Indigenous man asks for bail pending minister’s decision on review of 1974 conviction – National Post
Oct 23, 2023
WINNIPEG — An Indigenous man found guilty of murder in 1974 will ask a judge in a Winnipeg courtroom today to grant him bail pending a decision from the federal justice minister to quash his conviction.
Innocence Canada, a non-profit that advocates for people wrongly convicted of a crime, says it filed an application last month with Justice Minister Arif Virani for a ministerial review of Clarence Woodhouse’s conviction in the death of Ting Fong Chan.
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In July, Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Court of King’s Bench acquitted Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse in the death of Chan, a restaurant worker who was stabbed to death in 1973 near a downtown construction site.
Joyal said at the time that systemic and individual racial discrimination within the justice system played a part in the wrongful conviction of both men.
Innocence Canada maintains the prosecution’s case at Clarence Woodhouse’s trial depended on a confession that he was supposed to have made in fluent English, despite Saulteaux being the language he spoke.
