PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "After Assoun’s exoneration, the Halifax Examiner, the CBC, and the Canadian Press filed an application with the court to get the documentation of that police wrongdoing made public. However, the Halifax police opposed our application, first obtaining intervener status in the case and then arguing in court that none of the police documents related to the Brenda Way murder should be released — that is, the details of the police wrongdoing would be sealed for 99 years, effectively covering up the cover up. Thankfully, the media won our case last Monday when Justice James Chipman indicated he would rule in our favour this Friday, and on that day all the documentation will become public. But let’s consider the police who may have been involved in this sequence of events."
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STORY: "The Assoun wrongful conviction" The McNeil connection," by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, published by The Halifax Examiner on July 8 2019.
GIST: "I’m waiting anxiously to learn more details about Glen Assoun’s wrongful conviction for the murder of Brenda Way, and we’ll get full documentation on Friday. The conviction will no doubt prove to be a fascinating story all in itself. But beyond that, we’ll also learn Friday about the cover up of the wrongful conviction — that is, the police malfeasance in the case. Here’s what we know already. A very good lawyer from Newfoundland, a guy by the name of Jerome Kennedy, came to Halifax in 2006 to represent Assoun on his appeal. (Kennedy had previously championed another man, Ron Dalton, who had been wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife, and had gotten Dalton exonerated.) Assoun had no money, and was generally despised, but Kennedy saw merit in Assoun’s claims of innocence, so represented him. Kennedy hired an investigator, a retired RCMP investigator turned private investigator named Fred Fitzsimmons, and Fitzsimmons dug up lots and lots of information that called into question Assoun’s conviction. I’m not sure what or how it happened, but during the course of the appeal, the information Fitzsimmons dug up was run by Halifax police investigators, who did their own follow-up. I have no reason to believe the police investigators slacked on this, and indeed, we now know they took it further: they identified the person who actually killed Brenda Way. That is, they knew that Glen Assoun was in fact innocent of the crime. However [wait a second on this], that information was not conveyed to Fitzsimmons, Kennedy, Assoun, or anyone else. Kennedy lost the appeal, and Assoun rotted in prison for another eight years.
Kennedy was so upset about the loss that he wrote a memo to the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted, an organization that now goes by the name Innocence Canada. I described what happened next in Part 3 of the Dead Wrong series:
The [appellant court] judges ruled against Kennedy and refused to send Glen’s case back to trial. Kennedy then decided to leave his law practice and get into politics. “But before he went into politics, Jerome was diligent enough to put together a full memo on Glen’s case,” Sean MacDonald told me. “And that memo sat in AIDWYC, in a box. And then one day I just happened to be at the office, and I picked it up and started leafing through it sort of casually at first, and as I read every paragraph, paragraph after paragraph, it was sort of like a Grisham turn-pager. So I took it, and sunk my teeth in it — that was nine years ago. I’m so happy Jerome wrote that memo, because that’s what grabbed me.”Sean MacDonald was born and raised in Halifax, became a Bay Street lawyer, and then ditched that career to concentrate mostly on wrongful conviction cases. MacDonald championed Assoun’s case, and Assoun would not now be free were it not for MacDonald. Fast forward to March 2019, and Assoun was finally fully exonerated. Thanks to statements made in court by MacDonald’s Innocence Canada colleague, Phil Campbell, we learned about the police wrongdoing I mentioned above. After Assoun’s exoneration, the Halifax Examiner, the CBC, and the Canadian Press filed an application with the court to get the documentation of that police wrongdoing made public. However, the Halifax police opposed our application, first obtaining intervener status in the case and then arguing in court that none of the police documents related to the Brenda Way murder should be released — that is, the details of the police wrongdoing would be sealed for 99 years, effectively covering up the cover up. Thankfully, the media won our case last Monday when Justice James Chipman indicated he would rule in our favour this Friday, and on that day all the documentation will become public. But let’s consider the police who may have been involved in this sequence of events. Back in 2006, the deputy chief of police in charge of investigations was Chris McNeil. I can’t say with certainty that Chris McNeil knew about the information that would have exonerated Assoun, but it seems unlikely that such explosive information would not have been sent up the chain of command — this was, after all, information that would have demonstrated that the department’s investigation of the Brenda Way murder went terribly awry and resulted in the wrongful conviction of Assoun. Would low-level police investigators have taken it upon themselves to squelch that information and refuse to turn it over to Kennedy? Perhaps. Or perhaps someone else — then-chief Frank Beazley, for instance — made the final call. Still, while I can’t now prove it, I suspect that Chris McNeil was involved in that decision. Now let’s return to the last few months. As I reported Thursday, I asked the city’s communication department how the decision was made to oppose the media organizations’ application to unseal the court file in the Assoun case. I was told:
The decision to intervene was made by Halifax Regional Police, in consultation with our legal services team, ultimately all under the authority of the CAO.So that decision was made soon after Assoun’s March 2 exoneration. The man who probably initiated but definitely approved the court action aimed at frustrating the media’s move to unseal the court records was then-acting Chief of Police Robin McNeil. Chris McNeil and Robin McNeil are brothers. And there’s a third brother: Premier Stephen McNeil. One dot, two dots, three dots…. hmmm, let’s draw a line. Sure, it’s a small province, and the McNeil family is dominant in the Halifax police force. Maybe the dots don’t necessarily connect. But once in the past a McNeil brother was accused of improperly trying to cover up alleged wrongdoing by another McNeil brother. That was when Chris McNeil was accused of perjury involving an investigation into his younger brother Anthony’s involvement in a lie-detector firm that had been given a no-bid contract by the Halifax Fire Department. Ultimately, Chris McNeil was not charged, and he soon after retired from the force.
I tried at the time to attend the Police Review Board’s hearing for Chris McNeil, but I wasn’t allowed in. So I can’t speak further to the allegations in that case."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/the-assoun-wrongful-conviction-the-mcneil-connection/#News
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
