Father of murdered Ontario girl calls Bernardo transfer a “slap in the face”

“Disgusting”.

That’s what the father of Tori Stafford, the 8-year-old Woodstock, Ontario girl who was murdered in April, 2009, calls the transfer of convicted killer Paul Bernardo from a maximum-security prison to a medium-security facility.

Rodney Stafford led protests against similar transfers for the two people charged in Tori’s death, Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic, that ultimately saw McClintic returned to a women’s prison.

Rafferty remains in a medium security facility in Quebec where Bernardo is now also incarcerated.

Now, however, Rodney says the transfer of Bernardo is a “blatant slap in the face for the families of his victims” and he adds that “our government is totally working against the Canadian people.”

The office of the Public Safety Minister was told that Paul Bernardo was being transferred to a medium-security prison with media reports saying that Marco Mendocino’s office received two emails about the transfer in March and again in May.

CBC News reports that his staff did not tell him until a day after the transfer was done.

Stafford says “we need a change of politicians who are actually for the people” and adds that there’s “no reason why all Members of Parliament in the House of Commons shouldn’t be fighting for Canadians rights.”

Correctional Services Canada says a three-person panel began its review last week of Bernardo’s transfer last week and will be done within a few weeks.

Bernardo was convicted in 1995 for the murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffey. He was also convicted of manslaughter in the death of his sister-in-law and admitted to sexually assaulting 14 other women.

– with files from Vista Radio Reporter Casey Kenny