QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Correctional Service Canada--Transfer of Inmate
June 14, 2023
Government leader, the government’s answer to my colleagues Senator Plett’s and Senator Boisvenu’s question regarding the competence of Minister Mendicino is shameful. Government leader, this is the truth of the matter: The problem isn’t that Minister Mendicino didn’t announce that Paul Bernardo was being transferred — the problem is that he played dumb once it was made public, and he acted like it was the first time he had ever heard about it. That’s the problem with Minister Mendicino.
It seems to be the default setting of Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Mendicino to play dumb every time they get called out — just as the minister was called out many weeks ago regarding his statement that all illegal police stations in Canada had been shut down, and then a few days later, we find out there are a couple of police stations still operating in our own hometown. The minister played dumb again, and, worse than that, he blamed the RCMP.
My question is very simple, government leader: Is Minister Mendicino playing dumb, or is it possible that he’s genuinely this incompetent?
No, the answer is neither one nor the other, senator. You continue to assert that there are police stations operating in our home province without any basis for saying that — other than media reports. There may very well be; they are the subject of an ongoing RCMP investigation, as I’ve said on many occasions, and I will continue to remind the Senate of that each and every time you raise the question.
I’m not impatient, but that’s the answer, and that’s the answer that I will continue to give until such time as the results of the investigation are made public.
First and foremost, it’s the minister himself who has confirmed that these stations are operating in Canada, and he’s been misleading Parliament about what he has or hasn’t done about it. That is what the problem is here. Again, I repeat, it’s either incompetence on the part of the minister or his staff, or he’s deliberately misleading Parliament.
The next question that bears to be asked is whether this is the reason why the minister is dragging his feet in putting into place a foreign registry, a foreign registry that if the minister and government were serious about would have already been put in place. There’s a piece of legislation sitting in this very chamber that the government is dragging its feet on and doing nothing about. It’s very simple.
Either way, when will someone be fired for the absolutely disgraceful handling of numerous files by this minister? We see a foreign registry not in place. We see illegal police stations operating in our land. We see a brutal murderer in this country being sent to a minimum-security situation just because the minister isn’t doing his job and protecting the interests of public security in this country. We can’t get a straight answer in this chamber from the Government Representative/leader.
Respectfully, there’s a difference between a straight answer and an answer that doesn’t suit your desires. I’ve given the answers on many occasions.
With regard to the allegations about illegal police stations, as I said on other occasions, it may very well be the case, and we will not know until the investigation is completed and made public that certain activities taking place in one or more places, whether in Quebec or elsewhere, were indeed illegal and were indeed shut down and may or may not have returned. I never heard it said, honourable colleague, that every person and every program and every room in every one of these places were all dedicated to illegal activities.
Second, if you are implying that it would have been appropriate for the Minister of Public Safety to direct Correctional Service Canada as to how to deal with the incarceration of Mr. Bernardo or anyone else, that would be to betray — with all due respect, either a misunderstanding of the appropriate independence of Correctional Service from direction from the minister or a desire to see political manipulation of the Correctional Service, which would be inappropriate in a democratic country.
