JOB SECURITY — A reporter asked Health Minister JEAN-YVES DUCLOS after question period on Wednesday if his Cabinet colleague MARCO MENDICINO should lose his job given his office appeared to bungle the management of PAUL BERNARDO's controversial transfer to a lower-security prison. Duclos ignored the question, instead sending sympathies to the CTV journalists who'd just lost their jobs as part of dramatic cuts at the network. Hill reporters spent the day trading notes on a punishing round of layoffs, slowly but surely confirming the high-profile personalities on the wrong side of the announcement: bureau chief JOYCE NAPIER, veteran reporter GLEN MCGREGOR, executive producer ROSA HWANG, reporter IAN WOOD, W5 investigative correspondent MOLLY THOMAS, U.K. correspondents DANIELE HAMAMDJIAN and PAUL WORKMAN, and Los Angeles correspondent TOM WALTERS. These are people whose job was to sort fact from fiction in intense political arenas, a check on any and every politician who plays games with the truth. Asked soon-to-be-retired National Post bureau chief JOHN IVISON: "Who is going to be left to tell our stories?" — The story of the day: Conservatives are calling for Mendicino's head. PIERRE POILIEVRE says the minister should quit Cabinet after losing control of his office's story on Bernardo's transfer out of a max-security facility. Let's rewind the tape for anyone not following the tick-tock of Bernardo headlines sowing chaos in the House chamber. On May 29, Bernardo was transferred from the Millhaven Institution, a maximum-security prison near Kingston, to the medium-security La Macaza facility in Quebec. — Scream it from the rooftops: This was not a political decision. The Correctional Service of Canada doesn't ask Ottawa how to manage its prisoner population. COREY SHEFMAN, an associate at OKT Law, pleaded with his Twitter followers to stop blaming the Trudeau government for actions in which it has no say — and focus on "things they're actually doing wrong." The federal agency doesn't typically comment on prisoner transfers, but the correctional officers' union confirmed Bernardo's move. MIKE BOLDUC, the Quebec region president of the union, couldn't explain the logic. "He doesn’t even speak French," Bolduc told Postmedia. "We don’t even know what the hell he’s doing in Quebec.” — Who knew what, and when: Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU learned of the transfer on May 29, his office said in a statement first reported by the Globe and Mail. Trudeau's staff had been briefed about the potential transfer by the Privy Council Office in March, the statement said, and responded by making "inquiries and requests for information" to Mendicino's office. "That was the right step to take," the PMO said, because Mendicino was the minister responsible. Translation: It was his file, not ours. Mendicino insists he didn't find out about the transfer until May 30. But CBC's ASHLEY BURKE reported Tuesday that the minister's staff was first made aware of the transfer March 2. And then again May 25. — Theories circulated on the Hill: Did a young staffer simply not know the name of one of Canada's most reviled criminals? Burke asked the minister's office, which said political staff "do all know" the name Bernardo. "The office told CBC News there was not a communication breakdown & said there’s a lot of information flowing daily with the dept & they decide when to best brief the minister," Burke reported. Why the delay, then? The office was "internally looking at options." — What's the problem? The minister can't order the correctional service to reverse a prison transfer. On June 2, Mendicino said he'd urge CSC Commissioner ANNE KELLY to "take a victim-centered and trauma-informed approach" in the Bernardo case. Mendicino issued a directive Wednesday that called for more information sharing in the case of high-profile offenders — including informing victims of prison transfers. Poilievre has for several days urged Mendicino to prohibit the transfer of murderers and dangerous offenders to lower-security prisons. Tory MP TONY BALDINELLI tabled a private member's bill to that effect on Wednesday. The minister hasn't taken them up on that. — What does accountability look like? Ask a Harper-era staffer and they're likely to reply that a snafu such as this would have caused heads to roll. Maybe the minister, maybe his chief of staff, maybe a junior staffer, and maybe all three — or more. Mendicino's Wednesday directive demanded he be "formally and directly notified" by the correctional service in advance of high-profile prison transfers. Not his staff. The minister himself. — The clock is ticking: Seven sitting days stand between Mendicino and Parliament's summer break. He won't get a day off. He's in the hot seat today at the procedure and House affairs committee, where the order of the day is foreign interference. Don't expect an easy ride.
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