Notorious child killer Paul Bernardo transferred to Quebec institution

[spaminator]

Notorious child killer Paul Bernardo transferred to Quebec institution
A corrections officer union official says he’s baffled: "He doesn't even speak French. We don't even know what the hell he's doing in Quebec."

Author of the articleostmedia News
Postmedia News
Ian MacAlpine
Published Jun 02, 2023 • Last updated 22 hours ago • 2 minute read

After 29 years in prison, first at Kingston Penitentiary and then for the past 10 years at Millhaven Institution just west of Kingston, notorious child killer Paul Bernardo has been transferred to a medium-security institution in Quebec.


Correctional Service Canada does not usually comment on offender transfers, but Bernardo’s move to the Quebec institution was confirmed by officials from the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.


“Public Safety is the paramount consideration in every decision made by the Correctional Service of Canada,” said a statement provided by spokesperson Kevin Antonucci. “While we cannot comment on the specifics of an offender’s case, we assure the public that this offender continues to be incarcerated in a secure institution, with appropriate security perimeters and controls in place. It is important to note that this offender is serving an indeterminate sentence, which means that there is no end date to their sentence.”


According to the union, Bernardo was transferred to medium-security La Macaza Institution near Mont-Tremblant on Monday.

“He’s definitely not in Millhaven anymore,” Chris Buckholtz, the union’s Ontario regional president, said Friday.

Bernardo, 58, was convicted in 1995 of the murders of Tammy Homolka, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. His wife at the time, Karla Homolka, assisted him with the murders. Karla Homolka served the final years of her sentence in the Joliette Institution, a federal penitentiary. She was released in 2005.

Bernardo was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for the first 25 years.

While at Millhaven, Bernardo had two parole hearings, in 2018 and 2021, but was denied freedom both times.


Mike Bolduc, the Quebec region president for the UCCO, said the union was never told of Bernardo’s transfer to the Quebec region.

“We didn’t even know (he was coming). It’s like it was hidden,” Bolduc said in an interview Friday. “We had no idea. Neither the regional president of Ontario (Buckholtz) or me knew this guy was getting transferred.

“We don’t know why. Why didn’t they keep this guy in Ontario? He doesn’t even speak French. We don’t even know what the hell he’s doing in Quebec.”

The only reason Bernardo could have been transferred, Bolduc said, was possibly due to security issues.

“This baffles me completely,” he said.

Bolduc said La Macaza has offenders there convicted of sex crimes and ones that need institution protection.

“It’s for inmates who don’t really pass anywhere else, they put them there, like sexual abusers, pedophiles, the ones that would get beat up in a normal institution, but Paul Bernardo was in a normal institution (general population).”

Bolduc said some officers are bilingual, but most offenders speak just French.

“It’s weird a bit that he’s there, but like I said, it’s probably about his protection.”

Notorious child killer Paul Bernardo transferred to Quebec institution

A union official says he’s baffled: "He doesn't even speak French. We don't even know what the hell he's doing in Quebec."

torontosun.com

 

[harrylee]

Sounds about right. After all this bastard deserves to be protected, right?
Maybe is so he can have conjugal visits with Karla.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Isn’t Karla living in the Caribbean somewhere under a different name? He’d be no closer to her in a Quebec institution.

Karla Leanne Homolka (born May 4, 1970), also known as Karla Leanne Teale, Leanne Teale, and Leanne Bordelais is the Canadian Justice System’s Whoopsie.

Homolka attracted worldwide media attention when a controversial plea bargain with Ontario prosecutors meant she was only convicted of manslaughter, and served only twelve years for the torture, rapes and murders of two teenaged girls.

Homolka stated to investigators that she had been an unwilling accomplice in Bernardo's murders as a result of domestic violence, resulting in a deal made with prosecutors for a reduced prison sentence in exchange for a guilty plea to the charge of manslaughter.

Videotapes of the crimes surfaced after the plea bargain and before Bernardo's trial, proving that Homolka was a more active participant than she had originally claimed, including in the rape and death of her sister, Tammy Homolka.As a result, the deal that she had struck with prosecutors was dubbed in the Canadian press the "Deal with the Devil". Public outrage about the plea deal continued until Homolka's high-profile release from prison in 2005.

Following her release from prison, Homolka settled in Quebec, where she married a brother of her lawyer. She briefly lived in the Antillesand Guadeloupe, but by 2014, had returned to Quebec. Then who knows?

Karla Homolka - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Taxslave2]

Medium security might make him more accessible. Then justice will be served.

