The lawyer representing the families of Paul Bernardo’s murder victims will speak to MPs Wednesday about the transfer of inmates and the rights of victims of crime.
Tim Danson is set to appear before the House of Commons public safety and national security committee at 4:30 p.m. eastern. He is scheduled to be joined by Tennille Chwalczuk, Laura Murray and Marcia Penner – childhood friends of Kristen French, one of Bernardo’s murder victims.
Benjamin Roebuck, the federal ombudsperson for victims of crime, is also scheduled to appear at the committee, which is studying the rights of victims of crime, reclassification and transfer of federal offenders.
The study comes in the wake of the fallout over Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security prison earlier this year. Bernardo, 59, has been serving a life sentence for the kidnappings, tortures and murders of teenagers French and Leslie Mahaffy in the early 1990s.
He and his then-wife Karla Homolka also killed her younger sister, Tammy Homolka. Bernardo had been living out his sentence in maximum-security prisons until this year.
Bernardo’s transfer to the medium-security prison in Quebec set off a firestorm across the country and engulfed the Liberal government in controversy.
Part of the controversy surrounded the notification of the victims’ families; Danson previously told Global News he only learned about this transfer after it happened.
Anne Kelly, commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, appeared before the committee on Monday and stressed there was “absolutely no talk” of moving the notorious killer and serial rapist to an even lower security level.
She said inmates like Bernardo, who are categorized as posing a high risk to public safety, can’t be moved into minimum security.
Kelly also reiterated to MPs that Bernardo is kept in the same perimeter as he was in maximum security, and that the main difference between the two institutions is that in a medium-security prison, the movement of inmates is not as tightly controlled as that of those in maximum.
She added that an 11-member panel has been struck to examine how the Correctional Service of Canada can better its victim services. Roebuck is serving as a special advisor to the panel.
“This offender committed horrific crimes, and hearing about this case has brought up strong emotions and rightly so. I regret any pain and concern this has caused,” she said.
“Over the next months, it (the panel) will explore how we provide services to victims of crime and examine additional areas that could be further strengthened. We have also recently undertaken a review of our policies to see how we can better serve victims and provide them with more timely information about the offender who harmed them.”
The panel started its work on Nov. 17, Kelly said.
A Correctional Service of Canada spokesperson told Global News after Kelly’s appearance the committee will provide recommendations to the corrections service and aims to develop a report by the winter, which will be shared publicly. They did not elaborate on specific timelines.
The Correctional Service of Canada launched a review of the decision in June amid public outcry. It concluded its decision was “sound” as it followed protocol, but found it must strengthen how it communicates with victims’ families when moving high-profile criminals.
The review said that on the morning of May 29, prior to the transfer, “heads up” notifications were made by phone to the victims, though not all registered victims were immediately reached.
“Heads up” calls are not required by policy; however, they were done in this case given the high-profile nature and extreme sensitivity of the case.
After Bernardo was transferred, victims were again contacted by phone to be informed of the move and that the general reason for the transfer was “reassessed security requirements.”
The Liberals struggled to explain why then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said they were not informed until the day the transfer occurred and the day after, respectively, despite their offices knowing about the possibility for months.
Mendicino was eventually replaced by current Public Safety Minister Domenic LeBlanc during Trudeau’s cabinet shuffle in July.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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