More transparency needed after high-profile prison transfers: ex-watchdog

Howard Sapers, a former Correctional Investigator of Canada, says Canadians deserve to know more about the law and why corrections officials make their decisions.

Canadians deserve to know more about why corrections officials make decisions on things like high-profile prison transfers, a former watchdog says.

But Howard Sapers, a corrections policy consultant and former Correctional Investigator of Canada, says that transparency should still be limited to prevent the sharing of personal information about prisoners and anything else that’s not in the public interest.

“I think that correctional services across the country, including the Correctional Service of Canada, could do a much better job of explaining how they do their business, educating Canadians so that they have a better sense of why decisions are made and the way that they’re made,” he told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.

However, he added, “There are legitimate privacy rights engaged here, just like we don’t share people’s private health care information.

“As unsatisfying as this may sound, there’s a big difference between what’s in the public interest — let’s say, for their safety — and what would be something they’re just curious about.”

Global News reported last week that in 2022, three days before convicted murderer Luka Magnotta was transferred from a maximum to medium security prison, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) instructed staff not to tell the public about the move. The decision would not come to light for nearly two years.

That report marked the latest example, after Paul Bernardo, of a high-profile Canadian killer being transferred to a lower-security prison without public knowledge. Global News has reported CSC told staff to keep Bernardo’s transfer to a medium security facility “low profile.”

News of Bernardo’s transfer last year ignited a political firestorm and shocked Canadians, particularly after the lawyer for the families of Bernardo’s victims said they weren’t informed until after the transfer took place.