Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino rises during Question Period, in Ottawa, June 14, 2023.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to resign Wednesday, after the correctional service said the Minister’s office was notified about notorious killer Paul Bernardo’s transfer to a medium security prison months in advance.
Mr. Poilievre told reporters on Parliament Hill that Mr. Mendicino should be shown the door after a series of missteps from the minister that the Conservative leader said showed a pattern of lies.
Mr. Bernardo was transferred from a high security prison to a medium security prison on May 28. The transfer to a lower security prison of a convicted killer and serial rapist provoked anger and outrage in Canada and among opposition parties who challenged the move.
At the time Mr. Mendicino said he was “shocked” by the transfer and only learned of it after it had happened.
However Correctional Services Canada sent a statement this week saying his office was notified about the pending transfer in March and again a few days before it happened.
“The Correctional Service of Canada has a process in place to provide advanced notice to the Minister’s office on high-profile offenders,” said spokesperson Kevin Antonucci.
He said the emails were sent to the Minister’s office on March 2 and May 25. The news was first reported by CBC News.
A spokesperson in Mendicino’s office has said the minister was only informed of Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security prison once it happened.
Mr. Mendicino was expected to speak with reporters just after noon on Wednesday but the media availability was delayed. Instead he posted a statement on Twitter saying that he would be issuing a directive soon that will require the Correctional Services of Canada to “formally and directly” notify the minister in advance of the transfer of any high-profile or dangerous offenders.
He said the service must also notify victims families of all transfers when they are from maximum security to medium, and not just when an offender is being transferred to minimum security. He also said the service needs to “re-examine its policies” to ensure victims’ rights are guiding its decision making.
Outside question period, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said a resignation wouldn’t solve the problem because there are now several examples covering three ministers’ offices in which the minister has said they didn’t receive critical information that was supposed to get to them.
Yesterday the director of Canada’s spy agency said his organization sent an important memo to Bill Blair when he was public safety minister. Mr. Blair maintains he never got the memo, never read it and was never briefed on its contents. In April, Harjit Sajjan told a House committee that he wasn’t reading his emails during the fall of Afghanistan and so doesn’t know if he was notified at the time that a Canadian Senator was sending Afghans Canadian travel documents that the government says were inauthentic.
Mr. Singh said the Ministers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the entire government needs to “get its act together.”
He repeatedly said the Prime Minister should be the one who is held accountable but refused to explain what being held accountable means. His party is supporting the minority government in Parliament, meaning it can’t fall on a confidence vote.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said there appears to be a “culture of ignorance” within the Trudeau government. He said ignorance is not an excuse for ministers who are ultimately responsible for their departments.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland came to her colleagues’ defence on Wednesday telling reporters “I have full confidence in my Cabinet colleagues. We work as a team.”
“I appreciate the hard work of every single one of my Cabinet colleagues.”
With files from The Canadian Press and Ian Bailey.