Paul Bernardo should be sent back to a maximum security prison, says the lawyer for the families of his young murder victims. He calls on the Correctional Service of Canada to be more transparent about what led to his transfer to a medium-security institution.
Tim Danson represents the relatives of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, whom Bernardo kidnapped, tortured and murdered in the early 1990s.
Mr. Danson says he was informed by telephone last week that Bernardo, who was serving a life sentence at the maximum-security Millhaven Institution near Kingston, Ont., had been transferred to a medium-security institution in Quebec.
He said the Correctional Service of Canada, citing Bernardo’s right to privacy, refused to answer questions about the reason for the transfer. Mr Danson says he is also unable to know whether the serial murderer and sex offender has close protection in prison or socializes with other inmates, which this security classification allows.
“He’s one of Canada’s most notorious sadistic and psychopathic killers,” he told The Canadian Press.
“We need the public, en masse, in the millions, to write to the Minister, the Commissioner of Corrections and Members of Parliament, to express their outrage over this – that secrecy will not work. We want transparency. »
Mr Danson said he was pleased to see a statement from Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino on Friday in which he called Bernardo’s transfer “shocking and incomprehensible”.
“But now we need action,” he added.
Mr. Mendicino said he plans to raise the issue with Anne Kelly, Commissioner of Federal Corrections, and says he expects “a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach will be taken in these cases “.
The service, for its part, released a statement offering no details on Bernardo’s transfer, but saying safety is its “primary consideration” in all such decisions.
“While we cannot comment on the details of an offender’s case under the Privacy Act, we want to assure the public that this offender continues to be incarcerated in a secure facility, with perimeters of security and appropriate controls in place,” the statement read.
The service went on to say Bernardo, who has been designated a dangerous offender, is serving an “indeterminate sentence,” with no end date.
Mr Danson said the Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy families were shocked to learn of Bernardo’s transfer, the decision stirring up decades of anguish and grief.
“Then that I have to tell them as a lawyer and a friend, ‘I’m afraid I don’t have answers for you because of Bernardo’s right to privacy,'” he said.
“Obviously their answer is what you would expect: ‘What about Kristen’s rights? What about Leslie’s rights? And [nos] rights?” »