Clarence Woodhouse was exonerated for the murder in Winnipeg in 1973

Clarence Woodhouse, who was jailed for the murder of a Winnipeg man 50 years ago, has been exonerated.

Woodhouse, now in his 70s, always maintained his innocence but no one listened to him, Innocence Canada said in a news release in October 2023, when Woodhouse was released on bail pending a review of his conviction.

Woodhouse, Allan Woodhouse and Brian Anderson were tried and convicted in 1974 for the murder of Ting Fong Chan.

Chan, a 40-year-old chef at the Beachcomber restaurant and father of two, was beaten and stabbed near a downtown construction site on July 17, 1973.

All three First Nations men were sentenced to life in prison without eligibility for parole for 10 years.

Anderson and Allan Woodhouse were acquitted in July 2023.

“You were wrongly convicted. They were innocent,” Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Court of King's Bench in Winnipeg told Woodhouse on Thursday, calling the original conviction a “miscarriage of justice.”

The same phrase was used in July 2024, when Justice Minister Arif Virani ordered a new trial for Woodhouse. A press release from Virani's office at the time said there were reasonable grounds to believe it was likely a miscarriage of justice.

“This is the result of identifying new information that was not available to the courts at the time of Mr. Woodhouse’s trial or appeal,” the release said. “The Minister’s decision to order a new trial is not a decision on the guilt or innocence of the applicant. It is a decision to return the matter to the courts where the relevant legal issues can be resolved in accordance with the law.”

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who first heard about the exoneration while attending an unrelated news conference Thursday, said he would like to meet and speak with Woodhouse.

“It's super sad when you hear that someone's freedom is being taken away, and when you hear that the justice system is there to keep people safe when you're faced with a challenging moment like this,” he said.

“I can tell you that the provincial government has already taken steps to ensure that we offer some form of reparation. We will never be able to give back the past that was robbed but given to this person and others in a similar situation. “What we know now is what we can do to make it right.”