Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer but have an intense interest in Canadian and international law.
You can contact me with your thoughts and opinions at the following email address (not the one I used to contact the PMO's office). msdogfood@hotmail.com
PMO email is pm@pm.gc.ca
I am writing in regard to your recent attention of the Clifford Olson pension situation. You seem to have taken particular interest in the fact that this man receives Canada Pension and the supplemental low income benefit. Although I certainly do agree that this person's previous actions are disturbing to most Canadians, every Canadian is entitled to Canada Pension, even Clifford Olson. From a media perspective, it looks like the only reason you are looking into whether convicted criminals should get Canada Pension or not is because this particular situation offends your moral and personal sensibilities. Because you stated that you are disturbed by the situation and have instructed your Ministers to "rectify the situation", this could be regarded as undue influence of your office or any other Minister whom you may direct on a single case which could, in the future, make it easy for Mr. Olson to file a discrimination claim against the Government of Canada. The discrimination claim could get far larger as there are a couple hundred prisoners that also meet the criteria for CPP. You have mentioned Mr. Olson by name which also makes your position a little more difficult in that it may look like a personal vendetta between you and Mr. Olson. You are about the only person in Canada who can phone up a particular Minister and ask them to look at a specific case which shows direct influence by you. This reminds me of a related case with a different Minister in a different department. In other words, Jason Kenney the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, in the summer of 2008 made what could be considered racial comments towards Roma or people of Roma descent. He alleged that particular group was trying to game the Refugee Claim system by making false refugee claims to enter Canada. In early March 2010, a case came up in the Federal Court of Canada in which a Roma individual appealed the denial of their refugee claim. The immigration lawyer representing this individual presented evidence that Mr. Kenney's racist comments about Roma may have influenced the immigration case review board. Although such evidence is not usually part of an immigration case appeal, those were public comments which the court may consider in their findings. Mr. Kenney should have kept his mouth shut as the government may lose the case. How does this apply to Mr. Olson? You used his name and his particular case in public. If you do try to alter or cease his pension, he could take legal action. One of the key factors in his legal action might be the comments made by the PMO's office in which case the Government of Canada may lose. This issue will be repeated if the other inmates also take action. As I am sure your in-house counsel has told you, Olson is not allowed to be paid royalties from the book he wrote and there are several outstanding civil claims and judgements from victims families. Any action on the part of the Government of Canada regarding his pension may slow the recovery of the civil judgements. In the end, discretion may be the better part of valor. Get out of the fight even though it may lead to short term political gain.