Tammy McLean

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 […]

Brian Borcherdt. Photo: Anna Edwards-Borcherdt

Brian Borcherdt came of age in Yarmouth in the 1990s. When he arrived in Halifax, the city’s famous music scene was already waning, and worse, the music he made was rejected by the cool kids anyway. After decades away from Nova Scotia, he and his young family have settled in the Annapolis Valley, where he’ll zoom in to chat with Tara about his band Holy Fuck’s endlessly delayed tour, creating the Dependent Music collective, and the freedom and excitement of the improvised music he’s making now. Plus: Bringing events back in 2021.

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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.

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