Possibly the most notorious killer in Canada’s history is moved from a maximum security prison to a medium security one. When the announcement is made the public is outraged. The victims’ families are upset they weren’t consulted.

Also outraged is the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Safety. They didn’t know. They will find out how this could have happened.

Then we discover that the Minister of Public Safety’s office was informed months ago that this was going to happen. And again just days before the transfer. The Correctional Service provided background materials. The Minister says he didn’t know, but it won’t happen again.

Having worked in government I must admit I’m having some problems here. We are taking about someone responsible for kidnapping, raping and murdering teenage girls. What ministerial staffer is so tone deaf as to not bring the information to the minister’s attention? I just can’t see that.

To me that is a firing offence. Though if I had made such a mistake I wouldn’t need to be fired, I would have tendered my resignation immediately. It is that big a mistake.

In Question Period the Minister kept insisting he didn’t know about the move before the transfer happened. Yet apparently no-one lost their job. He could have ended the controversy by announcing the person responsible for not briefing him was no longer employed by him. He didn’t have to name names, just that he had taken the appropriate action.

That he didn’t leads me to wonder. If no-one got fired, does that mean that he was aware beforehand and didn’t understand the optics of the transfer? And did he then mislead the House and the Canadian people as to the extent of his knowledge? I wouldn’t have thought that before, but now I wonder.

Especially as it turns out now the Prime Minister’s office was also forewarned of the plan back in March. But no-one told the Prime Minister.

I suppose it is possible that the PM and the Minister of Public Safety just had the bad luck to hire staffers who didn’t know how to properly handle such information. Maybe they really didn’t know.

Then again, these are the same people who said they weren’t briefed on foreign attempts to interfere with Canadian elections. Once again, staff knew but didn’t pass the information along.

It would be a lot of fun if someone in the Opposition or the media asked them to take a polygraph test.