 

[harrylee]

Seems to be quite a bit of backlash on this.
Once again, the criminal is put above the victim.

 

[spaminator]

Bernardo transfer more about soft Correctional service than killer

Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Jun 05, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

Serial killer Paul Bernardo is one of the most hated men in Canada.


He has few rivals.


He’s the guy who even staunch death penalty opponents will often concede over a beer that, yeah, maybe he should have been strung up by the neck until his face turned Arctic blue.

Yet, somewhere in the bowels of the Correctional Service of Canada, some functionary thought it was a nifty keen idea to move one of the nation’s most reviled killers to medium security.

Citing the killer’s right to “privacy,” the dummies at CSC won’t even bother to justify why it was a good idea to ship the 59-year-old school-girl killer to Quebec.


The Toronto Sun has learned that the La Macaza Institution medium-security prison in the Laurentians, north of Montreal, will be the murderer’s new home.

This brouhaha has less to do with Bernardo than with the whole rotten system that collectively thumbs its nose at victims of crime and Canadians in general.


Premier Doug Ford suggested that the killer “rot in a maximum-security prison” for the rest of his “miserable existence.” That was the original idea.

When Bernardo first landed in the joint back in 1995 after being convicted of the horrific sex murders of Kristen French, 15, and Leslie Mahaffy, 14, the destination was suitable. The terrifying old Kingston Penitentiary.

When that ancient edifice on Lake Ontario shuttered its doors, Bernardo’s next stop was Millhaven, just down scenic Hwy. 2. At the Mill, he rubbed elbows with homicidal luminaries like Russell “Killer Colonel” Williams, Bruce McArthur and countless other animals.

Lawyer Tim Danson, who has represented the French and Mahaffy families for years, told The Canadian Press that the Correctional Service of Canada, citing Bernardo’s privacy rights, refused to answer questions about the reason for the move.


The French and Mahaffy families have been devastated by the news of the transfer that has ripped scabs off wounds that will assuredly never heal.

Tori Stafford
“Then for me to have to tell them as their lawyer and their friend, ‘I’m afraid I have no answers for you because of Bernardo’s privacy rights,'” he said.

“Of course, their response is the one that you would expect: ‘What about the rights of Kristen? What about the rights of Leslie? What about their rights?'”

A friend of mine who did 35 years in the joint on the installment plan was equally puzzled by the move. He did time at Kingston Penitentiary and Millhaven.

“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said, asking for anonymity. “[But] the dangerous offender designation doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter what you are, you can be moved.


“But I really don’t understand it. Maybe it’s a Karla thing (Homolka, his partner in murder and perversion). Send him to Quebec, where he’s not as well known. I doubt it but it could be a precursor to some kind of release.”

Even Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino slammed Bernardo’s transfer as “shocking and incomprehensible.”

He’s right, of course. But somewhere in the darkest corners of his ministry, someone being paid well in excess of $100,000 thought this was a championship decision.

Remember: Bernardo is a dangerous offender. The worst of the worst. CSC will tell us, “You don’t need to know. We have criminology and sociology degrees. WE KNOW BETTER.”

Danson poignantly added: “They want to do everything behind closed doors and secretly.”

None of this is surprising. Every month, CSC shoots itself in the foot with another new outrage.

In October 2018, the system’s goody-goodies moved Terri-Lynne McClintic to the cushy Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge. Low-rent drug dealer? Fraudster? Petty criminal?

Nope. Killer. Supposedly doing hard time for the heinous 2009 murder of Tori Stafford in Woodstock. Tori was eight.

Of course, McClintic is not Indigenous.

But facts like that stand in the way of the Valhalla being created for us by the starry-eyed activists at Corrections Canada.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

HUNTER: Bernardo transfer more about soft Correctional service than killer

Serial killer Paul Bernardo is one of the most hated men in Canada. He has few rivals.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Prison service to review decision to transfer Paul Bernardo to medium security
The schoolgirl killer has been transferred to a medium-security facility in Quebec.

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Stephanie Taylor
Published Jun 05, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

OTTAWA — The federal prison service says it will have a second look at its decision to move convicted killer Paul Bernardo to a medium-security facility as political leaders of all stripes react to the news with shock and outrage.


In a statement, the Correctional Service of Canada says it will make sure the decision was appropriate, based on evidence, “and more importantly, adequately considered victims.”


The service says Bernardo’s crimes were horrific, but it remains mum on the reasons for the transfer from a maximum-security prison.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he understands how “shocked and appalled” Canadians are at the decision.

