Canada’s justice minister has initiated a new appeal in the case of a First Nations man who was convicted in the killing of a Winnipeg man over 50 years ago. The convicted individual, Russell Woodhouse, passed away in 2011 due to cancer. He was one of four young men from Pinaymootang First Nation in Manitoba who were convicted in the 1973 murder of Ting Fong Chan, a 40-year-old father of two.
Woodhouse’s post-mortem conviction review revealed potential grounds for a miscarriage of justice in his 1974 conviction for manslaughter in Chan’s death. This review led to a unique decision under the Criminal Code, providing a remedy for someone who is deceased.
While Woodhouse was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, his co-accused, Brian Anderson, Allan Woodhouse, and Clarence Woodhouse (Russell’s brother), who were initially convicted of murder, have since been exonerated and are pursuing compensation for their wrongful convictions from all levels of government.
Following Woodhouse’s passing, his family continued to seek exoneration on his behalf. An application for a conviction review was submitted by his sister, Linda Anderson, with support from Innocence Canada in 2023.
False confessions, police assaults
The four men, aged between 17 and 21 at the time, were apprehended by the police based on eyewitness accounts implicating Indigenous individuals in Chan’s murder. They were convicted primarily on confessions obtained in English, despite some of them having limited English proficiency and alleging coercion and physical assault by the officers.
The case was prosecuted by George Dangerfield, who was involved in other wrongful conviction cases. Although doubts about the men’s innocence were raised early on, it took several years before Anderson and the Woodhouse brothers were exonerated.
During Clarence Woodhouse’s exoneration, Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal publicly apologized, acknowledging the impact of racism on the case from the police investigation to the trial proceedings.
The justice minister’s decision to order a new appeal does not determine Woodhouse’s guilt or innocence but allows for the case to be reconsidered by the courts. This move grants the family an opportunity to challenge his conviction, as stated in the department’s news release.
In 2024, the federal government established the independent Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission in Winnipeg to address similar cases. Until the commission is operational, the justice minister retains the authority to investigate cases like Woodhouse’s, emphasizing the government’s commitment to rectifying historical injustices.