Clarence Woodhouse exonerated in 1973 Winnipeg killing
Clarence Woodhouse, who was sent to prison 50 years ago for the murder of a Winnipeg man, has been exonerated.
Woodhouse, now in his 70s, has always proclaimed his innocence, but no one listened to him, Innocence Canada said in a news release in October 2023, when Woodhouse was granted bail during a review of his conviction.
Woodhouse, Allan Woodhouse and Brian Anderson were tried and convicted in 1974 of murdering Ting Fong Chan.
Chan, a 40-year-old chef at the Beachcomber restaurant and a father of two, was beaten and stabbed to death near a downtown construction site on July 17, 1973.
All three First Nations men were sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 10 years.
Anderson and Allan Woodhouse were acquitted in July 2023, after being released on parole in 1990 and 1987, respectively.
Clarence Woodhouse was granted parole in 1983 and filed last year for a ministerial review of his conviction. His lawyers at the time argued a confession he supposedly made was in fluent English, although he primarily spoke Saulteaux.
Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg said on Thursday that systemic discrimination affected the police investigation and the prosecution of the case.
“You were wrongfully convicted. You were innocent,” Joyal told Woodhouse, calling the original conviction a “miscarriage of justice.”
That same phrase was used in July 2024, when Justice Minister Arif Virani ordered a new trial for Woodhouse. A news release from Virani’s office at the time said there were reasonable grounds to conclude a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.
“This is the result of the identification of new information that was not before the courts at the time of Mr. Woodhouse’s trial or appeal,” the news release said. “The minister’s decision to order a new trial is not a decision about the guilt or innocence of the applicant. It is a decision to return the matter to the courts where the relevant legal issues may be determined according to the law.”
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who first heard about the exoneration while attending an unrelated news conference on Thursday, said he would love to meet and speak with Woodhouse.
“It’s super sad when you hear about somebody’s freedom being taken away from them and you hear about the justice system, that is supposed to be there to keep people safe, facing a challenging moment like this,” he said.
“I can tell you that the provincial government has already taken steps to ensure that we offer some form of redress. We’ll never be able to give back the past that was robbed of this person and the others in a similar situation, but given what we know now, we can take steps to do right.”
Clarence Woodhouse’s brother, Russell, was also found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years behind bars in connection with Chan’s killing.
He died in 2011, but Innocence Canada has filed a posthumous application to have his conviction reviewed.
James Lockyer, a lawyer and director with Innocence Canada, has said there needs to be an examination of homicide convictions involving Indigenous people over the last five decades in Manitoba.
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 a request for a review by the federal justice minister
He’d like to see a national effort to take on wrongful convictions.
“There appears to be a deeper systemic issue that requires a targeted approach,” Kennedy said.
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