Bernardo prison transfer puts public safety minister in spotlight

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/06/2023 (847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino loses his job in a cabinet shuffle expected this summer, it won’t be because he did anything particularly wrong. It will be because it is easier to get rid of him than it is to explain the complex issue that has landed him in hot water.

Mendicino has been embroiled in controversy over the decision by the Correctional Service of Canada to transfer notorious dangerous offender Paul Bernardo from a maximum-security prison in Ontario to one in Quebec classified as medium security.

The move was made in late May without any advance warning outside of the CSC and the senior-most levels of the Liberal government. That meant the families of Bernardo’s victims were not given a chance to gird themselves for his return to headline news.

Bernardo, 58, was convicted in 1995 of two counts each of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault, and sentenced to life in prison, without parole for 25 years. Among other crimes, he is also known as the “Scarborough Rapist,” for a lengthy series of sex assaults in Ontario in 1987-90.

Mendicino said he didn’t find out about the transfer until the last moment, although it appears his office may have known in March. The same holds true for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; his staff appears to have known in advance about the transfer, but the prime minister was not told until late May.

In what was a desperate bid to shift the focus of the story, Mendicino said he found the decision to move Bernardo to be “shocking and incomprehensible.”

The decision to transfer one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers and rapists may be unpalatable, but it is neither shocking nor incomprehensible.

That’s a key point to this story that was left out of the early reporting, when national news organizations were happy to chime in with Conservative critics without having to actually tell anyone what was really going on.

Did Mendicino stumble in his duties as public safety minister? Yes, most definitely.

Do those stumbles have anything to do with stopping Bernardo’s transfer? Absolutely not.

Before getting into the specifics of Mendicino’s transgressions, here are some sober facts that have been ignored or underplayed.

First, there is a profound misunderstanding about what “medium security” really means.

Medium-security prisons are nearly identical to maximum-security facilities. They both have the same high walls topped with razor wire, small cells with heavy metal gates, and are patrolled by the same corrections officers.

The big difference comes down to how offenders are incarcerated within the prison.

Maximum can (but does not always) involve being incarcerated alone for up to 23 hours a day. Prisoners in maximum security, or special handling units, pose a threat to other prisoners or face risk at the hands of other prisoners.

According to numerous justice and corrections sources, most medium-security prisons have maximum-security units within them. Given Bernardo is commonly known in prison jargon as a “skinner” — an offender who has sexually assaulted and killed young women — you can bet he will spend a good deal of his time in one of those units.

The second major fact to be conveniently played down is Mendicino does not really have the power to stop such transfers.

While it is true ministers of the Crown can issue directives to government departments, the CSC is designed specifically to be arm’s length from political meddling.

This is a feature of many aspects of the criminal justice system; elected officials may be outraged about plea bargains, dropped charges or mild sentences but ministers do not normally direct prosecutors or correctional officials to take specific actions.

In other words, although the whole idea is repugnant, the CSC was only doing its job when it transferred Bernardo, and Mendicino had no role to play in influencing the decision.

Moreover, given Bernardo is classified as a dangerous offender, and will continue to be subject to the same general security protocols as he would experience in a maximum-security facility, Mendicino had no reasons to stop the move.

What the minister could have done — really should have done — was make sure the families of Bernardo’s victims were well-warned in advance. Officials should have reached out, explained what was going to happen, and why, to ease the trauma that comes every time his name is mentioned in the media.

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The media, too, should have done a better job of clarifying what was happening.

All of which brings us to the very strong possibility Mendicino will be tossed by his own government in the direction of the nearest speeding bus. Although he was neither responsible for, nor had a role to play in Bernardo’s transfer, Trudeau will likely see him as acceptable collateral damage.

Not because Bernardo was transferred on Mendicino’s watch, but because the minister could not effectively explain what was going on and why.

And perhaps those are grounds for losing your job.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com

Dan Lett
Columnist

Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986.  Read more about Dan.

Dan’s columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press’ editing team reviews Dan’s columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.