Trudeau said that’s why Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino will be raising the matter with the commissioner of the correctional service this week.

Bernardo’s move to a facility in Quebec was made public last week after the correctional service notified the lawyer representing the families of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, whom Bernardo kidnapped, tortured and murdered in the early 1990s.


The killer and serial rapist had been serving a life sentence at Millhaven Institution, a maximum-security penitentiary near Kingston, Ont.

Tim Danson, a lawyer for the victims’ families, says it was unacceptable that the prison service refused to answer questions about the reason for Bernardo’s move or details of his custody conditions, citing his privacy rights.

The Correctional Service said Monday it was “restricted by the law in what we can divulge about an offender’s case.”

It added that security classifications are based on risk to public safety, an offender’s institutional adjustment and other case-specific information, including psychological risk assessments.

The statement went on to note that Bernardo, who has been designated a dangerous offender, is serving an “indeterminate sentence” with no end date.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on Trudeau’s government to use whatever tools it can to reverse the transfer, while Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Bernardo “should rot in a maximum-security prison for the rest of his miserable existence.”

At a press conference Monday, Poilievre said it was “outrageous” that the prison system had moved the killer to a medium-security institution.

“He should be in a maximum-security institution,” he said. “The government should review any powers it has to reverse this ridiculous decision. Mr. Bernardo is a monster and he belongs in maximum security.”



In a statement last Friday, Mendicino said Bernardo’s transfer was “shocking and incomprehensible,” adding that he planned to raise the issue with Anne Kelly, commissioner of the correctional service.

Danson said he was pleased to see the minister’s reaction.

“Now we need action,” he told The Canadian Press on Sunday. “This is one of Canada’s most notorious, sadistic, psychopathic killers.”

“We need the public in masses, in millions, to be writing to the minister, to the commissioner of corrections, and to the members of Parliament, to express their outrage over this — that secrecy will not work. We want transparency.”


Mendicino said in his statement he expects the correctional service to “take a victim-centred and trauma-informed approach in these cases.”


Danson said the French and Mahaffy families were shocked to hear of Bernardo’s transfer, with the move bringing up decades of anguish and grief.

“Then for me to have to tell them as their lawyer and their friend, ‘I’m afraid I have no answers for you because of Bernardo’s privacy rights,”’ he said.

“Of course their response is the one that you would expect: What about the rights of Kristen? What about the rights of Leslie? What about their rights?”

“These are questions I can’t answer other than just to agree with them and share in their despair.”


Bernardo’s dangerous offender status makes the move all the more puzzling, Danson added as he questioned why Bernardo should reap any benefits of being in a medium-security facility with more lenient living conditions.

“We need an open and transparent discussion and debate. These are major, major public institutions paid for by the taxpayers of Canada.”

He suggested the correctional service’s handling of the matter risks leading the public to feel suspicious of the entire system.

“They want to do everything behind closed doors and secretly.”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1664789737469517830

Prison service to review decision to transfer Paul Bernardo to medium security

Killer has been transferred to a medium-security facility in Quebec.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Outrageous Bernardo transfer highlights need for change

Author of the article:Michele Mandel
Published Jun 06, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

The outrageous news that schoolgirl rapist and killer Paul Bernardo had been quietly moved to a medium-security prison in Quebec shocked most Canadians — but not Lisa Freeman.


The tireless victims’ advocate, whose father was murdered in 1991, has known only too well how the “justice system” bends for the killers and every single time, forgets the families those lifers have decimated.


So, the startling headlines couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the Oshawa woman, who was on Parliament Hill Tuesday for the long-planned reintroduction of a private member’s bill she’s long helped to spearhead that would see the right to information enshrined in the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights.

“The timing, with the transfer of Bernardo, will show people how this happens more often than they think and more often than they realize,” Freeman said, as she awaited the bill to be introduced for second-reading.


“And because Paul Bernardo’s name is synonymous with evil in this country, people will go, ‘Whoa, we didn’t think things like this could happen.’ It’s been happening for years.”

Bernardo was transferred from his maximum security prison without a hearing and without warning to the families of his victims, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. They were informed 24 hours after the fact, and their lawyer, Tim Danson, was told by Correctional Service of Canada that telling him the reason why he was moved would violate his privacy rights.

“In this killer’s case – just like my late father’s axe murderer – the level of prison security in no way matches the severity of the crimes committed by these wicked individuals,” said Freeman, a 53-year-old Oshawa nurse.


