On Monday, MPs agreed to launch a new limited parliamentary review of prison transfer policies in Canada, in light of renewed interest in the 2022 decision to transfer the notorious Canadian killer Luka Magnotta from a maximum-security prison to a medium-security prison.

MPs on the Public Safety and National Security Committee in the House of Commons will contact the Canadian Correctional Service Commissioner Ann Kelly, as well as the director of the La Macaza institution in Quebec to discuss the decision to transfer Magnotta and the process surrounding the transfer.

The decision to hold a special hearing on this issue was a deviation from the initial plan proposed by the Conservatives—which was initially supported by the Liberals—to undertake a broader study that would have included testimony from more than a dozen officials.

The debate on how to proceed took place during an emergency committee meeting during a House of Commons break week. After two hours of deliberations on a series of amendments, a shortened proposal was eventually approved by a narrow margin, without support from the Conservatives or the New Democratic Party.

Magnotta’s prison transfer returned to the political scene last week when Conservative MP Frank Caputo posted a video on X, detailing his visit to the medium-security La Macaza prison in Quebec to see the living conditions of the notorious killer Paul Bernardo.

Caputo said that during his tour of the institution, "a guard remarked that Luka Magnotta had just passed by him."

The Canadian Correctional Service (CSC) later confirmed to the media that Magnotta had been transferred from the maximum-security Port-Cartier institution to a medium-security facility in 2022, without confirming which prison.

Magnotta, 41, is serving a life sentence for the horrific murder of Chinese international student Jun Lin in Montreal in 2012.

CSC committee spokesperson Kevin Antonucci said in a statement: "This offender has been safely behind bars for nearly a decade." "They are still in a secure institution, serving an indeterminate sentence."

Bernardo’s transfer from the maximum-security Ontario Millhaven Institute sparked political outrage last summer after the transfer was largely kept secret within the government until it occurred.

The 59-year-old man is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 1995 of kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing teenagers—Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy—in the early 1990s near St. Catharines, Ontario. He was also convicted of manslaughter in the death of Tammy Homolka.

Amid moments of partisan sparring during Monday’s emergency meeting, Conservative MPs objected to what they described as granting a pair of "sadistic" killers access to certain activities and facilities, while Liberals expressed hope that the study would remain focused on substance rather than sensational issues.

Caputo said: "I think most Canadians were shocked by the transfer of Paul Bernardo, and I also feel that Canadians are shocked to discover that Luka Magnotta and others are not only in medium custody, but also in the same prison."

The Conservatives suggested that the committee needed to "get to the heart" of the impact of various Liberal justice policies, and also wanted to examine ministerial accountability. They had proposed calling the current and former Public Safety ministers, as well as the chief of staff at the time Magnotta was transferred.

Last week, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said decisions regarding the security level of inmates rest independently with the CSC committee, with public safety in mind.

Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell initially told the committee that while she had no issue considering prison transfer operations—proposing to add a series of additional witnesses including the John Howard and Elizabeth Fry societies—she wanted to point out that "some of the highest years of prisoner classification changes from maximum to medium occurred under the Conservative Harper government."

She and other Liberal MPs then chose to vote in favor of a narrower version of the study proposed by MP for the Bloc, Christina Miehm, which delves into the Magnotta issue with additional focus on medical and psychological assessments.

In January 2022, Magnotta’s lawyers filed documents in federal court seeking to force a transfer from the maximum-security prison in Quebec to a medium-security facility, alleging that the CSC committee rejected a request made the previous summer.

Miehm said: "What worries me about the Magnotta deal is that he requested transfers several times in the past and was denied." She cited unverified reports by CTV News regarding Magnotta identifying as transgender and an evaluation by a team at McGill University that was skeptical about this claim.

The committee agreed to request testimony from McGill officials, Miehm said, "to see if there was a gap in the psychological evaluation conducted."

While the Conservatives expressed anger over what they saw as the Bloc canceling their original proposal, Miehm credited Caputo for his work on this issue, noting that if he had not visited La Macaza, "we wouldn’t be here today."

In deciding not to prioritize this meeting over his distinguished work, it remains to be seen when the special hearing on Magnotta will be scheduled.