Even Marco Mendicino knows Paul Bernardo belongs in super

There is no good reason to trust Correctional Service Canada's judgment on tough cases

At this point in Marco Mendicino's career, it seems very unlikely the perennially embattled federal public safety minister will be remembered as a deft and quick-on-his-feet manager of tricky files. But on Friday evening, Mendicino — or perhaps some very good recent hire further up the chain of command — showed remarkable perspicacity and speed in dousing a political wildfire waiting to happen.

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Friday afternoon, news broke that the bright bulbs at the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) had decided to transfer Paul Bernardo — yes, that one — from Millhaven maximum security prison near Kingston, Ont. to the medium-security La Macaza Institution in the Laurentians, north of Montreal.

Friday afternoon in June is a good time for news like that to land, from a government's perspective. And it was just as good a time for Mendicino to fly a water-bomber over it and dump his payload.

"(CSC's) independent decision is shocking and incomprehensible," he said in a statement — a violation, he strongly implied, of his "expectation" that CSC (which is independent, remember) "take a victim-centred and trauma-informed approach."

"I will be addressing the transfer decision process directly with CSC Commissioner (Anne) Kelly," Mendicino promised. In the meantime, he said, "our thoughts are with the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, and all those affected by these horrific crimes."

Short, to the point, hit all the right notes — a minor triumph, by the standards of Liberal communications. Possibly by the time you read this, CSC will have (ahem) independently decided Bernardo was better off at Millhaven, or at another maximum-security facility, all along.

There's no need to get into CSC's decision, really. Let's suppose that, at 58, Bernardo is no longer a threat, and poses no risk of escape. Let's suppose the Crown dropped charges against Bernardo four years ago for possessing a shank in prison entirely because there was absolutely nothing to them.

Politically, it doesn't matter. Offered a tour of La Macaza and a comprehensive explanation for Bernardo's suitability for that institution, perhaps some Canadians might come around to CSC's way of thinking. "Trust us" isn't going to fly — and nor should it, given CSC's track record.

Bernardo's transfer seems positively reasonable compared to CSC's insane 2018 decision to transfer Terri-Lynne McClintic to a zero-security Indigenous healing lodge in Saskatchewan. That came just nine years after McClintic kidnapped eight-year-old Tori Stafford outside her school in Woodstock, Ont., assisted boyfriend Michael Rafferty in raping Tori, then bludgeoned Tori to death with a claw hammer. It came just six years after McClintic pleaded guilty to savagely assaulting another inmate, having asked to work with her in a peer-support program.

When I say "zero security," I mean the guards don't even try to stop inmates from escaping. La Macaza at least has barbed wire fences, guard towers, armed corrections officers — all the stuff you want between society and Paul Bernardo. At the sort of Indigenous healing lodge McClintic the child-killer was sent to, children live with their mothers. There was no need even to get into McClintic's highly dubious claim to being Indigenous. It was bananas.

And in those bananas, the Liberals of the day saw — no word of a lie — political opportunity.

In the House of Commons, Liberals swooned in shock when the Conservatives described the horrific details of McClintic's crime, as if a vicious child murder and what to do with her were far too unfancy to discuss in such an august chamber. Mendicino's predecessor Ralph Goodale — ultra-veteran Liberal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale! — went on television to defend CSC's (ahem) independence, and somehow managed to refer to McClintic's crimes as "bad practices."

And with a motion before the House demanding McClintic's transfer be revoked, an apparently over-caffeinated Trudeau scampered out to reporters in the lobby and accused Conservatives of "ambulance-chasing politics" — of exploiting "terrible tragedies for political gain." The Liberals voted against the motion. Goodale seemed half-reluctant, even ordering CSC to review the transfer (independently!), which CSC (independently!) later revoked.

It was an utterly bewildering spectacle, diminishing the government as much as the notion of an independent corrections service. It was as if aliens had seized veteran politicians’ bodies and were trying in vain to say something they thought people would like, and it just kept getting worse at it. I doubt any official histories of the Justin Trudeau era will even mention it, but to me that "ambulance-chasing politics" scrum was one of his most telling moments: Terrible political instincts matched with limitless confidence, born of a deep and unexplored misunderstanding of how most people think.

Against all odds, the Liberals haven't just survived that; they could well win yet another election if one were held tomorrow. If they very belatedly learn how not to say things for no reason that significant numbers of voters find offensive or baffling or just downright weird, who knows what they might achieve!

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Earlier Monday, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said he had raised concerns about Bernardo's transfer directly to Anne Kelly, the federal corrections commissioner

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