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Not only the lonely are lonely during COVID-19

Morning File, Wednesday, June 17, 2020

June 17, 2020 By Suzanne Rent 3 Comments

News 1. Dead Wrong on Uncover Tim Bousquet’s podcast Dead Wrong, on CBC’s Uncover, is now live and you can listen to the first couple of episodes here. Everyone at the Examiner knows how hard he’s worked on this podcast for the past several months, but, of course, his work on the Dead Wrong series […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: and All That’s Between, Body Break, Brenda Way, By the Numbers 2020, Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, CBC Podcasts, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, DEAD WRONG, Department of Health and Wellness, Derek Sloan, domestic violence, Dr. Ami Rokach, Dr. Rob Green, elderly, Erin O'Toole, Firearms community, Glen Assoun, gun lobby, gun violence, Hal Johnson, Heal-NS Trauma Research Program, IWK, Joanne McLeod, Leslyn Lewis, Loneliness, Love, mental illness, Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Nova Scotia Healthcare Crisis, Pam Glode-Desrochers, ParticipAction, Paula Minnikin, Peter MacKay, Pictou County, Pitbull, podcast, Racism, Steele Hotels, TSN, Uncover, Waye Mason, York University

The long, bizarre, and costly journey of the knife used to convict Glen Assoun

Morning File, Friday, November 8, 2019

November 8, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 1 Comment

November subscription drive When I learned about the Glen Assoun case in 2014, I sat down and read the 1999 court transcript, something like 10,000 pages. I soon realized that if I was going to properly report on the story, I needed to see that evidence that was presented at trial — there are all […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alex Pareene, Brenda Way, cruise ship numbers, Glen Assoun evidence, Hope for Wildlife, Hope Swinimer, Jennifer Stairs, Martyn Williams, Mary Campbell, Michael MacDonald, Neera Ritcey, Police Chief Dan Kinsella, Rude Press, subscriber supported journalism, Sullivan's Pond geese attack

“No one cares about Assoun, tsk, tsk, tsk”

Morning File, Thursday, August 1, 2019

August 1, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 1 Comment

News 1. “No one cares about Assoun, tsk, tsk, tsk” Dave Moore is the former RCMP officer who suspected that serial killer Michael McGray, and not Glen Assoun, murdered Brenda Way, even though Assoun was convicted of the murder in 1999. Moore repeatedly tried to get his colleagues interested in his investigation, but they were […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Andrea Gunn, Autoport, Brenda Way, cyclist struck John Bracket Drive, Dan Tanner, Dave Moore, Glen Assoun documents, Halifax Regional Police (HRP), Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts, Michael McGray, Olga Milosevich, RCMP Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), Victoria Walton

“No one cares about Assoun, tsk, tsk, tsk”

August 1, 2019 By Tim Bousquet Leave a Comment

Dave Moore is the former RCMP officer who suspected that serial killer Michael McGray, and not Glen Assoun, murdered Brenda Way, even though Assoun was convicted of the murder in 1999. Moore repeatedly tried to get his colleagues interested in his investigation, but they were not interested. In fact, without Moore’s consent, computer files he […]

Filed Under: Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Brenda Way, Dan Tanner, Dave Moore, Glen Assoun documents, Halifax Regional Police (HRP), Michael McGray, RCMP Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB)

“The only reason to go on living is so that I can kill”: A bone-chilling letter from a serial killer

"I committed many murders from 93 to 98," wrote Michael McGray to a prison psychiatrist. Brenda Way was murdered in 1995.

July 27, 2019 By Tim Bousquet Leave a Comment

Among the court documents obtained by the Halifax Examiner in the Glen Assoun wrongful conviction case is a bone-chilling letter written by serial killer Michael McGray to a prison psychiatrist. The letter is dated May 13, 2003. McGray was then housed at the Atlantic Institute in Renous, New Brunswick. He was arrested in 1998 for […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: Brenda Way, Dave Moore, Glen Assoun wrongful conviction, Michael McGray

The Assoun wrongful conviction: How Halifax police, RCMP, and prosecutorial misconduct sent an innocent man to prison and kept him there for nearly 17 years

Part 2: a botched Halifax police investigation, and then an RCMP coverup.

