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Niagara Falls MP tables legislation to keep Paul Bernardo in maximum-security prison
The Trudeau government turned down an effort on Monday to send notorious killer Paul Bernardo back to a maximum security prison.
After a week of outrage over the decision to move Bernardo to medium-security, Niagara Falls MP Tony Baldinelli called on the government to send Bernardo back to a maximum-security prison for the rest of his life.
READ MORE: Serial killer ‘Paul Bernardo should rot in a maximum-security prison’: Doug Ford
“That the house call for the immediate return of vile serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo to a maximum prison and that all court-ordered dangerous offenders and mass murderers be permanently assigned a maximum security classification,” Baldinelli said.
Baldinelli’s motion was rejected by the House of Commons, despite an appeal by friends of Kristen French of St. Catharines who was abducted and murdered by Bernardo in the early 1990s along with Leslie Mahaffy of Burlington.
Baldinelli and the conservatives are still planning to introduce a private member’s bill on Wednesday in support of the French and Mahaffy families and other victims.
Leader of the Official Opposition of Canada, Pierre Poilievre said, “We’re introducing a bill that would ban the Trudeau government from moving multiple murderers, mass murderers into medium security… and he should be back in a maximum security penitentiary and that no killer of this type should ever be released from maximum security, in fact, he should leave in a coffin.”
READ MORE: Ford calls for head of correctional service to resign over Paul Bernardo transfer
“The name Paul Bernardo in our community is synonymous with evil. He’s a monster and he should be in maximum security…” Baldinelli said.
Tim Danson, a lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families has written to Corrections Canada asking them to send Bernardo back to maximum security. It argues that he’s beyond the Corrections Canada goal of rehabilitation.
“We talked about the Paul Bernardo’s of this world and they are not treatable and sentencing principles of punishment and deterrence are what should prevail for someone like him,” Danson said.
Baldinelli’s office says that just one government vote rejected his motion in the House of Commons.
READ MORE: Corrections defends Paul Bernardo’s privacy amid calls to detail transfer reason
