Politicians using Paul Bernardo’s notoriety to severely harm our justice system

Paul Bernardo killed at least three people and severely harmed many others. Now, by being reclassified as being of “moderate risk” by Correctional Service Canada (CSC) while serving his lifetime penitentiary sentence, the public safety minister is using Paul Bernardo’s notoriety to severely harm an important part of our justice system.

Marco Mendicino, the minister responsible for CSC, says it is “shocking and incomprehensible” that CSC apparently followed the law and reclassified the 58-year-old Bernardo as “moderate risk” after being held in maximum security for 30 years. Premier Doug Ford — with his unique approach to policy issues — agrees with the public safety minister, saying that “Bernardo should rot in a maximum-security prison for the rest of his miserable existence. Full stop.”

The law says that a prisoner “shall” be classified according to the risk they pose to escape and the safety of the public in the event of an escape, as well as the degree of supervision and control that is required in the penitentiary. The law does not mention the opinions of victims’ families or the minister. One suspects that Bernardo’s reclassification was taken seriously by CSC.

Nobody questions the severity of Bernardo’s horrific crimes, but these political leaders ignore the law that determines how CSC administers sentences. Simply put, the law says that the classification of prisoners relates to the prisoner’s behaviour and risk in the penitentiary, not the public’s or politicians’ views about how, or how much, prisoners should be punished.

On a very different issue, one commentator suggested that “An institution like CSC, with the core objective of correcting legal non-compliance, might itself be expected to routinely comply with the law.” The federal minister and Ontario’s premier obviously think otherwise.

In 2020-21, CSC was supervising 5,755 people like Bernardo, who were serving life/indeterminate sentences; 3,561 of them were in penitentiaries. But only 1,658 of the entire penitentiary population of 12,399 were in maximum security. Given that many prisoners in maximum security are not murderers, Canada clearly has many people serving life/indeterminate sentences in medium security prisons. The difference is that they aren’t people whose names we recognize.

It seems unlikely to us that Bernardo will ever be released. But in a society in which we expect our political leaders to respect and encourage compliance with the law, is it really appropriate for our politicians to encourage Canada’s correctional system to violate the law just because it might make them look good? The public safety minister has, in effect, ordered the CSC commissioner to review this security classification.

It will be interesting to see if CSC turns a blind eye to the law and regulations and does what their political boss wants. CSC is required by law to consider Bernardo’s risk and behaviour, not politicians’ emotions and political ambitions.

The Parole Board of Canada has already refused to release Bernardo and probably will continue to do so, just as they did with another notorious murderer, Clifford Olson. We classify prisoners as maximum, medium, or minimum for good reason: because we are concerned with escapes and the amount of control that is necessary in the penitentiary. The law does not say we should hold prisoners indefinitely in maximum security as extra punishment just because they are notorious.

The adage, “We send people to prison as punishment, not for punishment” needs to be understood in this context. It is in the public interest for us to deal fairly with all prisoners. Treating unfairly and unlawfully those whom we most despise is not something that the federal minister in charge of corrections or Ontario’s premier should want our correctional authorities to do and it is not something that they should encourage.