More than 20 years after being acquitted of rape, Michel Dumont, who has never ceased to proclaim his innocence, is still awaiting compensation from the government. The recent report on the creation of the Commission on Miscarriages of Justice recommends that he obtain compensation for the failures of the justice system that sent him to prison, and offers a detailed plan to make corrections easier and faster — for all — wrongful convictions in the country.
The current system, “it’s David against Goliath”, says Michel Dumont.
Because all these years later, the 62-year-old is still waiting. Even though the Quebec Court of Appeal acquitted him in 2001. Even though the UN Human Rights Committee ruled in 2010 that Canada had violated its rights under the International Covenant on Civil Rights and policies (ICCPR) and that he should be compensated.
Mr. Dumont was sentenced in 1991 for a rape which he has always claimed not to have committed. His conviction was based on the testimony of the complainant. But between the trial and her appeal, the woman advised the Crown that she now had doubts that Mr. Dumont was her attacker. This was never mentioned before the Court of Appeal. Michel Dumont spent three years in prison.
Supported by the titanic and tireless efforts of his wife, Solange Tremblay, he obtained from the federal Minister of Justice at the time, Anne McLellan, a review of his case, given the doubts expressed by the complainant. In 2001, he was acquitted by the Court of Appeal.
But still no compensation from the Government of Quebec or Canada, despite the acquittal and its lawsuit for damages: the courts did not see any fault in the representatives of the State. And then, Canada maintains that Mr. Dumont has not proven his “factual innocence” because he has not demonstrated that he did not commit the crime. The UN rejects this interpretation: in the Covenant, compensation is not linked to proof of so-called factual innocence. “We are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty,” Mr. Dumont was indignant in an interview.
He will finally obtain a settlement with the city of Boisbriand, responsible for the work of the police officers who arrested him. The amount is confidential.
If the complainant’s doubts had been submitted to the Court of Appeal, this whole affair could have ended in 1994, instead of 2001 – and without prison for the Quebecer, whose story was brought to the big screen in 2012 in The Dumont Affair.
Hope ?
Most recently, in November, Mr. Dumont’s hopes were rekindled by the tabling of the report on the consultations leading to the creation of the Commission on Miscarriages of Justice.
His name appears in one of the recommendations: “Michel Dumont and Solange Tremblay confirmed to us […] that Canada had still not paid them compensation or passed legislation to incorporate its obligations under Article 14(6) of the ICCPR into its domestic law. This is a shameful situation and we are calling on the minister to rectify it. »
He might have to wait some more.
Asked by The duty on this subject, the federal Minister of Justice, David Lametti, indicated that he was still at the stage of examining “in depth” the 50 or so recommendations of the report. Moreover, he indicated that he could not comment on specific cases.
As for his ministry, he sends the ball back to Quebec: he believes that the compensation is his, he writes in an email. Quebec reacted in the same way: it pointed out that the recommendation to compensate the man was addressed to the federal minister.
It was Minister David Lametti himself who gave the mandate to two former judges to propose the best way to create a commission on miscarriages of justice. “It was my idea, because it’s something that’s been close to my heart for decades. »
“Mistakes happen. You can’t have perfection in the system, agrees the minister. Except that when errors occur, there must be a mechanism to deal with them fairly and efficiently. »
Under the current system, when a person has exhausted all their recourses before the courts, they can submit a request to the federal Minister of Justice, who can investigate and refer the file to the courts. Since 2002, only 20 cases have been accepted.
The current way of doing things takes too long, recognizes Mr. Lametti. “And we only have famous causes that arrive on the minister’s desk. But there are other cases, which never see the light of day. He wants the process to be simpler and more accessible to everyone.
An independent commission
The report suggests the creation of an independent commission, mandated to review cases of miscarriages of justice, without being limited.
The authors also want it to be proactive, in short, that it does not just respond to requests made by individuals who want to clear their name, but that it tries to contact the victims in order to offer a solution to a reality of the prison system: Aboriginals and minorities are overrepresented.
Minister Lametti believes that such a commission — suggested on more than one occasion in the past — will create a safety valve to correct errors, and that this should make real justice “more accessible”.
The whole issue of compensation remains “open,” he says.
Ron Dalton, co-chair of Innocence Canada, welcomes the report’s recommendations, although he thinks it casts a very broad net. It remains to be seen, however, what will be done with the report and what will change, “but we have never gone this far”, said in an interview the man who was wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife.
Mr. Dumont was consulted by the authors of the report and considers his recommendations “excellent” for the future.
“I didn’t deserve to go to jail. It brought a lot of negative things into my life. He recalls having been deprived of his children during those years and having lost friends. In prison, he was “abused”, he says modestly: his body still bears the marks. “I didn’t have good accusations,” he explains.
The recommended changes will benefit all those whose rights have been violated by the legal system and who want redress, without having to fight for years against the system.
Michel Dumont remains hopeful of being compensated, a result which would be for him a tangible recognition of the harm done to him.