The man who was acquitted of killing 13-year-old Candace Derksen after spending a decade behind bars, can continue to sue the Manitoba government and City of Winnipeg for $8.5 million for wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
In a 15-page decision, Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Jeff Harris ruled some issues raised by Mark Grant’s lawsuit, including DNA evidence, should be put before a civil court judge.
The judge excluded other issues raised in the suit against the attorney general of Manitoba, the provincial government and City of Winnipeg.
“Mr. Grant was acquitted after the trial judge rejected the very evidence that Mr. Grant had been telling the provincial defendants all along was flawed and unreliable,” Harris wrote.
“They did not objectively have reasonable and probable grounds to continue the prosecution once they were presented with evidence which called into question the validity and reliability of the DNA evidence of Molecular World, and that they failed in their duty to continue to assess the case as weaknesses with its DNA expert and his evidence were revealed.
He wrote there are “reasonable grounds to conclude that those decisions support the foundation of his claim.”
Harris struck out other areas of the lawsuit, including claims prosecutors had no reasonable and probable grounds to “initiate the prosecution” and the prosecution only continued because of malice.
Lawrence Greenspon, Grant’s Ottawa-based lawyer, said the most important parts of Grant’s lawsuit still stand.
“It may be that they had reasonable and probable grounds for the police to proceed… but the critical turning point should have been when the Crown realized the DNA they had was junk science,” he said on Tuesday.
“We’re pleased the heart of the decision, the heart of the case, has now withheld challenge. Hopefully, we can move forward on this now.”
Derksen disappeared while walking home from school to her Elmwood residence on Nov. 30, 1984.
Despite an intensive search, it was six weeks before Derksen’s frozen and bound body was found inside an industrial storage shed on the other side of the Nairn Avenue overpass from her route home.
No one was arrested for decades, but in 2007, Winnipeg police arrested Grant, saying his DNA was found on twine used to bind Derksen’s limbs.
Grant was found guilty of second-degree murder, but the Manitoba Court of Appeal ordered a new trial partly due to shortcomings of the DNA evidence.
Manitoba Justice appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, but the country’s highest court upheld the order for a new trial.
In 2017, Grant was acquitted when a judge determined the DNA evidence was unreliable and had no value.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.
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