Third man declared innocent in 1973 slaying

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This article was published 04/10/2024 (340 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — Clarence Woodhouse walked out of court a free and innocent man for the first time in 50 years on Thursday.

In 1974, then in his early 20s, the Saulteaux man was wrongfully convicted of murdering restaurant worker Ting Fong Chan. Three other men, including his now-deceased brother, were also convicted. All but his brother, whose case remains under review, have also been declared innocent.

“You were wrongfully convicted,” Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal told Woodhouse. “You deserve an acquittal and, as a result of the proceeding today, you will receive an acquittal.”

Asked if he had anything to say, Woodhouse, speaking just above a whisper with an Anishinaabemowin translator by his side, said: “After all these years … thank you.”

He served 12 years in prison and was released on parole in 1987.

Court heard that the case against Woodhouse and the three others convicted involved systemic racism, police brutality and forced and false confessions.

“I’m sorry on behalf of the entire administration of justice and the institution I lead and the system in which I’m proud to work,” Joyal told Woodhouse. He said every court should be looking at “judicial reconciliation” where matters of racism are concerned.

Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani quashed Woodhouse’s conviction in July.

Then-federal justice minister David Lametti did the same with the convictions of Allan (A.J.) Woodhouse and Brian Anderson — two of the other men convicted in Chan’s slaying — in June 2023 and returned their cases to Manitoba. Both men were acquitted of the charges in a hearing before Joyal in July.

Clarence’s brother, Russell Woodhouse, died in 2011. Innocence Canada — a non-profit organization that identifies and advocates for the wrongfully convicted — has asked Ottawa to posthumously quash Russell’s conviction so that he, too, can be declared innocent.

Lawyers for Innocence Canada, representing Clarence Woodhouse, spoke in court, calling for a federal-provincial task force to investigate matters of systemic racism and potential wrongful convictions of Indigenous people.

“We can’t give Brian and Allan and Clarence and Russell back the days and years that they have lost, but by recognizing what’s happened to them, the failures of the system, if we could then lead to improvements in the system, then they have not suffered for nothing,” lawyer Jerome Kennedy told court.

“It is the right thing to do.”

Outside court, Woodhouse, 72, said he was looking forward to relaxing and spending time with his family. He currently lives with his son and five grandchildren in Winnipeg but is originally from Pinaymootang (Fairford) First Nation, located 250 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

His sister, Linda Anderson, said it has felt like a “block” has been hanging around her family for the last 50 years.

“I’m just happy that it’s finally over now,” she said.

Of her late brother, Anderson said: “He must be happy from above.”

Speaking to reporters, Innocence Canada lawyer James Lockyer said a “red flag” in this wrongful conviction case was the involvement of former Crown attorney George Dangerfield, who was the lead prosecutor in the four high-profile wrongful murder convictions of Thomas Sophonow, James Driskell, Kyle Unger and Frank Ostrowski.

Several other potential wrongful convictions involving Dangerfield-prosecuted cases are working their way through the justice system.

Woodhouse, his family and lawyers met with Premier Wab Kinew Thursday afternoon.

“On a personal level, I’m sorry,” Kinew told Woodhouse.

Asked about Innocence Canada’s call for a federal-provincial task force to examine systemic racism, Kinew said he hadn’t yet discussed it.

“Manitoba, going back to the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry, has been seeking to grapple with these issues going back decades,” he said, referring to the public inquiry commissioned by the province in 1988 to look into the relationship between Indigenous people and the justice system.

“In some areas there has been progress, in other areas there’s a lot more work to do.”

The premier also spoke about the case at an unrelated news conference that morning, saying the province is taking steps to ensure some form of redress will be offered.

“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.”

In the legislative chamber, representatives of all three parties formally apologized to Woodhouse, who sat in the public gallery with his family and lawyers.

“Clarence, the system failed you,” said Justice Minister Matt Wiebe. “It punished you for a crime you did not commit and it stole from you the most precious gift of all — your time.”

All MLAs stood to applaud Woodhouse.

Anderson and Allan Woodhouse filed a lawsuit against the City of Winnipeg, the province and the federal government earlier this year, claiming unspecified compensation. Anderson served 10 years in prison, Allan Woodhouse served 23.

Chan, a 40-year-old father of two, was beaten and stabbed while walking home from his job as a chef on July 17, 1973.

The four men were charged based on questionable eyewitness testimony and what later emerged to be fabricated confessions. Despite all four having only a rudimentary grasp of English, police produced a full confession in English and ignored alibi evidence.

While the men testified that police beat them during interviews, a judge refused to believe them.

» Winnipeg Free Press