Indigenous man wrongfully convicted of 1973 murder adds his lawsuit to those of two others against city, province, Ottawa By: Erik Pindera Posted: 3:19 PM CST Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025

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This article was published 18/02/2025 (225 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A third man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1973 slaying of a Winnipeg restaurant worker has filed a lawsuit over the miscarriage of justice that saw him spend years behind bars, ahead of anticipated discussions meant to reach financial settlements without going to trial.

Lawyers working on behalf of Clarence Clifford Woodhouse — including James Lockyer of Innocence Canada, a legal organization that advocates on behalf of the wrongfully convicted — filed a statement of claim in Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Feb. 7 naming the provincial government and its attorney general, the City of Winnipeg and the federal attorney general as defendants.

It’s the latest development in a legal odyssey that has spanned more than 50 years and sparked lawsuits from the wrongfully convicted men from Pinaymootang First Nation, who have since been declared factually innocent.

In 1974, Woodhouse was wrongfully convicted of murdering restaurant worker Ting Fong Chan and spent 12 years in prison before he was paroled in 1987. He was formally acquitted in October last year after the federal justice minister tossed his conviction in July.

Three other men, including Woodhouse’s now-deceased brother Russell Woodhouse, were also convicted in the killing. All but his brother have been declared innocent after years of work by Innocence Canada. The organization has asked Ottawa to quash Russell Woodhouse’s conviction so that he, too, can be declared innocent. He died in 2011.

The other two living men, Allan Woodhouse and Brian Anderson, filed their lawsuits against the same defendants in April 2024, after their formal acquittals in July 2023.

All three lawsuits have yet to be decided, but court documents indicate lawyers for the governments and the three men’s lawyers will meet to mediate and discuss monetary settlements later this year. Allan Woodhouse and Anderson have the same lawyers, including Lockyer.

“The plaintiffs and defendants have agreed to participate in mediation in an attempt to settle this matter,” wrote Court of King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne in a Feb. 10 memo.

Those discussions will be confidential.

A judicially assisted dispute resolution is scheduled in July in front of Champagne.

For the purposes of the resolution meeting, Champagne wrote, the city and province don’t deny liability, but the federal government notes it was not involved in the investigation, arrests or prosecutions.

Champagne said the plaintiffs will outline “the pathway to liability for the federal government.”

The judge noted the parties are “alive to the possibility of a looming federal election” and that the ability of the federal government’s lawyers to obtain a mandate to settle could be compromised.

“The plaintiffs and defendants have agreed to participate in mediation in an attempt to settle this matter.”–memo from Court of King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne.

The new lawsuit is seeking general, special and aggravated damages, damages for breaches of Woodhouse’s charter rights, court costs and interest. No monetary figure is included in the court filing.

The court documents allege Winnipeg police officers and George Dangerfield, the Crown attorney who prosecuted the case, colluded to give false evidence during the men’s trial.

Four other murder cases prosecuted by Dangerfield were later struck down as wrongful convictions. The lawsuit accuses Dangerfield of malicious prosecution.

The lawsuit alleges Winnipeg police were negligent and breached their duty by not fairly and thoroughly investigating Woodhouse, instead relying on racist attitudes toward Indigenous people and using violence to elicit false confessions.

Police also failed to look into their alibis — he was home asleep — or independently review the case.

The City of Winnipeg, the lawsuit claims, failed to properly train and supervise the police.

The false confessions were the only evidence Dangerfield put before the jury that convicted them. He’s accused of deliberate improper conduct in his presentation of false evidence and misleading comments in court.

It’s alleged Dangerfield neglected other witness statements and evidence.

The lawsuits say the Manitoba government and attorney general are liable for the prosecutor’s actions, while the federal government failed to ensure Woodhouse was treated fairly as a First Nations man in the justice system and to protect his rights.

The provincial government said in court filings earlier this year it is not responsible for the wrongful convictions because its prosecutors didn’t know Winnipeg police officers had obtained false confessions.

Lawyers for the city and the federal governments also earlier denied liability in separate statements of defence.

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 were determined to be fabricated confessions. Despite all four having only a poor grasp of English, police produced a full confession written in English.

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

erik.pindera@freepress..mb.ca