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WINNIPEG – A Manitoba man convicted of murder 50 years ago has been acquitted.
Clarence Woodhouse was convicted in 1974 of fatally beating and stabbing a restaurant worker in the town of Winnipeg.
He was paroled in 1983 and filed last year for a ministerial review of his conviction.
His lawyers argued that a confession made by Woodhouse was supposed to be in fluent English, even though he spoke mostly Saulteaux.
The federal justice minister ordered a new trial earlier this year, and the Crown acknowledged in a Winnipeg court on Thursday that the case was a miscarriage of justice.
Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench said systemic discrimination affected the police investigation and prosecution of the case.
The convictions of two other men convicted in the killing, Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse, were quashed last year after a new trial was ordered and the Crown sought an acquittal.
Anderson served almost 11 years and was granted full parole in 1987. Allan Woodhouse served 23 years.
A fourth person, Russell Woodhouse, was also found guilty. He died in 2011.
James Lockyer, a lawyer and director with Innocence Canada, has said that manslaughter convictions involving aboriginal people over the past five decades in Manitoba need to be examined.
Jerome Kennedy, another lawyer with the group, said outside court Thursday that Innocence Canada is also working on cases involving Indigenous men​​​​​​​​in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario that are moving toward an application for a review by the federal justice minister
He said he would like to see a national effort to take away wrongful convictions.
“There appears to be a deeper systemic issue that requires a targeted approach,” Kennedy said.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on October 3, 2024.
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