JAN 4, 2024 This afternoon Robert (Bobby) Mailman and Walter (Wally) Gillespie were acquitted by Chief Justice Tracey DeWare of the King’s Bench Court in Saint John, New Brunswick, 40 years after they were wrongly convicted in the murder of George Leeman
With profound sadness, Innocence Canada shares the news of David Milgaard’s untimely death. David died yesterday, May 15th, 2022. He was 69 years old.
Innocence Canada and Innocence movement advocates are stunned and heart-broken by David’s death. He was a part of the Innocence Canada family and more, an honoured and respected leader in the Innocence movement. Ron Dalton, Innocence Canada Co-President and exoneree expresses, “his death is a tragic loss to the Canadian Innocence movement and a personal blow to many of us at Innocence Canada.”
David contributed decades of time and energy advocating and lobbying for a Canadian post-conviction review commission. David was instrumental in the recent consultation process for the development of a Miscarriages of Justice Commission in Canada.
David was an incredibly generous and sweet man who is remembered for turning his suffering into a lifetime of helping others. Those of us who knew and loved him best are struggling with the profound loss we feel. We will do our best to continue the work David and his mother began.
Innocence Canada extends our deepest and heartfelt condolences to David’s family, friends and legions of supporters across Canada and the world.
Innocence Canada Endorses Leadership Choice
For immediate release
1 April 2021
Toronto: The appointment of two prominent retired judges to help structure a wrongful convictions review body represents an important step forward on a historic project, Innocence Canada said today.
Innocence Canada co-presidents Ron Dalton and Kirk Makin applauded the appointment of Justices Harry Laforme and Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré to fulfill this important role, saying it ensures a sound set of recommendations for an independent review commission.
"As a renowned jurist with a broad knowledge of the law, Justice Laforme is an ideal choice," Mr. Makin said. "Being indigenous, he also brings keen insight into how the law is often prone to malfunction when it comes to defendants from marginalized groups."
"Justice Minister David Lametti announced the next step in the creation of the independent commission today, almost 18 months after his government said it intended to create such a body."
Advocates for the wrongly convicted have pushed for a properly-funded, independent commission for the past 25 years. A half-dozen inquiries into notorious miscarriages of justice have also strongly endorsed the idea.
Innocence Canada and a handful of university projects are currently the last hope for individuals convicted of serious crimes who continue to maintain their innocence. Working pro bono or historically under funded, these groups investigate claims of innocence and file detailed submissions in an attempt to persuade the Department of Justice to reopen these cases.
An independent commission - such as exist in a handful of jurisdictions including the United Kingdom - would have resources and police-like powers to investigate, search and compel witness testimony. It would afford a speedier route for defendants to obtain retrial or full exoneration.
"For more than a generation, the goal of creating an independent commission has been the Holy Grail of the innocence movement," Mr. Dalton said. "While we are concerned by how long it is taking to get this project going, we look forward to the prospect of all parties co-operating to create this vital institution."
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For further information, please contact:
Kerry Emmonds – Executive Director
Innocence Canada
416-504-7500 ext. 101
Glen Assoun Compensated for Wrongful Conviction
For immediate release
March 04, 2021 – 6:15 PM
HALIFAX: Innocence Canada confirmed today that a confidential financial settlement was recently reached between the Nova Scotia and federal governments and Glen Assoun, a 64-year-old Nova Scotia man who was exonerated in 2019 in the 1995 murder of Brenda LeAnne Way.
"As is the norm when a settlement is negotiated in a case where a miscarriage of justice took place, the terms cannot be disclosed," said Ron Dalton, co-president of Innocence Canada. "Suffice to say, no amount of money could ever make up for the years of freedom Glen lost to a parade of errors and misjudgements by police and prosecutors."
Ms. Way, a 28-year-old prostitute, had been trying to clean up her life when she was found dead in an alley on Nov. 12, 1995. She had sustained multiple stab wounds and her throat had been cut. Convicted in 1999, Mr. Assoun ended up spending almost 17 years behind bars.
"At a certain point all of our clients need to get out from under the burden of wrongful conviction and get on with what remains of their lives," said Mr. Dalton, who was himself wrongly convicted in 1989 of murdering his wife.
Lawyers Phil Campbell and Sean MacDonald, who have represented Mr. Assoun throughout his quest for justice, noted that, while Mr. Assoun has shown tremendous resiliency throughout his two decade-long ordeal his financial sacrifices were significant as he was denied the ability to work and amass savings for his later years.
“At the end of the day, Minister Lametti and the Prime Minister and the Nova Scotia government did the right thing for Glen," Mr. MacDonald said. "And that should be celebrated.”
The settlement has the added benefit of being formal recognition by the governments involved that terrible mistakes took place in Mr. Assoun's case, Mr. Dalton said.
He noted that the 17 years Mr. Assoun spent in prison and the further five years he was on strict bail conditions added to the time the real killer has been at large.
"While Glen’s ordeal has lasted over twenty years and he will continue to carry the scars of his experience, we at Innocence Canada want to express our gratitude to Federal Justice Minister Lametti and others who ensured that this important step has been taken to get Glen back his life."
