How did Paul Bernardo get a prison transfer? CSC set to share review

Paul Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security prison in May set off a firestorm across the country, and engulfed the Liberal government in controversy.

Correctional Service Canada (CSC) will reveal Thursday the outcome of its review regarding the controversial prison transfer of notorious murderer and rapist Paul Bernardo.

CSC Commissioner Anne Kelly will present the results of the review at a news conference scheduled for 1:45 p.m. Eastern in Ottawa. She will be joined by France Gratton, assistant commissioner of correctional operations and programs, and Kirstan Gagnon, assistant commissioner of communications and engagement.

Globalnews.ca will be live-streaming the news conference.

Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security prison in May set off a firestorm across the country and engulfed the Liberal government in controversy.

Bernardo, 58, has been serving a life sentence for the kidnappings, tortures and murders of teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy in the early 1990s. He and his then-wife Karla Homolka also killed her younger sister, Tammy Homolka.

Bernardo has been living out his sentence in maximum-security prisons, but in May was moved to a medium-security prison in Quebec.

CSC launched a review of the decision in June, and said in a statement at the time that while laws restrict it in terms of what it can say about an offender’s case, it can place inmates in higher-security prisons “at any point” if deemed necessary to ensure the safety of the public and institutions.

Newly released emails obtained by Global News through an access to information request revealed senior officials within the CSC and Public Safety Canada said Bernardo’s then-looming transfer needed to be kept “low profile” and under a “close hold” just days before it happened.