BACKGROUND: CBC Podcast: TRANSCRIPT: CBC TRANSCRIPT: 'DEAD WRONG - EP. 8: January 26, 2021: "TIM BOUSQUET: Dave McDonald, the lead investigator, retired soon after this case. The chief of police, Frank Beasley, has also retired. Halifax police officer Ken Bradley still works as a cop. I would argue there should be a review of Halifax police behaviour throughout Glen's case. But that seems unlikely, if only because the department is so politically connected. The premier of Nova Scotia is Stephen McNeil, a man who comes from a family steeped in policing. The Current deputy chief of police in Halifax is Robin McNeill, the premier's brother. A long serving former deputy, was Chris McNeill. Another brother of the premier. There are at least six cops in the department with a direct family relationship. So I question whether the premier will seriously investigate police handling of Glen's case. I have reached out numerous times to Premier McNeill. He won't talk about it. Then there's the RCMP. Destruction of Dave Moore's evidence in the [unintelligible] class here. Again, here's Glen's lawyer, Phil Campbell. PHIL CAMPBELL: (Now Mr. Justice Phil Campbell): I strongly believe that we have not had a coherent, logical or even honest account of what happened with the evidence, destruction and the nondisclosure regarding it, not only from a public standpoint or even a criminal investigative standpoint. Should we find out about this? We should find out about it from a simple managerial standpoint. How can RCMP senior management not want to know how the things that happened in this case came to be? If you were running any kind of enterprise, private or public, and something went wrong on this scale, you would have to find out how it happened. And that hasn't taken place here.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY" “I’ll believe it when I see it. It feels like false hopes and nothing ever happens,” she said."
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STORY: "Daughter of wrongfully convicted N.S. man says grief grows without probe of police," by Canadian Press reporter Michael Tutton, published by The Toronto Star, on May 26, 2025.
SUB-HEADING: "The daughter of a wrongfully convicted Nova Scotia man says burying her father next month will renew her intense grief — especially if a criminal investigation into his case remains stalled.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Glen Assoun is embraced by his daughter Amanda Huckle at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax on Friday, March 1, 2019. Assoun, who died in June 2023 at age 67, was acquitted in March 2019 of the 1995 killing of his ex-girlfriend, Brenda Lee Anne Way, after spending almost 17 years in prison.
GIST: "The daughter of a wrongfully convicted Nova Scotia man says burying her father next month will renew her intense grief — especially if a criminal investigation into his case remains stalled.
Amanda Huckle says when her father Glen Assoun died about two years ago, she felt the accumulated injustice of the almost 17 years he spent in a federal prison for a crime he was found not guilty of committing.
“As his life left his body, it’s like all his pain just sat in the palm of our hands and we’re left to carry this,” she said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
In March 2019, a Nova Scotia court acquitted Assoun in the 1995 killing of his ex-girlfriend, Brenda Lee Way. During the years in prison and the five years living under strict bail conditions, Assoun developed debilitating heart illnesses and suffered from mental illnesses. He only received a compensation settlement from the federal and provincial governments about two years before he died at the age of 67.
Huckle said the family is frustrated that a police oversight body hasn’t started a formal probe into whether RCMP officers broke the law when they destroyed evidence relevant to Assoun’s case.
She said it would help if the investigation is launched before the Christian interment ceremony takes place in June. “Not having this investigation occurring intensifies the grief because we feel this injustice ... we’re feeling it for him,” she said.
The daughter said she appreciates recent comments from Erin Nauss, the director of Nova Scotia’s police oversight body — the Serious Incident Response Team — that the case is “a priority” and that the agency hopes to make an announcement in the “near future.”
However, she said she’s heard similar comments repeatedly over the past five years, since a former Liberal cabinet minister first asked in the fall of 2020 that the police oversight agency carry out a probe of potential criminal wrongdoing involving the RCMP and Halifax police.
“I’ll believe it when I see it. It feels like false hopes and nothing ever happens,” she said.
In March 2021, the Nova Scotia police watchdog announced that to ensure transparency, its counterpart in British Columbia had agreed to take the case. But on Nov. 30, 2023, Nova Scotia’s agency announced the B.C. watchdog had dropped the case due to a heavy workload. Since then, Nauss has reached out to multiple police oversight bodies and has struggled to find one that will take the case.
Recently, Nauss indicated that she is in talks with another provincial oversight body to take over the investigation. “This is an important matter and one I am taking seriously,” she wrote in an email Thursday. “I empathize with the concerns mentioned and understand the time that has passed is frustrating.”
Premier Tim Houston, asked Tuesday if he would involve his office in helping arrange the probe, said he’ll await the decision of another province considering taking it on. “I will respect the decision of the (other provincial) government on that situation. I know they’re focused on that and so I’ll respect that decision,” he said.
Huckle, who is now a police officer experienced in investigations, said she’s concerned about the passage of time, as it can reduce the chance to collect evidence, and memories of potential witnesses can fade. “The older people get we always have the risk that they won’t still be alive to provide evidence or even be held accountable,” she said.
The continued delays in having an investigation start also has the effect of constantly reopening old wounds, she said.
While the wider public may be starting to forget about Assoun’s wrongful conviction, the matter remains fresh for Huckle. “I think about this every single day .... We don’t have answers. We want answers. Why did this happen to my Dad? Why?” she said.
Sean MacDonald, Assoun’s former lawyer, has said if a criminal probe into police actions in Assoun’s case went forward it would be a watershed moment, as it would raise the bar for police conduct and create a level of accountability that hasn’t existed in prior wrongful convictions.
The issue of police accountability in wrongful convictions remains front and centre, including in the case of Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie. The two men were cleared 2023 in a 1983 murder in Saint John, N.B., after serving lengthy prison terms. In March, the Saint John Police Force released a summary of an independent review which found that tunnel vision occurred in the case, but the police chief said the officers involved wouldn’t face consequences as there was no malicious intent.
Huckle said if the announcement doesn’t come before her father’s burial ceremony, she won’t give up. The next milestone will be this September, five years after the province asked the Serious Incident Response Team to take on the case.
“I would hope that... someone has taken on this investigation by then. Do I have faith that will happen? No, I don’t,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2025.
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
———————————————————————————————
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
