Marco Mendicino under fire
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Summary
In this episode, Minister of Public Safety and Correctional Service of Canada, Jean-Christine Blanquer, answers questions from the media and the victims of the Bernardo case about why no one was informed of the inmate transfer before it was made public.
Transcript
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Minister, can you please tell us what happened?
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Just before you all start clamoring for answers to questions, let me say a few
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things with regards to the Bernardo affair. As I said yesterday in the House
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of Commons, I was informed personally on May 30th. When I found out about his
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being transferred to a medium security institution, I took the action that was
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necessary, which was to contact the Commissioner to express what I thought
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were the completely justifiable concerns of the families of Leslie Mahaffey and
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Kristen French, to express, you know, my concerns on behalf of Canadians that this
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decision would spark the backlash that you now see. In addition to that, I've also
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had the opportunity to speak with the representative for the Mahaffey
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and French families to ensure that he knows that I'll do whatever I can to
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support them, as no doubt this has caused them great anguish and grief. With
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regards to the timing of when I was briefed, because I know this has been the
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subject of a lot of intense scrutiny over the last number of days, look, it is very
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clear that I should have been briefed at the time and that is something that I
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made abundantly clear to my staff. And as I said yesterday in the House of Commons,
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I have taken the corrective steps to ensure that that does not happen again. I
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think more importantly than that though, the new directions which will be coming
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from my office to the Correctional Service of Canada will ensure a number of
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things. First, and most importantly, that victims' rights and sensitivities are
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appropriately taken into account when any decisions regarding inmate transfers are
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made. That's important. Secondly, that I am directly briefed in cases that are
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similar in terms of there being high profile or where there are dangerous
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offenders. And third, and again most importantly, and out of respect for those
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who could be re-traumatized by these decisions, that victims' families are notified.
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And the current lay of the land is that there are protocols in place that do allow
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the Correctional Service of Canada to navigate around what are legitimate
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security concerns, what are legitimate privacy current concerns, where inmates are
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transferred to minimum security institutions, but not medium security
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institutions. And so we have taken the concrete steps to rectify that with this
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direction. And I will be working very closely with the CSC. So this is, I think, a very
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good and thorough summation of the actions that we've taken today.
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How is it credible that all of the most senior staff who are paid for by
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taxpayers in government and PCO and the Prime Minister's office and your office
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knew, but somehow you and the Prime Minister were only told after the fact? How is
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that in any way credible to the average person who goes to their job and does
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Okay. First of all, let's all take a breath. And I want to be responsive to
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your questions. What I said was, is that I would be coming down to take more
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questions in this afternoon. But what I would say, what I, well, I'm here right now and I
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will be here again. Absolutely. But I agree with you that there is a challenge there, which
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is why we have taken steps to address that through corrective actions internally, as well
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as by making sure that the CSC works very closely with victims' families going forward.
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Why didn't your staff tell you? Why didn't your staff tell you? What's the explanation?
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So, as I mentioned, I was going to take a concrete action on the questions of my team.
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I told everyone that, yes, it is absolutely necessary that I received the briefings at
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the time, when he received the information. But in addition, I had published a new
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ministerial direction to ensure that the CSC will work together with victims' families.
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Why didn't your staff tell you? Is it standard operating procedure at your office that you
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are kept in the dark? And will you let anyone go in response to the handling of this?
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Of course not. And my job as the Minister of Public Safety is to make sure that we are
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identifying issues where there are challenges on information flow. And so what I have done
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in each and every one of these cases is to be responsive to those challenges by issuing
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ministerial directives to clarify so that we are strengthening our ability to get the information
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that we need. So that has been done, certainly in the case of Bernardo, through the issuing
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of a new ministerial directive. As far as internal matters, I've dealt with it.
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Minister, what is the explanation? If it's not to keep you in the dark, what's the explanation?
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So, again, I can not answer all of the questions when they're coming at the same time.
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So why didn't your staff tell you? What's the explanation? What was the explanation from your staff as to why they didn't tell you?
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So look, the short answer is it is unacceptable. And my job is to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
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It's not your first day in the cabinet, right? You're many years into cabinet. It's not a new…
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Bernardo going back to maximum security or not.
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So I'm going to come back to that question. But first, what's important is that these issues are identified and they're corrected.
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And so that is what I have done with my team to be sure that there is no further breakdown in information flow.
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It is important that I get those briefings in a timely manner. That is made abundantly clear.
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More importantly than that, back to the question that was posed.
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I believe that the decision to transfer Paul Bernardo to a medium security institution does not sit well with Canadians
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because it is in the front to the victims, in particular of Leslie Mahaffey and Kristen French.
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And that is why we are going to support them. We're going to make sure that victims' rights are at the centre of these decisions.
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And that, going forward, victims are notified in a timely manner before those decisions are taken.
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I will repeat in French, and I will take more questions a little later today.
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So there will be another opportunity for us to speak again.
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As I have imagined, yes, it is very important that I have addressed the challenges in my office.
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That is exactly what I did yesterday with my team.
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And in addition to that, we will work together with the SEC to support families of victims.
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So, on the subject of Mr. Bernardo, I think it's very clear that the decision is offensive to the families of Leslie Mahaffey and Kristen French.
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And in addition to that, we need to prevent other incidents like that.
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Because we need to take the approach and put the rights of the victims' rights to the centre of the decisions that are involved in the militants.
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Are you going to be issuing a direct ministerial?