Glen Assoun

Case Summary

In 1995, Brenda Way was a 28-year-old woman living in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.1 At that time, she engaged in sex-work. She met Glen Assoun at a courthouse in 1993, and embarked on what would become a tumultuous relationship punctuated by episodes of conflict and violence.2 The couple was often seen arguing, and Glen was charged with assault in October of 1995 for his abusive behaviour towards Brenda.3

On November 12, 1995, Brenda was found brutally murdered in a parking lot behind an apartment building in Dartmouth.4 Initially, the police suspected Glen, but there was no physical evidence to link him to Brenda’s murder.5 More importantly, Glen had an alibi: the night Brenda was killed, Glen was with his roommate, Ann Morse, and two other friends nowhere near the apartment building where Brenda was murdered and her body discovered.6 For a while, the investigation hit a dead end.

About a year after Brenda’s murder, one witness, whose testimony would later become the linchpin of the Crown’s case against Glen, claimed in her statement to the police that she had run into Glen on the morning of Nov. 12, 1995, at around 4:15 a.m.7 Glen allegedly told the witness that Brenda was “dead” and the weight was “off his shoulders” now that she was “finally gone.”8 Soon after, more witnesses came forward to testify against Glen. The Crown’s case at trial rested on the testimony of five witnesses, all of whom claimed that they had heard Glen confess or admit to Brenda’s murder.9

The witness who placed Glen at the crime scene on the morning of the murder had only brought up her alleged encounter with Glen when the police were ready to walk away, after hearing about the witness’s "psychic premonitions."10 Another witness was a jailhouse informant who, as a result of his testimony against Glen, received a significantly more lenient sentence.11 Another witness was a career criminal who had his charges reduced in exchange for his testimony.12 Another witness claimed that Glen had assaulted her while boasting about killing Brenda, but Glen had an alibi for the alleged event.13 Three of the above witnesses were personally acquainted with Brenda’s sister in one way or another, giving rise to the reasonable suspicion that there might have been some form of collusion against Glen.14

Just three days into his trial, Glen fired his lawyer, believing that his best interests were not being adequately represented.15 He struggled to find another lawyer mid-trial and eventually decided to represent himself.16 Glen had to cross-examine the Crown’s witnesses as well as navigate the complexities of a murder trial.17

On September 17, 1999, the jury convicted Glen of second degree murder and he was sentenced to 18.5 years in prison before he could be eligible for parole.18 His subsequent appeal was dismissed because the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal was of the view that “the cumulative effect of the errors casts no doubt on the reliability of the verdict or fairness of the trial.”19

Ultimately, AIDWYC (now Innocence Canada) took on Glen’s case.  In April of 2013, AIDWYC filed an application to the Minister of Justice requesting ministerial review of Glen’s conviction which “quickly became the subject of an investigation” by the Criminal Conviction Review Group (CCRG).20

The CCRG’s preliminary assessment was provided to Glen at the end of August, 2014. It found that Assoun’s counsel on his appeal, Jerome Kennedy, had requested disclosure of Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System information (“ViCLAS”) from the Crown.21 Nevertheless, they did not receive disclosure that a criminal profiling specialist in the ViCLAS Unit, RCMP Constable Dave Moore, had concluded prior to Glen’s appeal that Michael McGray - a known serial killer - was the prime suspect in Brenda’s murder.22 None of the new leads uncovered by Constable Moore were disclosed to the Crown or Kennedy, or to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.23

The CCRG found that the non-disclosure was a result of “the systematic destruction of Moore’s files” within the ViCLAS unit, which was directly against policy.24 Based on the preliminary assessment of Glen’s case by the CCRG, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court granted Glen bail in 2014.25 On March 1, 2019, the Minister of Justice ordered a new trial and the Crown called no evidence; Glen Assoun was acquitted 20 years after he was wrongly convicted.26 While in prison, Glen was known for always wearing a hat that read, “Wrongly Convicted, 1998.”27 Now, he proudly wears a different hat that reads, “Exonerated March 1, 2019.”28