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For further information, please contact:
Kerry Emmonds – Executive Director
Innocence Canada
416-504-7500 ext. 101
Issued by Stephen Weir
Press Release distributed by Stephen Weir & Associates on behalf of Innocence Canada
For Immediate Release
October 26, 2020
TORONTO: The answer to the question of who killed Christine Jessop is now known, leaving one thing missing in this 36-year-old tale of deceit, folly and botched opportunities - official accountability.
Innocence Canada (IC) is therefore calling for an independent review into how both the Durham Regional Police and Toronto Police Service (TPS) failed to long ago detect and investigate the killer, Calvin Hooper, as a viable suspect.
From 1985 to 1995, the case resided with the Durham force. Upon Guy Paul Morin being exonerated and acquitted of the killing in 1995, Toronto Police took over and assigned nine officers to the Christine Jessop Task Force in order to investigate the case with fresh eyes. Having failed in this mission, the task force was disbanded in 1998.
The case was finally solved ten days ago, when TPS cold case investigators, acting on information from forensic DNA testing by US crime labs, identified the killer as Calvin Hoover, a Jessop family friend at the time of the sex-slaying.
As the country's leading advocate for the wrongly convicted, Innocence Canada believes that invaluable lessons can and must be extracted from this 36-year debacle to provide guidance to future investigations and to forever underline the importance of rigorously adhering to elementary, methodical investigative steps.
As a person within the Jessop family's social circle, Calvin Hoover ought to have identified early on as someone else deserving of close police scrutiny. The failure to home in on him and closely examine his alibi for the day of Christine's abduction, October 3, 1884, has led to decades of indescribable agony for Mr. Morin and his family, and for the Jessop family.
These failures also provided a sadistic pedophile with the freedom to commit other crimes and, ultimately, to take his own life in 2015 without ever having been brought to justice. It remains unknown what other crimes he may have committed between 1984 and 2015.
"Tens of millions of dollars were sunk into two murder trials and appeals, and the year-long Kaufman public inquiry into the Morin wrongful conviction," said IC co-president Kirk Makin. "To now stint on a carefully targeted review of police failures would be a mockery of all this expense and the human misery caused by this awful case."
Such a review would in no way duplicate the 1996 Kaufman public inquiry, Makin said. It need not involve public hearings, nor would it examine a host of other events and mistakes that have been painstakingly cataloged by Justice Kaufman.
"We are dependent on the press and political leaders to apply pressure to authorities who would much prefer to sweep their mistakes under the rug," Makin said. "That simply cannot be allowed to happen."
As was the case with the Kaufman inquiry, funding and structure would be the responsibility of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney-General.
Several models can be envisioned that would result in a relatively speedy, cost-efficient review. These include the appointment of a key figure who already has a firm grasp on the case - such as inquiry commissioner Fred Kaufman or Kaufman commission counsel Mark Sandler. Alternatively, the province could select a retired judge or senior police figure from an outside force.
An example of the kind of targeted review IC envisions was launched recently in the Nova Scotia wrongful conviction case of Glen Assoun. The Independent Investigations Office of BC has agreed to investigate how evidence collected by RCMP investigator Dave Moore was later destroyed by a joint RCMP-Halifax police unit.
"It was stunning to learn, 36 years after Christine Jessop was murdered, and 25 years after Guy Paul Morin's exoneration based on DNA testing, that multiple police investigators on multiple police forces failed to follow up on Jessop family friend whose existence was known to investigators," said IC board member and defense counsel Joanne McLean, who has represented Mr. Morin through most of his legal ordeal.
"The Jessop and Morin families deserved better," she said. "They and the public need explanations."
Innocence Canada provides police training in how to avoid wrongful convictions. Ms. McLean said the sort of error that may turn up in a review includes police tunnel vision; failures of supervision; poor document review and record keeping; failure to follow basic police investigative techniques; and pre-existing investigative biases that skew the integrity of an investigation.
"We cannot know which of these and other mistakes were made until an independent observer conducts interviews and examines written and computerized records and reports," Ms. McLean said.
It has become clear in recent days that authorities are anxious to avoid being called to account for their failings.
In an article in the Oct. 24 2020 Toronto Star, Durham Police spokesman Dave Selby is quoted as saying that no review of investigative failures in relation to Calvin Hoover mistakes is being contemplated: "I'm not aware of any such plans, because the people who were involved with the original investigation are either deceased or retired," Selby said.
Toronto Police spokesperson Meaghan Gray, asked to shed light on why Calvin Hoover was not a suspect, told the Star: "To comment on why would be purely speculative."
These ostrich-like postures are the very antithesis of accountability. The primary point of a review is to learn systemic lessons that can be learned and taught to future police trainees to avoid miscarriages of justice where possible and to swiftly remedy them when they do occur.
To bury police investigative errors is also to dishonor the memory of Christine Jessop and to insult Guy Paul Morin's suffering as the target of a misguided, single-minded prosecution.
For further information, please contact:
Kirk Makin, Innocence Canada co-president (and author of Redrum The Innocent; the murder of Christine Jessop and the controversial conviction of Guy Paul Morin)
Kmakin34@gmail.com
416-504-7500 ext. 101
Joanne McLean, Innocence Canada board member and counsel to Guy Paul Morin
Jcm-law@sympatico.ca
416-518-7318
Bhavan Sodhi, Innocence Canada staff counsel
bsodhi@innocencecanada.com
416-504-7500 ext. 104
It is all about me - original 1st class assignment warehoused here in toto Stephen Weir here (above), once again telling you about myself. I...
