In this episode of The Pipeline, Western Standard editor Nigel Henniford and editor-in-chief Derek Fildebrand are joined by Western Standard columnist Corey Morgan to discuss the controversial move of Paul Bernardo from a maximum security prison to a medium security prison, and the fallout from it.
00:03:39.040Brutally raped, tortured, and murdered teenage girls along with now a parent volunteer at her school, Karloch Molka.
00:03:50.220He has been denied, justice was denied in that he wasn't burned alive or filleted like the animal he is,
00:04:00.280but he was given a life sentence in a maximum security prison, and that's, well, he's not there anymore.
00:04:08.700The powers that be have moved him to a medium security prison.
00:04:12.420This morning I kind of flippantly called it a club fed.
00:04:15.020Medium security prisons are not club feds, I guess.
00:04:17.580They're not easy. They're not the minimum securities. They're probably not playing golf on their breaks.
00:04:22.700But they are markedly less severe and less unpleasant than a maximum security prison.
00:04:30.660Marco Mendicino says, I knew nothing about this. I am outraged, positively outraged, that this monster would be moved to a medium security prison.
00:04:41.900Well, then the news came out last night or this morning that, in fact, his office was notified.
00:04:52.260I guess really now Pierre Polyev conservatives are demanding his resignation, saying he lied.
00:04:59.720I suppose, Nigel, there is a technical small possibility that this note came through his office
00:05:07.340and one of his staffers looked at this as Paul Bernardo being sent to a significantly less unpleasant prison.
00:05:16.720That's not news. Let's just pass it on.
00:05:20.500What are the chances that one of the staffers in this office just did not think this was noteworthy
00:05:25.800to pass up the chain of command versus what the Conservatives are alleging that,
00:05:31.380no, obviously someone in his office did tell him he did know about it and therefore lied to Canadians in Parliament?
00:05:36.360So there are two possibilities out there. One is that the staff are concerned was born less than 30 years ago and didn't actually live through that particular period of Canadian history when this was the hottest topic.
00:05:53.160Or if he lived through it, it didn't mean anything to him because he was in grade school.
00:05:57.320Actually, it's taught to every kid in grade nine social studies or legal because of his accomplice, Carla Homolka, and the double jeopardy things.
00:06:05.920So even people born long after this, they're taught this in high school.
00:06:09.760And I'm guessing that everybody in the minister's office has probably taught them high school.
00:06:13.760Why would you teach that in high school?
00:06:19.900But anyway, maybe he should have known.
00:06:22.480I'm saying there is a strong possibility that the person, you know, working in these ministerial offices are often very young and just didn't recognize the significance of it.
00:06:34.280The other possibility, which I lean to, actually, is that somebody said, oh, that is something for which the minister should have plausible deniability.
00:06:46.180Just don't tell him so that he can get up and say, I had no knowledge.
00:06:49.980If we find that somebody gets fired, dismissed, moved on to something else, that will tell you something about whether it was how deeply Mr. Mandacino feels about the fact that he wasn't told.
00:07:03.400So that's excellent segue to my next question, Corey.
00:07:07.820Melissa Lassman, one of the two deputy leaders of the conservative opposition, question period today.
00:07:14.620She said, asked Mendocino something to the effect of, you know, she said, you're throwing your staff under the bus.
00:07:22.340You're saying your staff, because we now know your staff knew.
00:07:24.680You didn't say earlier your staff knew.
00:07:29.780So, if you're going to throw your staff under the bus, which staff have you already fired for this?
00:07:36.060Because clearly, if there's ever a fireable offense, it's not passing that one of the most notorious murderers in Canadian history has been moved to a significantly comfier prison.
00:07:49.340So, yeah, her question was, okay, fine, if this was your staffer, who was a staffer, and have they been fired yet?
00:09:44.040They don't typically send those memos up, and that nobody caught on to them, that, boy, we got a firestorm coming, we better prepare for it.
00:09:57.300You talked, this is not his first offense here, both for, I guess, screw-ups and lies.