After his acquittal, the Nova Scotia government refused calls for a public inquiry into Glen
Assoun’s wrongful conviction. In September 2020, it referred the matter of the missing and
destroyed RCMP files for an independent criminal investigation. Late in November 2023, a few
months after Glen Assoun - who had suffered ill health after almost 17 years in prison - passed
away, it was announced that the independent investigation had been dropped because of other
demands on the independent investigators’ time. A renewed call for a public inquiry was
rejected by the federal government which had jurisdiction over the RCMP. The thwarted quest
for accountability continued with Glen’s youngest daughter telling reporters: “We sit here
without Dad, and we still live it. We’re still here, and the family needs justice just as much as
Dad.”29
 

[1] “The Release of Previously Sealed Files from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in the Case of R v Glen Assoun” (12 July 2019), online (pdf): <innocencecanada.com> [perma.cc/assets/Uploads/PDFs/Press-backgrounder-into-the-wrongful-conviction-of-Glen-Assoun.pdf] at 1 [Release of Previously Sealed Files]; Tim Bousquet, “Dead Wrong”, Halifax Examiner (23 January 2016), online: <halifaxexaminer.ca> [perma.cc/featured/dead-wrong/][Dead Wrong].
[2] Dead Wrong, supra note 1; R v Assoun, [1999] NSJ No 479, 182 NSR (2d) 344 at para 15 [1999 R v Assoun].
[3] Dead Wrong, supra note 1; R v Assoun, 2006 NSCA 47 at para 6 [2006 R v Assoun].
[4] Release of Previously Sealed Files, supra note 1 at 1.
[5] Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Memorandum on Behalf of Glen Eugene Assoun (14 April 2013), Toronto, Innocence Canada (Glen Eugene Assoun’s application to the Minister of Justice persuant to Part XXI.1 of the Criminal Code) at 41 [Application to Minister of Justice].
[10] Application to Minister of Justice, supra note 9 at 60 – 65; Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[11] Application to Minister of Justice, supra note 9 at 46 – 54; Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[12] Application to Minister of Justice, supra note 9 at 123 – 25; Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[13] Application to Minister of Justice, supra note 9 at 67 – 77; Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[14] Application to Minister of Justice, supra note 9 at 41; Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[15] Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[16] Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[17] Dead Wrong, supra note 1.
[18] 1999 R v Assoun, supra note 2 at para 15.
[19] 2006 R v Assoun, supra note 3 at para 325.
[20] Release of Previously Sealed Files, supra note 1 at 4.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] R v Assoun, 2014 NSSC 419.
[26] R v Assoun, 2019 NSSC 220 at para 8.
[27] CTV W5, “W5: Glen Assoun’s 20 Year Fight for Freedom” (16 November 2019), online (video): YouTube <youtube.com> [perma.cc/watch?v=uW-Sh-D4I9s].
[28] Riley Nimens, “Glen Assoun: One of Canada’s Most Disturbing Wrongful Convictions”, CTV News (15 November 2019), online: <ctvnews.ca> [perma.cc/w5/glen-assoun-one-of-canada-s-most-disturbing-wrongful-convictions-1.4687628].
[29] Michael Tutton and Michael MacDonald, “Glen Assoun’s daughter says probe of his wrongful conviction must become a priority”, Canadian Press (15 December 2023), online: <cbc.ca/news> [perma.cc/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/glen-assoun-daughter-wrongful-conviction-probe-1.7060324].
 

Case Details

  • Full name:

    Glen Assoun

  • Gender identity:

    Male

  • Race/ethnicity:

    White (caucasian)

  • Age - at the time of conviction:

    44

  • Charges - specific offences:

    First degree murder

  • Date of conviction:

    1999-11-17

  • Date wrongful conviction was overturned:

    2019-03-01

  • Sentence - total time served:

    16 years, 07 months, 16 days

  • Legal mechanism by which wrongful conviction was overturned:

    696/690 and new trial

  • Status of alleged crime:

    Unsolved

  • Compensation Received?

    Yes

  • Guilty plea?

    No

  • Cause(s) of wrongful conviction:

    Assoun was wrongfully convicted of murder after the RCMP failed to disclose, and ultimately destroyed, evidence pointing to other suspects; having fruitlessly attempted to rectify this problem, the officer who had gathered this evidence quit the force in disgust.