A Quebecer who spent 18 years in prison, and who was awaiting a new trial for a double murder he claims he never committed, is completely exonerated 46 years later.
Claude Paquin finally obtained justice Wednesday morning at the Montreal courthouse, while the attorney general put an end to a very long saga that has lasted since June 1978.
“We are no longer able to present evidence in this case,” declared Crown prosecutor M.e Maya Gold-Gosselin, to Judge Alexandra Paquette, of the Superior Court who acquitted Paquin.
“Thank you Madam Judge. You are taking me out of hell,” replied the octogenarian, who walks with difficulty and whose health is precarious.
Convicted in 1983 for the murders of Ronald Bourgouin and Sylvie Revah, Paquin won his first battle last April when Canada’s Minister of Justice ordered a new trial.
Minister Arif Virani made this decision following doubts raised by Paquin’s lawyers. They had submitted a request for review as part of the Innocence Quebec Project, an organization that defends the rights of people who consider themselves victims of judicial errors.
Life destroyed
In particular, they questioned the integrity of the evidence which had led to the conviction for the double homicide.
The lawyers alleged, in the request for review, that the famous informer Bernard Provençal and the police had conspired to convict Claude Paquin.
The informer was notably accused of having received advantages in exchange for his testimony and of having perjured himself on multiple occasions during the trial which had sent Paquin to confinement.
Still according to the request for review which had been accepted, the link between the informer and the police was so disturbing that he lived in the trailer of one of the investigators. The police also allegedly turned a blind eye to major crimes committed by Provençal.
“They destroyed my life,” Mr. Paquin told us.
Civil suit
Relieved to regain his dignity, he who has never stopped proclaiming his innocence, Paquin does not rule out suing the State.
“The justice system has ruined my life. My lawyers and I will look at what we can do,” he said.
A saga spanning over 45 years
- June 1978: Ronald Bourgoin and his partner Sylvie Revah are assassinated.
- October 1978: A hunter discovers their corpses in Saint-Colomban.
- June 1983: Claude Paquin is convicted of two counts of premeditated murder.
- December 1987: The Quebec Court of Appeal rejects his appeal.
- November 1999: Paquin obtains a reduction in the time limit for his parole.
- January 2020: He files a request for review of his criminal convictions.
- April 2024: The Federal Minister of Justice orders a new trial.
- November 2024: The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions closes the file.
