employees on June 6. "What's the process for sign off on this? How was Minister not aware? Was commissioner aware?"
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