Pierre Poilievre calls for public safety minister to resign over Bernardo prison revelations
CBC
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Wednesday that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino should resign over convicted killer Paul Bernardo's controversial prison transfer.
Mendicino rejected Poilievre's calls to step aside. He told MPs during question period in the House of Commons Wednesday that he will instead use his authority as minister to change how Correctional Service Canada (CSC) communicates its decisions on transferring high-profile prisoners.
The Toronto-area minister said that, moving forward, the federal prison bureau must "ensure victims' rights are guiding the decision-making process" when a prisoner is up for a possible reclassification.
This new directive is meant to close a policy gap that some advocates say leaves victims' families clueless about a perpetrator's whereabouts.
CBC News reported Tuesday that Mendicino's office knew for months that one of Canada's most high-profile murderers would be moved by CSC to a medium-security institution.
But the minister's political staff maintain they didn't relay that information to Mendicino until the day after Bernardo was transferred.
The minister's press secretary, Audrey Champoux, said Monday the office examined "possible options for potentially changing the decision" before it told Mendicino what CSC had decided to do.
"The minister was informed of the transfer on May 30, including details surrounding lack of authorities to influence it," Champoux said.
A source in the minister's office defended their actions in a call with CBC News.
They said Bernardo's history was known to younger staffers — Bernardo was convicted in 1995 — and there was no communications breakdown. They said sometimes the minister isn't apprised of every development.
"There's a lot of information flow every day within our agencies and we take decisions on when to best brief the minister," the source said.
CSC said it first told Mendicino's office in March that there was a transfer planned with an unspecified date.
Later, in May, the federal prison agency confirmed Bernardo would be moved on May 29. The killer was transferred on that day as planned.
After media reports revealed Bernardo's move to a Quebec institution, Mendicino told reporters he was "profoundly concerned" and "shocked" by CSC's decision, suggesting he didn't have an explanation for why the service went ahead with the transfer.
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