Elizabeth Wettlaufer 'quite depressed,' faces threats in prison

Corrections authorities have been forced to move killer nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer for her own safety after she received threats from at least one other inmate at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., CBC News has learned.

The news comes as commissioner Eileen Gillese makes her first public appearance at a series of community meetings in Woodstock and London, Ont., on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of next year's public inquiry into what led to the killer nurse's actions.

• Ontario names Justice Eileen Gillese to lead Wettlaufer inquiry
• Ex-nurse killed 8 seniors, sentenced to 8 concurrent life terms

Wettlaufer is currently serving a life sentence for the killings of eight seniors in her care when she worked as a registered nurse at long-term care homes in Woodstock and London, Ont.

A source has told CBC News that Wettlaufer was transferred to the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener a few weeks ago. Corrections authorities have since had to move her to another unit within the prison for her own safety after threats from another inmate.

Wettlaufer said to be 'quite depressed'

A Corrections Canada spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny Wettlaufer's whereabouts or say whether officials had moved the serial killer for her own protection.

"Due to the Privacy Act, I am unable to provide you the information you're looking for," Kyle Lawlor, a media relations  adviser with Corrections Canada, wrote in an email Tuesday. 

The source told CBC News that Wettlaufer is "quite depressed," as medical officials within the prison system are still calibrating the proper level of medication with which to treat her multiple mental health issues, which were identified during her sentencing hearing back in June. 

As Wettlaufer remains behind bars, the judge tapped to head a public inquiry into what led to the nurse's actions, makes her first public appearance in Woodstock on Wednesday. 

Woodstock, London meetings

Eileen Gillese will make a speech and introduce members of the commission at the first of three community meetings that will take place at a Woodstock hotel on Wednesday afternoon.

The scheduling of informal community meetings by public inquiries has been common since the one that handled the Walkerton, Ont., water disaster in 2002, which followed the Ontario town's water supply becoming contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

Officials with the inquiry say the meetings will give members of the public a chance to ask questions ahead of the public inquiry set to take place sometime next year.

A venue for next year's public inquiry has yet to be announced, because that inquiry is currently touring courthouses in Southwestern Ontario that would have enough space to hold the hearings, provincial officials told CBC News.

The government has given Gillese two years to complete her investigation, with hearings for the public inquiry set to get underway sometime in 2018.