Researchers hope wrongfully convicted database will lead to reforms, more releases

Students and staff at the University of Toronto law school are launching a new database this week documenting dozens of cases of wrongful convictions in Canada hoping to draw more attention to the problem.

tudents and staff at the University of Toronto law school are launching a new database this week documenting dozens of cases of wrongful convictions in Canada hoping to draw more attention to the problem.

Lawyer and database project co-founder Amanda Carling said in particular the hope is that Canadians will realize that getting your case even looked at as a possible wrongful conviction is difficult, particularly if you are Indigenous or racialized.

"We're trying to tell the story of the people who have that access to justice," she said. "And then we really want to shine a light on the people who don't have that access to justice."

As the database launches there are 83 cases in it where a conviction was overturned. Only 16 of them involved Indigenous people, despite the fact Indigenous people are far overrepresented in Canadian prisons.

Carling said legal reforms in Canada have recognized too many Indigenous people are in prison, but there has never been an institutionalized recognition many of them shouldn't be behind bars in the first place.

The new database comes days after Justice Minister David Lametti introduced legislation to create a new federal commission to review potential cases of wrongful conviction in part because so many of the current cases being reviewed don't reflect the makeup of Canada's prison population.

"When I look at the files that come to me, I see a clear pattern. The applicants are overwhelmingly white men. The prison population does not look like that," Lametti said last Thursday.