Her father, Roland Slingerland, was bludgeoned to death in 1991 by John Terrance Porter because the mild-mannered caretaker wouldn’t tell the drifter on parole where his former girlfriend had moved. Freeman was 21 when she had to identify her beloved dad in the morgue: the skull of the Navy veteran had been shattered, his arm nearly severed, and his face left such a bloody pulp that all she could recognize was the colour of one eye.


After Porter was convicted of first-degree murder, The Toronto Sun proclaimed, “Hatchet killer jailed for life.”

“What a joke,” she says now.

“The term ‘life in prison without parole for 25 years’ is a complete misnomer and falsehood,” Freeman said at her press conference. “That phrase gives false comfort to the offender’s victims and their families – and provides false information and assurances to the law-abiding Canadian public. These are merely words uttered by judges and often echoed by the media.”



In reality, many, like her dad’s killer, are actually released years earlier on temporary absences for personal development. Without warning, Porter was transferred from maximum-security in Kingston to a medium-security prison in British Columbia so he could attend programs in the community — just 10 kilometres from where her sister lives.

Shocked and furious, Freeman was told it was the killer’s right not to have the information released until 24 hours after it’s happened. And she was warned there was nothing she could do to undo the transfer — it was up to the wardens and she and her family had no say.

In 2020, Porter was released on day parole — due to the pandemic, she wasn’t even allowed to attend the hearing.

The bill being proposed by her Oshawa MP, Conservative Colin Carrie, would ensure there’s no delay in sharing with victims any critical information about an offender’s movements or their relocation to another prison or facility.

Secondly, victims of violent crime would no longer be arbitrarily denied their right to participate in a parole hearing — pandemic or not.

They seem such basic, common-sense expectations — but not in a world where everything is skewed for the likes of Paul Bernardo.

mmandel@postmedia.com

MANDEL: Outrageous Bernardo transfer highlights need for change

Woman whose father was murdered is behind a private member's bill that would ensure victims are informed immediately of any inmate transfer

torontosun.com

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Is Bernardo a particular risk of escape or prison violence?

 

[petros]

Is Bernardo a particular risk of escape or prison violence?

Depends. Can he get an 8 ball of mid 80s quality coke at the medium security prison?

 

[harrylee]

Is Bernardo a particular risk of escape or prison violence?

I think that is irrelevent in the minds of most Canadians. Receiving end of prison violence would be nice though.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

I think that is irrelevent in the minds of most Canadians. Receiving end of prison violence would be nice though.

I was always under the impression that the security of the prison in which one was incarcerated depended primarily on those factors.

Maybe Canada's different.

 

[harrylee]

 

[spaminator]

Lawyer for Bernardo victims says families told of transfer the day it happened
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Stephanie Taylor
Published Jun 09, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read

OTTAWA — The lawyer for the families of two of Paul Bernardo’s victims says the Correctional Service of Canada only told one of them that he was being transferred from maximum-security prison on the day it happened.


Tim Danson says the family of Kristen French was notified of the convicted killer’s transfer in the morning of May 29, then told his transfer was complete that afternoon.


The details are in an open letter Danson penned to Anne Kelly, the commissioner of the federal correctional service, who confirmed that Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security prison in Quebec is under review.


Bernardo is serving a life sentence for the murders, kidnapping and torture of 15-year-old French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy in the early 1990s.

Danson’s letter expresses concerns with statements from the correctional service that said the French and Mahaffy families were notified of Bernardo’s transfer prior to his relocation.

The lawyer says he found out about it via two voicemails on the day of the transfer, and the Mahaffy family was left with the impression that the transfer had taken place or was imminent.

Lawyer for Bernardo victims says families told of transfer the day it happened

The lawyer for the families of Paul Bernardo’s victims says they were told that he was being transferred on the day it happened.

torontosun.com

 

[Ron in Regina]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he understands how “shocked and appalled” Canadians are at the decision.

Trudeau said that’s why Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino will be raising the matter with the commissioner of the correctional service this week.

In a statement last Friday, Mendicino said Bernardo’s transfer was “shocking and incomprehensible,” adding that he planned to raise the issue with Anne Kelly, commissioner of the correctional service.

Mendicino said in his statement he expects the correctional service to “take a victim-centred and trauma-informed approach in these cases.”

