Allan Woodhouse (left) speaks to reporters following his exoneration as Brian Anderson (right) and James Lockyer look on. Photo: APTN File
Manitoba’s justice minister says “settlement” talks are underway with two First Nations men after they were wrongly convicted of murder.
Matt Wiebe says he and Premier Wab Kinew have apologized to Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse of Pinaymootang First Nation in Manitoba’s Interlake region, and are working towards resolving the lawsuit the exonerees filed on date seeking financial damages.
However, the politicians’ position is markedly different from statements of defence filed by their own government in response to the civil suits, which seems to take no responsibility.
“The … prosecuting Crown attorneys relied upon the information, records, evidence and other disclosure given to them by the members of the WPS in making the decision to charge the plaintiff,” said the statement.
“Any loss or damage sustained by the plaintiff, as alleged, was caused or significantly contributed to by third parties for whom Manitoba is not responsible.”
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Anderson and Woodhouse, who served 50 years each, were acquitted in 2023 of killing a restaurant chef in 1973 after the Crown said police obtained false confessions from the accused.
The men were teenagers when they were arrested – along with brothers Russell and Clarence Woodhouse – and charged by Winnipeg police in the fatal stabbing. They said police threatened and intimidated them into signing false confessions.
Both had moved to Winnipeg in search of better lives. They had jobs and were pursuing careers, court heard.
Justice Glenn Joyal pronounced the men not guilty in July 2023 and cited anti-Indigenous racism in the justice system after former federal justice minister David Lametti had ordered a new trial.
“You are innocent and you deserve the acquittals,” said the judge. “I’m happy to offer an apology on behalf of the institution and system that failed you.”
Everyone from the police to the prosecution to the prison system conspired to keep them locked up, noted Joyal, but their courage and perseverance prevailed.
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Pinaymootang First Nation man acquitted 50 years after his murder conviction
“We will never be able to give back the past that was robbed of these individuals and others in a similar situation,” noted Wiebe in a statement emailed to APTN News Thursday, “but we can take steps to move forward in a way that attempts to do right.
“Manitoba is actively pursuing settlement discussions with the plaintiffs to advance Indigenous reconciliation in the hopes of quickly reaching a resolution to right this wrong.”
James Lockyer, their Toronto-based lawyer with Innocence Canada, was not available for comment Thursday.
But Niigaan Sinclair, a Winnipeg Indigenous studies professor, newspaper columnist and political panelist for APTN, chalked it up to negotiating tactics.
“It’s not fair, it’s not right,” Sinclair said in an interview, “but often what governments do, institutions do, private industry . . . is they deny the claim.”
Sinclair says Manitoba has “admitted to” errors in these cases. And the onus is on police to do the same.
“It’s the kind of stuff that law students should be studying in the faultiness that is used to convict people who are often marginalized, people who are mistreated and … railroaded to jails,” he said.
Not surprised
Sinclair noted he was not surprised to hear the NDP politicians say something different.
“The (Manitoba) government of 2025 is led by a First Nations premier of a Canadian province. This government (at) this time in Manitoba is not the same as the 1970s where racism was the norm, it was rampant and it was at every level of the Manitoba government.”
Court documents show the province has filed a cross-claim against the City of Winnipeg and Attorney General of Canada, claiming they should pay for the compensation instead.
The men pleaded not guilty, but were convicted by a jury with the judge in the case deriding their ancestry and accusing them of making “a complete fabrication.”
Allan, Clarence and Anderson were convicted of second-degree murder while Russell, who has since died, was convicted of manslaughter.
Crown attorney George Dangerfield
The prosecutor at the time was Crown attorney George Dangerfield, whose string of convictions have slowly unravelled and left a permanent stain on the reputation of the Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba Justice. The province has paid compensation to other exonerees wrongly convicted during that time.
“The case would not have proceeded today,” said Michele Jules, executive director of Manitoba Prosecution Service. “It wouldn’t even come close. It fell well below the expected standards of 1974.”
She apologized to Allan and Anderson before Joyal and confirmed their confessions were “entirely manufactured.”
Jules noted the same Winnipeg police detectives were involved in other wrongful convictions at the time.
“Our justice system failed,” she told the court. “They were wrongfully convicted. For that I am sorry.”
