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Notable Wrongful Convictions in Canada
Canadians like to think our justice system is one of the best in the world. But ask the dozens of people prosecuted and imprisoned for serious crimes they didn't commit, and you're likely to get a different view, especially from those accused of murder. In recent decades, more than 20 Canadians have been locked up — much of their lives destroyed — for murders they had nothing to do with. Their wrongful convictions are a stain on our history, while their subsequent exonerations give cause for hope. Here are six of their stories. (See also Wrongful Convictions in Canada.)
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Thelma Chalifoux
Thelma Julia Chalifoux, senator, entrepreneur, activist (born 8 February 1929 in Calgary, AB; died 22 September 2017 in St. Albert, AB). Chalifoux was the first Métis woman appointed to the Senate of Canada. As a senator, she was concerned with a range of issues, including Métis housing, drug company relations with the federal government, and environmental legislation. An ardent advocate for women’s and Indigenous rights, Chalifoux was involved in organizations such as the Aboriginal Women’s Business Development Corporation and the Métis Women’s Council. She was also known for her work in the protection of Métis culture, having served in the Alberta Métis Senate and Michif Cultural and Métis Resource Institute (now Michif Cultural Connections).
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Thomas D'Arcy McGee
Thomas D’Arcy McGee, journalist, politician, poet (born 13 April 1825 in Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland; died 7 April 1868 in Ottawa, ON). Thomas D’Arcy McGee was dedicated to the cause of Irish national liberation. This pushed him towards revolutionary anti-British doctrine in his early years. However, he matured to become a staunch defender of British constitutional monarchy and a Father of Confederation. He was an advocate for minority rights at a time when the politics of ethnic and religious identity were intensely fraught. He was an incredibly eloquent public speaker and a passionate advocate for Canadian interests. However, his political transformation ultimately damaged his popularity with Irish nationalists, particularly the Fenians. He was assassinated in 1868.
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Tom Mulcair
Thomas Joseph “Tom” Mulcair, PC, Leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) 2012–17, Leader of the Opposition 2012–15, provincial Cabinet minister, lawyer, university professor, political commentator, author (born 24 October 1954 in Ottawa, ON). Mulcair played a key role in building support for the NDP in Quebec during the 2011 federal election, after which the party, under leader Jack Layton, became the official opposition. Four years later, Mulcair led the party to a disappointing third-place finish in the 2015 federal election. He remained leader of the NDP until he was replaced by Jagmeet Singh in 2017. The following year, Mulcair resigned his seat in the House of Commons and became a visiting professor at Université de Montréal. He also became a political commentator on several radio and TV networks in 2018.
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Tilly Rolston
Tilly Jean Rolston, Canadian politician (born 23 February 1887 in Vancouver, BC; died 12 October 1953 in Vancouver, BC). Rolston was best known for her service as education minister for the province of British Columbia in the Social Credit government of W.A.C. Bennett in the early 1950s. She has the distinction of being the second woman cabinet minister elected in that province, but the first with a portfolio in all of Canada. Rolston was instrumental in developing a new financing formula for the funding of BC’s public schools, and also instituted the province’s first sex education curriculum. She is noted for being the first woman in British Columbia to receive a state funeral upon her death.
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Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow
Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow was a document that set out land claim grievances in Yukon and recommended an approach to settlement. The Council of Yukon Indians, the organization that authored the document, presented it to then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in Ottawa on 14 February 1973. The document told the story of traditional Indigenous ways in the territory. It chronicles ways in which life changed with the arrival of the “Whiteman.” It identifies some of the contemporary challenges the local First Nations faced at the time. Additionally, it proposes solutions and offers a roadmap forward. Finally, it sets out a vision for the future that sees control and authority for decision-making returned to the First Nations of the territory. Fifty years later, it continues to be a guiding force for First Nation and non-First Nation Yukoners. It promotes “walking together down the same road.” In other words, it suggests participating equitably as partners in the fabric and governance of Yukon society.