July 14, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 1 Comment

For background on this story, see my 2016 series, “Dead Wrong.” In the late 1990s, Halifax police were dealing with a disturbing number of unsolved murders, and in 1997, an RCMP–Halifax police task force, “Operation Full Course,” was established to look at cold cases. Operation Full Course was primarily focused on Andrew Johnson, a man picked […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: Andrea King, Andrew Johnson, Andy Lathem, Associate Chief Justice O’Neil, Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), Brenda Way, Brent Snook, Cst Steve Maxwell, Cst. D.L. Southern, Dave Moore, Detective Wayne Hurst, Dick Hutchings, Fred Fitzsimmons, Glen Assoun, Halifax Integrated Major Crime Unit, Innocence Canada, Jerome Kennedy, Ken Bradley, Kimberly McAndrew, Kirk Luther, Mark Green, Michael McGray, Operation Full Course, Public Prosecution Service, RCMP Corporal Roger Robbins, Sgt Dave Worrell, Stinchcombe, Tammy McLean, Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS)

The Assoun wrongful conviction: How Halifax police, RCMP, and prosecutorial misconduct sent an innocent man to prison and kept him there for nearly 17 years

July 13, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 4 Comments

For background on this story, see my 2016 series, “Dead Wrong.” Court documents released on Friday reveal how Glen Assoun was wrongfully convicted of the 1995 murder of his former girlfriend Brenda Way. The documents detail two sets of police misconduct. The first set of misconduct was when Halifax police working on the investigation into […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: Brenda Way, Carla Jenkinson, Corey Tuma, Cst. Paul Melon, Dan MacRury, David Carvery, Detective Wayne Hurst, Don Murray, Glen Assoun, Jane Downey, Karla Jinkerson, Mark Green, Michael McGray, police investigator David MacDonald, Ray Mitchell, RCMP Cpl. Dave Roper, Robin Hartrick, Wayne Wise

BREAKING: RCMP destroyed information that would have suggested serial killer Michael McGray murdered Brenda Way; that destroyed information likely would have cleared Glen Assoun in the murder

July 12, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 4 Comments

This is a breaking news story. More information will be published later today. Newly unsealed court documents in the Glen Assoun case reveal that: The actual killer • serial killer Michael McGray was the likely killer of Brenda Way. The RCMP deleted, destroyed, and lost information that linked McGray to the Way murder • RCMP […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: Andy Lathem, Brenda Way, Dick Hutchings, Glen Assoun, Ken Bradley, Mark Green, Michael McGray, RCMP Cst David Moore, RCMP Sergeant Dick Hutchings, Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS)

Horsing around with taxpayers’ money for some connected guy’s get-rich-quick scheme

Morning File, Monday, March 4, 2019

March 4, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 7 Comments

News 1. Glen Assoun In 1999, Glen Assoun was convicted of the murder of his former girlfriend, Brenda Way. He spent 16-and-a- half years in prison and four-and-a-half years under strict conditions of parole. Throughout, he maintained his innocence. The murder of Way and conviction of Assoun is the subject of the first three parts […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: @HRMFireNews, 3015779 Nova Scotia Limited, 3189572 Nova Scotia Limited, 3291735 Nova Scotia Limited, Alberta beef, Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Park, Braided Electric Fence, Brenda Way, Bryson Associates Limited, Bryson Family Trust, Bryson Family Trust 2006, Bubbles, Cody Legge, Conservative Party fundraiser, David Lametti, DEAD WRONG, Diane Kinsman, Divest Dal, EBF Manufacturing Limited (EBF), Education Minister Zack Churchill, Edwin David Bryson, ElectroBraid, ElectroBraid Fence Inc., ElectroBraid Fence Limited, Glen Assoun, Hilary Beaumont, Jody Wilson-Raybould, K.B. Kinsman & Son Farm Limited, Kameron Kinsman, Keith Kinsman, Merlin Court, Mike Smith, Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI), Philip Moscovitch, RCMP Cpl. Andrew Joyce, Supreme Court Justice James Chipman, Taryn Grant, Trailer Park Boys

“A tale of enormous suffering”

After 16 and a half years in prison and four and a half years under strict parole conditions, Glen Assoun is finally exonerated for a crime he did not commit, the tragic murder of Brenda Way. In fact, Halifax police had evidence that would have freed Assoun long ago — evidence that points to Way's actual killer — and in an act of "police misconduct" did not turn that evidence over to Assoun.

March 2, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 6 Comments

Takeaways from this story: • after spending 16 and a half years in prison and four and a half years on strict parole conditions, Glen Assoun is exonerated of the 1995 murder of Brenda Way; • Assoun’s lawyers say Halifax police failed to turn evidence over to Assoun that would have cleared him of the […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Attorney General David Lametti, Brenda Way, Crown Prosecutor Marian Fortune-Stone, Crown Prosecutor Mark Scott, Glen Assoun exonerated, Innocence Canada, James Lockyer, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Justice James Chipman, Phil Campbell, police investigator David MacDonald, Sean MacDonald

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PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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Recent posts

  • RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather is being investigated concerning decision to not alert the public about the mass murderer’s fake police car May 17, 2022
  • City camping: Toronto teaches Halifax another lesson about tents, parks, and homelessness May 17, 2022
  • Halifax police board moving slowly on defunding report recommendations May 16, 2022
  • There’s no meaning in mass murder May 16, 2022
  • Tech issues bedevilled the RCMP response to the mass murders of 2020 May 16, 2022

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