The wrongful conviction committee was a topic of conversation at the 10th anniversary gala of Innocence Canada. Photo: Kathleen Martens/APTN.
An organization that works to free innocent people from Canada’s prisons says hope is fading that an independent body to review possible wrongful convictions would be created before the next federal election.
Ron Dalton, president of Innocence Canada, says a publicly funded Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission is sorely needed, but expressed doubts Bill C-40, also known as David and Joyce Milgaard’s Law, will be passed before the next federal election.
“Our applications have ticked up,” said Dalton, who was exonerated for killing his wife in 1989. “We’re reviewing more than a hundred possible wrongful conviction cases.
“But it takes (us) years to get them into court.”
Dalton made the comments Wednesday in Toronto at an event to mark International Wrongful Conviction Day and the 10th anniversary of Innocence Canada, formerly the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.
“Plus, we only review homicide cases,” Dalton said of the non-profit group. “We spend half our time fund raising.”
Advocates for the wrongly convicted like Innocence Canada have been lobbying for an independent commission funded by the government to make it faster and easier for prisoners to apply for conviction reviews. The commission would be comprised of judges and lawyers to review potential miscarriages of justice.
Harry LaForme, a former Ontario Supreme Court judge, echoed Dalton’s concerns. LaForme co-chaired a series of meetings for the Trudeau government to gather input into Bill C-40, which is now before the Senate.
“I don’t even know if it’s going to pass,” said LaForme while addressing the Toronto event. “An election’s coming up and I imagine that bill will die.”
Justice Minister Arif Virani was invited to the gathering at the Ontario Bar Association but was unable to attend and sent a video statement instead.
“Taking on these cases can seem like a thankless task, especially in justice systems where the system itself is not designed to admit its mistakes,” Virani said in his statement. “In Canada, that has meant that people who are over-represented in the criminal justice system, Indigenous and Black people especially, are underrepresented when it comes to receiving remedies if wrongfully convicted.
“I want to single out Innocence Canada for its support and leadership on C-40,” he added, “and more broadly, for its essential role in helping to identify numerous wrongful convictions and ensuring greater access to justice for many miscarriage-of-justice applicants.”
Bill C-40 has gone through the House of Commons where the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois voted in favour while all Conservative MPs have voted against. The bill is currently in second reading in the Senate and Virani said he’s looking forward to its “swift passage.”
Innocence Canada chooses who it helps
According to Innocence Canada’s website, 29 people have been exonerated with the help of the non-profit organization since 1993. It only accepts submissions from people convicted of murder who have exhausted all other court appeals, including before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Its lawyers then apply to the Department of Justice for a ministerial reivew of convictions that can take up to two years.
Dalton said even notorious serial killer Robert Pickton once sought the organization’s help.
“He wrote a letter saying he didn’t kill all those women,” Dalton told APTN News in an interview.
Pickton died suddenly in May after being attacked by another inmate at a Quebec prison. The B.C. man was convicted in the deaths of six women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and further suspected in the disappearances and deaths of another 21, who were mostly Indigenous.
Dalton said the organization saved the letter but did not respond to Pickton, preferring to help those who are not guilty.
“Wrongful convictions are a poison, they’re an evil,” said LaForme, who is Anishinabe from Ontario. “The justice system is a human system and we make mistakes.
“Judges are capable of doing that, judges are capable of doing wrong. We have to fix that quicker.”
Johnathan Rosenthal of the Law Society of Ontario said in a speech that wrongful convictions have “devastating consequences.”
He noted it was important for a group like Innocence Canada to offer hope to wrongly convicted people across the country.
The organization invited numerous exonerees, including two Ojibwe men from Manitoba, to attend the anniversary in person.
Allan Woodhouse and Brian Anderson, who were acquitted of a 1973 Winnipeg murder in 2023 with the help of Innocence Canada, were seated in the front row.
They are now suing all three levels of government for compensation, alleging the Crown prosecutor and Winnipeg police officers “colluded” against them.
Anderson, of Pinaymootang First Nation, said he backs the idea of speeding up the review of possible wrongful convictions.
“It takes too long,” he noted in an interview, adding he spent decades writing letters to organizations that help prisoners to call attention to his wrongful conviction.
“I know there’s people inside (prison) like me.”
Another First Nations co-accused in the same murder case, Clarence Woodhouse, is poised to appear in a Winnipeg courtroom Thursday before Chief Court of King’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal, after being granted a new trial by Virani.
Innocence Canada is also handling the case of Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance, two Saulteaux sisters from Saskatchewan who claim they are not guilty of killing a farmer in 1994. They are currently on bail while their conviction is being reviewed by Virani’s department at Justice Canada.
