News 1. Glen Assoun deserves immediate compensation From the court documents released Friday related to the Assoun case, I’ve come to understand three broad themes: Shoddy police investigation First, the police investigation into Brenda Way’s murder was shoddy, in that potential suspects were not properly investigated. These suspects include Avery Greenough, a violent man with […]
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.
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 […]
The Assoun wrongful conviction: the McNeil connection
Morning File, Monday, July 8, 2019
News 1. Northern Pulp Mill’s missing environmental data “If Premier Stephen McNeil is wavering on the Northern Pulp / Paper Excellence file, entertaining notions on amending the Boat Harbour Act so that effluent from the Pictou County pulp mill can continue to flow into the lagoon after January 31, 2020, he would do well to […]
The Halifax police department has a crisis of legitimacy
Morning File, Monday, June 17, 2019
News 1. The Halifax police department has a crisis of legitimacy Is there an unusually large number of Halifax cops who are crooks? I suspect there is an institutional culture that looks the other way and avoids confronting official misconduct, and that institutional culture therefore actually encourages even more misconduct. But of course it’s a […]
Documenting police “malfeasance” in Glen Assoun’s wrongful conviction
Morning File, Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Yesterday, Glen Assoun’s lawyer Phil Campbell filed a brief with the Supreme Court in response to a media application to unseal court documents related to his wrongful conviction. The media coalition consists of the Halifax Examiner, the CBC, and the Canadian Press. Campbell’s brief wants a partial publication ban to be placed on three people […]
Halifax police try to intervene in the Glen Assoun document case
Morning File, Thursday, June 6, 2019
News 1. Update on the Assoun documents As I’ve reported, the Halifax Examiner, the CBC, and the Canadian Press are taking legal action to un-seal the court documents related to Glen Assoun’s exoneration. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 2. We initiated this legal action back in April, and since then there’s […]
Updated: Aidan Cromwell’s conviction for second-degree murder has been overturned
A three-judge appellant court has overturned the second-degree murder conviction of Aidan Cromwell. Cromwell was convicted in 2014 for the 2012 murder of Marc Bernard Tremblay. Cromwell was represented on appeal by Jerome Kennedy, the Newfoundland lawyer who first championed the cause of Glen Assoun, the man who was convicted for the murder of Brenda Way and […]
DEAD WRONG
A BOTCHED POLICE INVESTIGATION AND A PROBABLE WRONGFUL CONVICTION SHED LIGHT ON THE MURDERS OF DOZENS OF WOMEN IN NOVA SCOTIA.
Editor’s note: the DEAD WRONG homepage has links to previous articles, the cast of characters, extras, and commentary. Part 3: If Glen Assoun Didn’t Kill Brenda Way, Who Did? This article contains graphic accounts of violence and sexual violence that will disturb some readers. Three months after the jury convicted Glen Assoun of the murder of Brenda Way, […]