Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Shared with Public HE IS FINALLY FREE. Clarence Woodhouse, a 21 year old Indigenous male and member of the Pinaymootang FirstNation, had in 1973 recently moved to Winnipeg from the Fairford Indian Reserve, 240 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg. He had no criminal record and was gainfully employed. On July 22, 1973, he was charged with the brutal murder of a man called Ting Fong Chan, killed by unknown assailants five days earlier on the streets of Winnipeg as he walked home from work. Mr. Woodhouse was not there when Mr. Chan was killed and had no involvement in the homicide. Nevertheless, he was arrested and assaulted and forced to sign a false confession that he had murdered Mr. Chan. Clarence Woodhouse’s co-accused, his brother Russell Woodhouse, Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse were also assaulted by members of the Winnipeg Police Service and forced to sign their own confessions to murdering Mr. Chan. All four men proclaimed their innocence, but no one believed them. The nightm...

  Indigenous Man Returns to the Court in Winnipeg where He was Convicted 50 Years Ago ­­­­­__________________________________________   More than 49 years ago on March 5, 1974,  Clarence Woodhouse , a young Indigenous man, and a member of the Pinaymootang First Nation on the Fairford Indian Reserve in Manitoba, was convicted of the murder of Mr. Ting Fong Chan in Winnipeg, a crime he did not commit.   On July 18 of this year, two of Mr. Woodhouse’s former co-accused were vindicated in the King’s Bench Court by Chief Justice Joyal in Winnipeg. A fourth accused, Clarence’s brother Russell Woodhouse, sadly died in 2011 before he could be vindicated.   On September 13, 2023,  Innocence Canada  filed an application with Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani for a ministerial review of Clarence Woodhouse’s conviction pursuant to the provisions of the  Criminal Code.   We also filed a posthumous application on Russell Woodhouse’s behalf with the...