Bill C-40 was designed to speed up conviction review process.
The wrongful conviction committee was a topic of conversation at the 10th anniversary gala of Innocence Canada. Photo: Kathleen Martens/APTN.
APTN News: 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 will be created before the next federal election.
Ron Dalton, president of Innocence Canada, says a publicly funded Criminal Case 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 at an event in Toronto 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 like Innocence Canada have been lobbying for an independent commission funded by the government to make it faster and easier for the wrongfully convicted 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 to gather input into Bill C-40, which is now before the Senate.
“I don’t even know if it’s going to pass,” LaForme said in a speech at the Toronto event. “An election’s coming up and I imagine that bill will die.”
Justice Minister Arif Virani 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,” said Virani in the 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, 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 voted against it. 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 the organization’s website, 29 people have been exonerated with the help of Innocence Canada since 1993. It only accepts submissions from people convicted of murder who have exhausted all 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 sought the organization’s help.
“He wrote a letter saying he didn’t kill all those women,” Dalton said in an interview.
Pickton died in May after being attacked by another inmate in a Quebec prison. He 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,” LaForme, who is Anishinabe, told the gathering. “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 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.
Allan Woodhouse and Brian Anderson, who were convicted of a Winnipeg murder in 1974, were acquitted in 2023 with the help of Innocence Canada lawyers.
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, backs the idea of speeding up the review of possible wrongful convictions.
“It takes too long,” he said in an interview, noting he spent decades writing letters to organizations that help prisoners to call attention to his wrongful conviction.
“I know there’s people inside like me.”
Anderson and Allan Woodhouse were acquitted and exonerated in 2023. Another co-accused in their case, Clarence Woodhouse, has been granted a new trial and is scheduled to appear in a Winnipeg courtroom Thursday before Chief Justice Glenn Joyal.
Innocence Canada is also working on the case of Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance, 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 Justice Canada.