00:10:06.400We had almost a little mix-up when we were talking about our topics for today.
00:10:10.100you're talking about Mendicino and Bernardo. And I was a little confused at first because our sponsor, Canadian Shooting Sports Association, its executive director is Tony Bernardo. And I know Mendicino and that Bernardo are fighting all the time. And then it got me thinking, which Bernardo does Mendicino have the bigger problem with? The one that's fighting for gun rights or the one who seems to, well, at least privately not have a big problem with moving to a medium security prison.
00:10:40.100I mean, it's probably a little over the top to say he has a bigger problem with gun owners than Paul Bernardo, but I think it's kind of insightful into the liberal mind that, you know, they're so focused, and Mendicino in particular is so focused on pre-crime.
00:10:59.260So people who have done absolutely nothing wrong, but we need to punish them, confiscate their otherwise illegal and lawful property.
00:11:06.080But this guy, one of the most terrible murderers in Canadian history, well, maybe we should ease up a little on him.
00:11:13.200Well, you know, Derek, it all depends what the ultimate goal of government is.
00:11:17.220And if it is to provide good governments, then everything you have said is absolutely correct.
00:11:23.840However, if the role, if the object of this government is to totally change the nature of Canada, part of which would be the removal of firearms from private ownership, then the man is actually doing what he has been instructed to do and I guess doing it quite effectively.
00:11:45.080So really, he would be in Mr. Trudeau's good books for things that we sit here and say, how can he get away with this?
00:11:52.420The fact is, he's doing what he's there to do.
00:11:55.120So, again, you're just setting up perfect segues.
00:12:01.800But, you know, most ministers don't resign in the sense of just, oh, I think David Johnson resigned.
00:12:10.820I don't think he was told to resign by Trudeau because it was not good for Trudeau.
00:12:13.500I think David Johnson came to the conclusion. This is not tenable. I'm not serving any public good here. I think it's time for me to go. And he resigned. Ministers don't resign that way. They get resigned. They don't resign. They get resigned.
00:12:30.380The prime minister sits down and says, you've become a liability to the party and to the government.
00:13:46.520Government goes on and does what it wants to do.
00:13:49.480And for Mr. Trudeau, that makes him a pretty valuable minister.
00:13:52.800So I don't think he's going to get fired.
00:13:55.060Do you think he, is he in a tenable position here? Because he, I mean, technically there might be plausible deniability that it went to his office.
00:14:05.640It's not normally known if it's shown to the minister, but I see a very small chance that he did not see this.
00:14:12.000It seems very, very likely that he was clearly lying.
00:14:15.760It just doesn't seem to matter, though, and he's a good foil.
00:14:18.880Well, as Nigel said, he serves his purpose in the House.
00:14:22.700He'll just lie again, and people will forget about it.
00:14:26.220The consequences don't seem to land on the Prime Minister's office anyways when it comes to this,
00:14:31.060even though he is the one who appoints these ministers.
00:14:33.440I think at worst, Mendocino might not make it through the next shuffle in that role.
00:14:37.940But as for going outright, as you said, and pushing him out of there,
00:14:41.140I don't see the government ever admitting error that clearly.
00:14:44.060Just give him a different podium from which to utter doublespeak.
00:16:33.440And I know the system isn't supposed to be based so much on revenge or punishment.
00:16:37.840But when it comes to somebody in such a singular profile like Bernardo, that's an exceptional case.
00:16:43.460And they may put the pressure on to say, let's just bump him back into there and let people forget about it over time.
00:16:48.920I don't know how many people I've talked to who oppose the death penalty, but then they're like, but I'd be okay if you got a prison shake.
00:17:06.260I mean, I've always been opposed to capital punishment because, I mean, I don't trust the government to get my taxes right, much less to execute people.
