MANDEL: Unfortunately, little chance 'Bernardo's Law' will pass
· Toronto Sun
It’s been three years since serial rapist and heinous schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo was secretly moved out of maximum security without any advance notice to the families of his victims.
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The quiet transfer of one of this country’s most evil criminals sparked outrage across the nation — and spurred a private member’s bill by Niagara Falls Conservative MP Tony Baldinelli to ensure no multiple killers can be transferred to a cushier stay in federal prison. His bill, reintroduced last fall, was up for second reading debate in Parliament on Tuesday.
The proposed Bill C-232, an act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, would require the “worst of the worst” — all court-ordered dangerous offenders and those convicted of more than one count of first-degree murder — to be permanently assigned to maximum-security classification and confined in a maximum-security penitentiary or area in a penitentiary. It would also repeal the Liberals’ mandate, approved in 2018, to house inmates in the “least restrictive environment.”
It would mean Bernardo and his ilk would be shipped back to maximum where they belong — a wonderful idea, but one that’s unlikely to get very far.
The Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois have signalled they’ll oppose the bill when it’s expected to come up for a vote Wednesday: they argue it inhibits rehabilitation and safe reintegration because there’s less programming and less chance of a gradual release back into society if offenders are locked up in maximum for their entire sentence.
Poor things.
Baldinelli said he was inspired to bring the bill forward after being approached by the shocked families and friends of Bernardo’s victims who received a phone call from Correctional Service Canada on May 29, 2023 informing them the sadistic killer was on his way from a maximum-security prison at Ontario’s Millhaven Institution to a medium-security prison at La Macaza in Quebec.
Until then, most assumed it would only be hard time for the psychopath serving life with no parole for 25 years for kidnapping, torturing and killing Leslie Mahaffy, 14, in 1991 and Kristen French, 15, in 1992 — as well as being found guilty of the manslaughter and sexual assault of his 15-year-old sister-in-law Tammy Homolka.
Declared dangerous offender in 1995
Declared a dangerous offender in 1995, Bernardo was shipped to maximum security in Kingston Pen and then to Millhaven when the notorious prison closed down.
Since 1999, he relentlessly applied to get out of maximum but his reclassification was overridden 13 times. However, by July 2022, Bernardo was considered successfully “ integrated ” with other inmates. He was reclassified in February 2023 to medium security and his move to La Macaza near Mont Tremblant was approved a month later.
Then we learned his appalling transfer was hardly unique. In March 2024, I broke the story that twisted sex killer Luka Magnotta had been moved out of maximum as well — also to La Macaza, where the facilities include a hockey rink and tennis court. He joined other infamous inmates such as Michael Rafferty, who brutally murdered eight-year-old Tori Stafford and serial rapist and former colonel Russell Williams, serving life for killing two women.
They are the “worst of the worst” but their comfortable digs are the norm: Of the 7 36 inmates classified as dangerous offenders in Canadian prisons at the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year, only 99 were held in maximum-security facilities, 57 were in minimum-security and the vast majority, 580 inmates, were in medium-security.
It’s not just about locking them up for punishment. It’s virtually impossible for an offender to be considered for any type of parole while still in maximum. His move to medium security has opened a door for Bernardo that we were always led to believe would remain tight shut: despite his three failed attempts, his last hearing in 2024 ended with the parole board noting that he’d made “progress.”
His fourth attempt at more freedom is expected this fall.