Daily BrewB.C. man who spent 27 years in jail after wrongful conviction fails in compensation bid
It's been very clear for years that Ivan Henry was railroaded into spending almost three decades in prison for a series of sexual assaults he did not commit.
But the prospect that Henry will ever be compensated like other wrongfully convicted Canadians such as David Milgaard remains unclear.
The B.C. Court of Appeal this week quashed part of the Vancouver man's attempt to sue the Crown for damages, The Canadian Press reports.
However, the rest of the suit remains alive and there is a potential the Appeal Court ruling could be challenged in the Supreme Court of Canada.
Meanwhile, Henry, 67, lives with his daughter, Tanya Olivares. He subsists on a few hundred dollars a month in federal Old Age Pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement, plus less than $50 Canada Pension.
Olivares told Yahoo! News Daily Brew there's no sign anyone is ready to compensate her father for his wasted years in prison.
"We haven't been approached by anybody," said Olivares, whose son was diagnosed with cancer since Henry's release. "He's destitute."
The transition from prison back into society has been tough, she said, with no help from authorities. Henry has not been able to work since his release from prison four years ago but does some volunteering for the Salvation Army.
"We can't even get counselling for my dad," Olivares said.
In a unanimous decision, a three-judge Appeal Court panel reversed a B.C. Supreme Court ruling last April that allowed Henry to amend his claim to add damages for breach of Charter rights. Henry based it on allegations prosecutors acted in "a marked and unacceptable departure from the reasonable standards expected of Crown counsel."
Henry was suing the B.C. and federal governments and the City of Vancouver seeking damages for malicious prosecution, abuse of process and other wrongdoing in his case, claiming "egregious breaches" of the Crown's disclosure obligations, CP said.
[ Related: 40 years later, man wrongly convicted sues for compensation ]
The defendants have argued Henry is not entitled to compensation for any actions by the police and Crown that fall short of being malicious and the Appeal Court apparently agreed, citing previous Supreme Court of Canada decisions.
"I consider that the [B.C. Supreme Court] chambers judge ought to have refused the amendment to the pleadings sought by the respondent plaintiff," Justice John Hall wrote in the Appeal Court's decision.
"As an intermediate appellate court, this court is clearly bound by pronouncements of the Supreme Court of Canada, and I consider those pronouncements currently foreclose negligence as a foundation for prosecutorial liability."
Henry spent 27 years in prison after being convicted in 1983 for a series of rapes involving eight women. He was declared a dangerous offender.
But Henry, who had a record before being accused of the sexual assaults, steadfastly maintained his innocence.
His appeals to have the case reopened were ignored for years until detectives reviewed his file as part of the massive missing-women investigation that led to the arrest of Robert Pickton, CTV News noted. Investigators concluded Henry was in jail on other charges when some of the attacks he was accused of occurred.
[ Related: Assault charges against David Milgaard withdrawn ]
Henry was released with an electronic ankle monitor in 2009 and the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned his convictions the following year. The judges found Henry's conviction was riddled with legal errors and police had botched the investigation.
One of the most inflammatory elements the court pointed to was a photo of a police lineup showing an officer holding Henry in a headlock amid a row of smiling stand-ins.
There's a long list of Canadians who've received settlements to compensate for years spent in prison after wrongful convictions.
David Milgaard was awarded $10 million by the Saskatchewan government in 1999 after serving 23 years for the murder of a young nurse. Nova Scotia gave Donald Marshall $1.6 million for 11 years unjustly spent on a murder conviction.
By Olivares noted it took years for Milgaard and the others finally to wring settlements out of the governments involved.
"Our family is exhausted," she said.
Even if Henry's suit ultimately fails, the miscarriage of justice that resulted in his imprisonment demands compensation.