00:17:12.560but I wouldn't we got him on film though like we I wouldn't we know that he was left in his cell
00:17:16.960with his shoelaces and happened to tie himself up or something I mean so be it but you know uh
00:17:22.940we should just put him in the same uh prison jail that Epstein in yeah that could that could work
00:17:29.180let's Epstein the guy it's too bad we ever have to hear about that guy again you know what that'll
00:17:33.040probably get me in trouble yeah because Epstein did not kill him so the Clintons will be at your
00:17:37.740house next week. Do any of you actually believe Epstein killed himself? I wouldn't bet my paycheck
00:17:43.720on it. No. I don't think anyone actually believes that. I'm surprised that Ghislaine is still making
00:17:49.500it, to be honest. That was a tangent. Isn't that justice? There's only one woman involved in the1.00
00:17:55.380entire massive racket, and it's the woman who goes to jail, not the men. Jeez. Okay, that was
00:18:01.060tangents I'm taking this on there. I'm going to pull it back. So I kind of alluded into this
00:18:07.420earlier about David Johnson. He resigned last Friday as Trudeau's special rapporteur, special
00:18:14.500rapper. He, I think, was a rare resignation in any kind of political role in it. I think he
00:18:22.160actually did resign on his own. I think, I feel kind of half bad for the guy. I think he did
00:18:29.220accept with the best of intentions. He just should have known it was inappropriate for him to accept
00:18:34.000that the role shouldn't have existed to begin with. It was clear an inquiry was necessary,
00:18:38.100and that if you were going to have this silly special rapporteur role, it had to be someone who
00:18:42.160was impeccably objective and distant from any political connection or personal connection to
00:18:48.040the local party or to the prime minister or any of the subjects involved, which he was clearly not.
00:18:54.420we'll start with you Corey was it inevitable that David Johnson was going to end up kind of eating
00:19:04.740it like this or or at any point down on the way from his appointment until Friday was was there
00:19:12.880a way for him to steer a different way perhaps by actually recommending the inquiry I don't think it
00:19:17.360was inevitable or even if he was going to recommend against the inquiry he could have made a much
00:19:22.060better case for it then. He could have had a better report. It was a half-assed, terrible
00:19:27.560report that he'd done. He hadn't thoroughly investigated things. If he had, even though
00:19:32.200there's still, of course, the opposition would be yelling, he's too connected to Trudeau and this
00:19:36.180and that. But they'd say, look, he's doing his job. He's been interviewing this. He's concluded
00:19:39.920that. He's suggested this. You know, you guys are just smearing a good man who's doing a good job.
00:19:45.060But because he'd done such a terrible job, nothing was going to save that position, I think.
00:19:50.060I don't know, Nigel. It was a terrible job, and that certainly compounded things, but I think just his very presence from the beginning, not having the buy-in from the main opposition parties, made it untenable from the beginning.
00:20:05.480I think the only way he could have walked out of this with his reputation intact would have been to recommend an inquiry, but he clearly was not going to recommend an inquiry.
00:20:15.520His mandate came from the Prime Minister. He reported to the Prime Minister. He made amply clear he was not working for Parliament of the people.
00:20:22.680He was working for the Prime Minister in his own words. Was it inevitable that it had to end in tears this way?
00:20:29.420Yes, I think it was, because the job as he originally took it was not able to be done on the terms that he accepted it.
00:20:38.780That meant he was never going to get terribly close to the truth.
00:20:42.720All it was ever going to be was conversations and a sort of a general feeling of, well, things weren't really done right, and we should have more talks.
00:20:52.420It never was going to be anything else.
00:20:55.100There was one other thing about Mr. Johnson that I was not aware of when this first came up,
00:21:00.160and that was his own deep personal connection with China
00:21:03.400that has since been revealed in a number of articles.
00:21:19.500Three of his children have been over there to study.
00:21:22.320So he is sort of a friendly for China.
00:21:26.220So between being a friendly for China, I actually believe he was a friendly to China.
00:21:31.260I'm not so sure he was actually that friendly with Trudeau.
00:21:34.540I think he probably was telling the truth when he said he had very little connection to Trudeau in the years since Trudeau became prime minister.
