A member of the First Nations community who was found guilty in the homicide of a Winnipeg resident over five decades ago is now closer to posthumous exoneration after Canada’s justice minister initiated a new appeal in the case. Russell Woodhouse, who passed away in 2011 due to cancer, was one of four young individuals from Pinaymootang First Nation in Manitoba convicted in the 1973 murder of Ting Fong Chan, a 40-year-old father of two. The incident occurred as Chan was heading home after work and was fatally stabbed and beaten near a construction site in downtown Winnipeg.
The decision to review Woodhouse’s conviction posthumously marks a significant development in the Canadian justice system. The Justice Department’s Criminal Conviction Review Group, overseen by Justice Minister Sean Fraser, conducted a thorough examination and found “reasonable grounds to believe that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in Mr. Woodhouse’s 1974 conviction,” according to a departmental statement.
Woodhouse was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with Chan’s death following a trial and was sentenced to a decade in prison. His co-accused, Brian Anderson, Allan Woodhouse, and Clarence Woodhouse (Russell’s brother), were convicted of murder. Subsequently, all three have been exonerated and are now pursuing compensation from various levels of government for their wrongful convictions.
Following Woodhouse’s demise, his family continued to advocate for his exoneration, with his sister Linda Anderson submitting an application for a review of his conviction with support from Innocence Canada in 2023. The case involved false confessions and allegations of police misconduct, as the four men, aged between 17 and 21 at the time, were implicated primarily based on coerced confessions obtained in English, a language some of them did not speak fluently. The prosecution was led by George Dangerfield, who was also involved in other wrongful conviction cases.
Despite early doubts about the men’s guilt, it took several years before Brian Anderson, Allan Woodhouse, and Clarence Woodhouse were officially exonerated. During Clarence’s exoneration, Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal publicly apologized for the racial bias that tainted the investigation and trial proceedings. While the new appeal ordered by Justice Minister Fraser does not determine Woodhouse’s innocence, it provides an opportunity for his family to challenge his conviction based on new evidence, as stated in the department’s announcement.
Looking forward, the establishment of the independent Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission in Winnipeg in 2024 aims to address similar cases. In the interim, the justice minister retains the authority to review cases like Woodhouse’s to rectify historical injustices and ensure public trust in the justice system, as emphasized by Fraser in a recent statement.