Trudeau knew about Bernardo transfer before Mendicino, Poilievre calls for minister to resign

Facing calls to resign, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino announced Wednesday he'll be issuing a 'ministerial directive' requiring Canada's corrections agency to reform how it handles high profile prison transfers, after it was revealed that the minister's office and the PMO knew about...

www.ctvnews.ca

Spokesman Kevin Antonucci said the correctional service first emailed Mendicino’s office about impending move March 2. At the time, “the final date” for the transfer had not been determined, he said.

Canadian Federal Politics News | The Star

Full coverage of Canadian federal politics news. Visit thestar.com for updates and opinion on what's happening in Ottawa and across the country.

www.thestar.com

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1664789737469517830

Prison service to review decision to transfer Paul Bernardo to medium security

Killer has been transferred to a medium-security facility in Quebec.

torontosun.com

Whoopsies? The service reached out again on May 25, this time including updated “communications messaging” and information the transfer would happen on May 29.

Mendicino’s first public response came on June 2, when he called the decision by the correctional service “shocking and incomprehensible.”

Now, this is nothing new. Things changed in the early ‘70’s….& Some of it for the good….But some of it not. The dangerous offender status takes things into a new direction, or at least it was planned that way, but here we are.

On Oct. 7, 1971, Canada’s then-solicitor general Jean-Pierre Goyer rose in Parliament to announce this new approach for dealing with criminals.

“For too long a time now, our punishment-oriented society has cultivated the state of mind that demands that offenders, whatever their age and whatever the offence, be placed behind bars,” Goyer said.

“Even nowadays, too many Canadians object to looking at offenders as members of our society and seem to disregard the fact that the correctional process aims at making the offender a useful and law-abiding citizen, and not any more an individual alienated from society and in conflict with it.

“Consequently, we have decided from now on, to stress the rehabilitation of individuals rather than the protection of society … Our reforms will perhaps be criticized for being too liberal or for omitting to protect society against dangerous criminals. Indeed, this new rehabilitation policy will probably demand much striving and involve some risks …”

Notorious serial killer Paul Bernardo could eventually get out of jail

Paul Bernardo is one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers, and it’s not like we have a shortage of them. He’s a serial rapist who stalked the Toronto ar...

www.youtube.com

….from the above video, this is the one that’s being released into our neighborhood…again…”When arrested for the kill, Smeltzer also confessed to more than 40 other incidents with young children. Sometimes, he merely exposed himself. Others, he raped or assaulted. He was sentenced to life for the killing of Thompson, and two rapes and three attempted rapes in unrelated cases. Most of the crimes he confessed to, he was never charged for.”

Convicted murderer living in Regina halfway house granted extended freedoms

A convicted murderer and pedophile living in a Regina halfway house has been granted more freedom. The Parole Board of Canada has given Harold Smeltze...

www.ckom.com

 

[Ron in Regina]

Trudeau's staff also knew about Paul Bernardo prison transfer for months — CityNews Toronto

More details are being revealed about what federal officials knew about serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo’s prison transfer, with the prime minister and his office now being pulled into the controversy.

apple.news

 

[Ron in Regina]

Bernardo is listed as a “dangerous offender” status, which loosely means that they don’t believe he could be rehabilitated. That’s why that status exists.

He’s a bad guy. I don’t think anybody’s arguing that point. The interesting thing is the lies that surround us from cabinet. There’s a pattern here that’s…. interesting and disturbing and repetitive.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Bernardo is listed as a “dangerous offender” status, which loosely means that they don’t believe he could be rehabilitated. That’s why that status exists.

He’s a bad guy. I don’t think anybody’s arguing that point. The interesting thing is the lies that surround us from cabinet. There’s a pattern here that’s…. interesting and disturbing and repetitive.

The part that worries me is. . . they may not be lies.

I'd rather have a dishonest government than an utterly incompetent one.

 

[Ron in Regina]

The part that worries me is. . . they may not be lies.

I'd rather have a dishonest government than an utterly incompetent one.

Bitch of it is, I think we have both.

If Bernardo was facing some kind of threat at the institution that he was in, being a complete turd that he is or not, it’s still our obligation to provide him with security via a transfer (not necessarily to a medium security institution, but it is what it is).

If both the PMO & Uh-Oh Mendicino both knew about this 1/4 year in advance (at least their offices did?), there was all kinds of time to deal with this accordingly, whether it was a matter of public relations or shuffling Bernardo to a different maximum-security facility…either/or.

The whole, “I/we/they didn’t know” thing on so many different matters has gotten old….

 

[Taxslave2]

I was always under the impression that the security of the prison in which one was incarcerated depended primarily on those factors.

Maybe Canada's different.

It is supposed to be about punishment, not what the convict wants.