00:21:44.280And one of the reasons that I think that is that if he had actually had a closer connection to Mr. Trudeau, he would have known what a flake he was.
00:21:54.100And then he would have never got involved with a job in the first place.
00:22:09.140Although, even if he knew Trudeau was a flake, I'm still not sure he would say no because he saw this as a public service. He's been doing things for the public good in his whole life. He's, you know, previous to now been wildly respected for his public service and selflessness. And, you know, the way he put it was, well, you know, when you're asked to serve your country, you say yes.
00:22:32.120That's not a West Wing. Nobody does that in the world.
00:22:34.740I know, I know, but I could, well, he's old, so he might be old school.
00:31:06.020The only reason the only reason to not hold it now is that they're far guiltier than even their least charitable critics have accused them of being.
00:31:18.020So that you know, an inquiry is going to lead to jail time or the absolute devastation of the government's reputation.
00:31:26.020Otherwise, there's just doesn't seem to be any way out of the hole they're in right now short of an inquiry.
00:31:31.020what's your better we get one yes but again it'll have its wings clipped
00:31:37.180there'll be something that makes it less effective than it ought to be either
00:31:42.020they the person doing it will not be able to subpoena witnesses I think all I
00:31:48.180think all inquiries can well I mean the inquiry that mr. Johnson conducted could
00:31:54.260not no but he wasn't an inquiry he was a special rapporteur but it was an
00:31:59.460inquiry by. I'm adding that to my job title by the way. I'm a special rapporteur. I think that's
00:32:04.420French. I identify a special rapporteur. I mean or another possibility is that yes we'll have a
00:32:11.620full inquiry but it will report to the prime minister or it will report to the cabinet and
00:32:18.740it won't never be unless there's a leaker. Yeah. We'll never get to see it. There is an opportunity
00:32:24.660to really push this past the point when the next election is going to be. There is a lot of
00:32:30.180opportunities to play funny with this, because it's dealing with largely confidential documents.
00:32:36.260And so you know, even a legitimate inquiry might just be able to say, well, you know,
00:32:41.860speak only in vagaries, I looked at things and there was maybe something over here, but we can't
00:32:47.780really say what so i think that astonishes me is that they with all the resources they have
00:32:54.820and all the motivation they have they've not actually outed the leaker which makes me think
00:33:00.740that what corey is thinking but they may know who this guy is but he says listen if you put if you
00:33:06.340pull me in i can tell you that there's going to be a lot of stuff coming out from the secret we're
00:33:11.300dealing with the clandestine services they may have shot him by now he could be dead for all we
00:33:16.980know. Oh, this is Canada. They can't afford the bullets for that. Oh, when you're dealing with
00:33:21.700clandestine services, they will shoot. They'll shoot spies and leakers. They'll do it. So who
00:33:27.480knows? It's a test. We'll leave if anything else comes up. Okay. Well, let's move to something a
00:33:32.660little lighter. We're going to bring it back home here to Alberta. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith,
00:33:37.620fresh off of her election victory, has sworn in her new cabinet. Some of the big jobs. Nate
00:33:46.780Horner gets finance. He represents Drumheller-Stetler. Big, big sprawling Eastern Alberta
00:33:52.560riding. Ariana LaGrange formerly the education minister. She moves from education to health.
00:33:59.840So she moves from the second biggest budget department to the first biggest budget department.0.83
00:34:06.160Lots of squawking from the left on that one. They hated her in education. Funny enough, even0.94
00:34:12.000I was a pretty tough critic of the Kennedy government, but education was the one area
00:34:15.520where I was like, they're doing pretty good here. I'm liking a lot of this. So a lot of lefties not
00:34:23.060happy about her going there. Brian Jean takes the very senior portfolio of energy. I mean,
00:34:31.980normally that's considered a Calgary job. For some reason, a Calgary minister gets it.
00:34:35.960You can see where Fort McMurray might fit into it.
