MORE CANADIAN SHENANIGANS

More jailhouse testimony extorted and then believed by gullible courts

A Quebec man who spent more than 20 years in prison for first-degree murder will have his case reviewed. The federal minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, has intervened in Andre Tremblay's case and has referred it to the Quebec Court of Appeal. Cotler says new evidence shows the man may have been wrongfully convicted.

Tremblay, who is now 61, was released on full parole last year, and is working at a minimum-wage job in Montreal. He was convicted in 1984 of murdering Serge Fournier by setting fire to his house in July of 1982. Through all his years in prison, he continued to claim he was innocent. Now, his claim is being taken seriously.

Kerry Scullion heads the federal Criminal Conviction Review Group of the Department of Justice. He says the Court of Appeal could order a new trial, substitute a verdict, or dismiss the appeal altogether. But, he says, the Justice minister would not have reopened the case unless the evidence pointed to a wrongful conviction. "The conviction was based largely on the jailhouse informant who testified that Mr. Tremblay had confessed to him the deliberate setting of a fire that ultimately killed Mr. Fournier," Scullion says.

But, he says, the informant later testified — twice — under oath that Tremblay did not confess to the murder. The informant also has said he was offered undisclosed advantages in return for testifying against Tremblay.

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Judge throws out Canadian drug-trafficking case


A Montreal man accused of gangsterism and drug trafficking for the Hells Angels motorcycle club has been acquitted. A judge says the prosecution's case against Daniel Comeau was virtually non-existent.

Comeau was among a dozen people charged after a huge police investigation called Operation Apache. It targeted drug trafficking by members of the Hells Angels. Comeau's two brothers and one of his friends were also arrested. Police say they recorded 26,000 telephone conversations as part of their investigation. Eleven of those recorded converations involved Comeau, and Judge Céline Lacerte-Lamontagne says none of them was incriminating. The judge says, while the conspirators used code words to order drugs, and to set up meetings to take delivery, Comeau didn't.

Lacerte-Lamontagne says there was certainly drug trafficking going on, but there's no evidence implicating Comeau. The accused and his lawyers left the courtroom slapping each other on the back. Crown prosecutor Mathieu Paquet says there won't be an appeal. He says all the other accused in the case of Project Apache were convicted, and are serving terms in jail.

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(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)