Corrections chief briefed Mendicino's chief of staff weeks before Bernardo's prison transfer

Then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino's chief of staff was briefed by the head of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) about Paul Bernardo's up‐ coming prison transfer al‐ most two weeks before it happened - but the minis‐ ter wasn't told about it un‐ til after Bernardo had been moved, says an internal government email.

The Privy Council Office (PCO) email, obtained by CBC News, also shows Corrections Canada was in contact with the minister's office about Bernardo's transfer from maximum to medium secu‐ rity a total of seven times be‐ tween February and May 2023, before Mendicino was briefed.

Those contacts included the minister's communica‐ tions staff being told about a possible change to the in‐ famous serial killer and rapist's security level three months before it happened.

Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the families of two of Bernardo's victims, said it's "very disturbing" to learn that there was so much communication about the transfer that didn't reach the minister.

"It's quite incomprehensi‐ ble," said Danson.

"The fact there has been so much communication says to me that everybody was well aware that this would be entirely unaccept‐ able to Canadians, and so ... they proceeded in a way that would make the transfer a fait accompli."

Bernardo was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 for killing teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Ma‐ haffy. He was also convicted of manslaughter for his role in the death of 15-year-old Tammy Homolka. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years and has been desig‐ nated a dangerous offender.

The victims' families are outraged by the fact that they were only told that Bernardo was moving from a maximum to a medium secu‐ rity prison on May 29, 2023 the day it happened.

CBC News reported exclu‐ sively in June that staff in Mendicino's office knew for more than three months that Bernardo could be transfer‐ red - but staff said they didn't tell the minister until the day after the transfer happened. The story set off a political firestorm and calls for Men‐ dicino to resign.

Before being shuffled out of cabinet, Mendicino main‐ tained he wasn't told about Bernardo's prison transfer in advance and said he should have been "briefed immedi‐ ately."

Mendicino also issued a directive ordering that the minister be notified person‐ ally of such transfers in fu‐ ture, and that victims be told earlier. He never said who had failed to brief him.

CBC News has obtained hundreds of pages of inter‐ nal emails from the Privy Council Office (PCO) about Bernardo's transfer through an access-to-information re‐ quest. The emails contain a detailed "sequence of even‐ ts" written by Corrections Canada and PCO.

Mendicino said on June 5 that the decision to transfer Bernardo was "shocking." Janice Charette, the clerk of the Privy Council at the time, asked her staff the next day to look into why Mendicino wasn't made aware of the transfer earlier and whether the commissioner of Correc‐ tions Canada did know about it.

"HI - From the Clerk this morning re CSC Bernardo Can you follow up with the department?" reads an inter‐ nal email between two Privy Council Office employees on June 6. "What's the process for sign off on this? How was

Minister not aware? Was commissioner aware?"

A week later, a federal employee tasked with seek‐ ing information for the clerk of the Privy Council wrote to Corrections Canada asking for a chronology of events "ASAP."

"We are urgently seeking a detailed chronology of events, including timing on decision points, as well as no‐ tification of various parties (victims, [minister's office], PCO comms, etc)," wrote the Privy Council Office's Julie Davis to a Corrections Cana‐ da employee on June 14.

A summarized timeline and a more detailed docu‐ ment called "Sequence of Events" - listing everything PCO's communication team and Corrections Canada had uncovered - was subse‐ quently shared with Davis. An email said CSC validated dates with the commissioner of Corrections Canada.

The sequence of events document said the minister's office was first given a headsup about Bernardo's possible move on February 27 during a meeting.

WATCH: 'There was back and forth in the lead-up to the decision': Mendicino on Bernardo transfer

The "[communications] and issues" staff members at the minister's office were ad‐ vised on March 2 of the "name, date, transfer [and] security level change," the se‐ quence of events document said.

Head of Corrections Cana‐ da Anne Kelly briefed Mendi‐ cino's chief of staff on May 16 during a meeting about the transfer. That former chief of staff did not respond to CBC News' request for comment.

On May 25, the assistant commissioner in charge of victim services at Corrections Canada informed the minis‐ ter's office of the date of Bernardo's transfer, the se‐ quence of events document says.

The assistant commis‐ sioner for communications and engagement at Correc‐ tions Canada sent "media lines" to Mendicino's office on May 25 saying the trans‐ fer was happening on May 29, according to the se‐ quence of events document.

On the day Bernardo was moved, the minister's office called Corrections Canada to explain the reasons for the transfer decision, the se‐ quence of events document said. The minister's office was also informed on May 29 the transfer had been com‐ pleted, the document said.

The sequence of events document maintains that Mendicino wasn't notified by his staff until May 30, a day after Bernardo was moved from Millhaven Institution in Ontario to La Macaza Institu‐ tion in Quebec.

WATCH: Mendicino side‐ steps questions about Bernardo transfer

Several of the staff mem‐ bers who worked on the file at Mendicino's office during the controversy have moved to other ministers' offices or have left the government. The current public safety minister's office said last week the matter was not something on which it could comment.

A spokesperson for Men‐ dicino said last year that staff didn't tell the minister in ad‐ vance about Bernardo's up‐ coming transfer because they "examined possible options for potentially changing the decision over the subsequent period, and were informed there weren't any."

When staff briefed the minister on May 30, he was

also told about his "lack of authorities to influence" the transfer, according to a June 13 email that a spokesperson for Mendicino's office sent to CBC News.

Corrections Canada told CBC News it followed its noti‐ fication protocol and has since "strengthened informa‐ tion sharing procedures with the minister's office."

The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security is meeting Monday to discuss a request to un‐ dertake a study of the reclas‐ sification of federal offend‐ ers.