00:34:41.000Rebecca Schultz gets environment, and Demetrio Nicolaitis moves from advanced education to education.
00:34:49.060So a fairly vertical move for him there.
00:34:53.120What are the big ones that stand out for you among the ones I've named and the ones I haven't named as the real appointments that stood out?
00:35:01.360Well, the ones that, first of all, I'm thinking about it like a rugby match, and you've got your scrum, and you've got some heavy-hitting people in the front line.
00:35:16.040We are going to have a confrontation with Ottawa over pipelines and over the use of natural gas for generating electricity for home heat and power.
00:37:47.240When you can see the signaling coming from Premier Smith that that's where she wants to go with a big main task of the government to begin with.1.00
00:37:54.640And they're all three leader contenders in the last race lined up in those key positions.
00:37:59.580So I'm just impatiently looking forward to fall to seeing, you know, what sort of direction she's going to put that cabinet in.
00:38:06.220And I saw Rick McIver was put into transportation or no municipal affairs again.
00:39:16.400And as we talked about, though, if there was going to be a flashpoint of caucus discontent or somebody who's going to be problematic, Jason Nixon potentially could have been that.
00:39:25.860And there's some of the old, you know, keep your enemies closer, keep them in cabinet, keep them calm, keep them contained, and it's one less thing to sweat.
00:39:33.800But there's also the possibility, Corey, that there could have been a serious conversation.
00:40:43.160So some notable outs, not huge, not really big ones, but notable outs, you know, when I went through the list.
00:40:51.460Shane Getson, he is just north of Edmonton, so vaguely Edmonton area-ish, which generally puts you on a short list of cabinet now, since there's no UCP MLAs in Edmonton.
00:41:03.300But he, I mean, I don't think he was, no, he wasn't anti-vax, but he made a bunch of news when first reported by the Western Standard that he had some very serious adverse reactions to vaccines.
00:43:45.900There was a kerfuffle in the last year of Kenny involving alcohol in the legislature.
00:43:55.280Everyone's so surprised there's alcohol in the legislature.
00:43:58.040Come on, I spent four years around there. Other than the Mormons, everyone is, everyone's imbibing quite liberally from time to time. Although some of this stuff, none of it was proven.0.91
00:44:11.660Yeah, you got to do it responsibly. Anyway, he returns as Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors. The Economic Corridors is a new sort of portfolio attached to it, which I know you're going to have more to say on possibly next week. We've got some columns coming up on it.
00:44:25.100Not cabinet, but actually is a very notable out, but there's a very good reason probably for it, and that is Nathan Cooper.
00:44:33.100Nathan Cooper is technically, I guess, still the speaker of the legislature.
00:44:39.100He was the speaker from 2019 until now, and he was house leader of the Wildrose opposition from four and actually interim leader of the UCP after the merger before Kenny was elected leader of the UCP.
00:44:54.100the single biggest nerd within a few kilometers of the legislature. The guy just, so you had Jay
00:45:04.280Hillen on your show earlier, a parliamentary procedure and stuff. Nathan Eats policy. Jay
00:45:10.080Hill is like Michael Jackson cool compared to how much of a nerd Nathan Cooper is on this stuff.
00:45:17.560The guy's life ambition is to be the speaker of the Alberta legislature. He loves everything.
00:45:22.680Nothing else. So he is a guy who would have, I think, been on a very short list for cabinet. If he's not in cabinet, it's almost certainly that he said, no, Madam Premier, I, I want to be speaker. So, and I, and I spent a good one. He's actually been a very good speaker. Yeah.
00:45:38.700So does the speaker in the legislature have the same kind of entertainment budget and privileges as the speaker in the House of Commons?
00:45:49.020Well, I guess he's just maybe not quite the drinker, because the Speaker of the House of Commons has this big cottage in the Gatineau site with this massive scotch collection.
00:46:00.400I mean, I think any one of us, maybe not you, but if Nigel and I became Speaker, we had this unlimited library of world-class scotches that never ran out, we'd never get to work again.