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Tommy Douglas
Thomas "Tommy" Clement Douglas, CC, premier of Saskatchewan, first leader of the New Democratic Party, Baptist minister and politician (born 20 October 1904 in Falkirk, Scotland; died 24 February 1986 in Ottawa, Ontario). Tommy Douglas led the first socialist government elected in Canada and is recognized as the father of universal health care in Canada. He also helped establish democratic socialism in mainstream Canadian politics.
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Tommy Douglas and Eugenics
Tommy Douglas — the father of socialized medicine in Canada and one of the country’s most beloved figures — once supported eugenic policies. In 1933, he received a Master of Arts in sociology from McMaster University for his thesis, “The Problems of the Subnormal Family.” In the thesis, Douglas recommended several eugenic policies, including the sterilization of “mental defectives and those incurably diseased.” His ideas were not unique, as two Canadian provinces (and 32 American states) passed sexual-sterilization legislation in the 1920s and 1930s. However, by the time Douglas became premier of Saskatchewan in 1944, he had abandoned his support for eugenic policies. When Douglas received two reports that recommended legalizing sexual sterilization in the province, he rejected the idea.
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Tony Whitford
Anthony (Tony) Wilfred James Whitford, ONWT, Commissioner of Northwest Territories 2005-2010, politician (born 11 June 1941 in Fort Smith, NWT; died 16 September 2024 in Yellowknife, NWT). Throughout his life, Tony Whitford held multiple political positions, including on the town council of Fort Smith and in the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly. In 2005, Whitford was named commissioner of the Northwest Territories.
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Toronto Feature: George Brown
This article is from our Toronto Feature series. Features from past programs are not updated.
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Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Plain-Language Summary)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) started working in 2008. It was a result of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA). The IRSSA recognized the suffering and trauma experienced by Indigenous students at residential schools. It also provided financial compensation (money) to the students. The TRC performed many tasks. It created a national research centre. It collected documents from churches and government. It held events where students told their stories. Also, it did research about residential schools and issued a final report. (See also Reconciliation in Canada.)
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Editorial
Vancouver Feature: The Milkshake Murder
The following article is a feature from our Vancouver Feature series. Past features are not updated. The Bowmac sign on Broadway was the largest freestanding electric sign in the world. It could be seen all the way from Burnaby, miles away. For a short while in 1965 it also helped a promoter hide the slow murder of his wife by arsenic-laced milkshakes.
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Queen Victoria
Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India (born 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace, London; died 22 January 1901 at Osborne House, Isle of Wight).
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Viola Desmond
Viola Irene Desmond (née Davis), businesswoman, civil rights activist (born 6 July 1914 in Halifax, NS; died 7 February 1965 in New York, NY). Viola Desmond built a career and business as a beautician and was a mentor to young Black women in Nova Scotia through her Desmond School of Beauty Culture. In 1946, Viola Desmond challenged racial discrimination when she refused to leave the segregated Whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Viola Desmond was arrested, jailed overnight and convicted without legal representation for an obscure tax offence as a result. Despite the efforts of the Nova Scotian Black community to assist her appeal, Viola Desmond was unable to remove the charges against her and went unpardoned in her lifetime. Desmond’s courageous refusal to accept an act of racial discrimination provided inspiration to later generations of Black persons in Nova Scotia and in the rest of Canada. In 2010, Lieutenant-Governor Mayann Francis issued Desmond a free pardon. In December 2016, the Bank of Canada announced that Viola Desmond would be the first Canadian woman to be featured by herself on the face of a banknote — the $10 note released on 19 November 2018. Viola Desmond was named a National Historic Person by the Canadian government in 2018.
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Viola Léger
Viola P. Léger, OC, ONB, senator, actor, director, teacher (born 29 June 1930 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts; died 28 January 2023 in Dieppe, NB). Viola Léger served in the Senate from 2001 to 2005. She is perhaps best known for her career as an actor and for her performance as La Sagouine in Antonine Maillet’s play of the same name. Léger performed the role 3,000 times between 1971 and 2016. Widely considered the greatest Acadian actress of all time, she was also a prominent advocate and global ambassador for Acadian people and Acadian culture. She was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France and a Member of the Ordre des Francophones d’Amérique. She also received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in theatre.
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