Search begins for new police watchdog to examine potential wrongdoing in Glen Assoun case

Nova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) is looking for a new outside agency to investigate police conduct in the case of Glen Assoun, the Nova Scotia man who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1999 and spent 16 years in prison.

In March 2019, the federal justice minister overturned Assoun's conviction and ordered a new trial, following an investigation by the Justice Department that determined there could have been a miscarriage of justice, The Crown refused to re-try Assoun, saying there was no realistic prospect of conviction.

But the questions raised by the federal justice department probe prompted Nova Scotia's justice minister to refer the case to SiRT for review. However, SiRT referred the matter to the Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia (IIOBC) to avoid any appearance of conflict. 

Earlier this year, the B.C police watchdog said it was unable to complete its investigation because of a heavy workload. In a release Thursday, SiRT's interim director, Erin Nauss, said the agency is looking for another police watchdog agency to take on the file.

"So far, we haven't been successful in finding someone with the ability or capacity to take this on," Nauss said.

"But we'll continue to look and then I'll become as creative as I need to be to find someone to look at this independently and objectively."

Nauss said any new investigation would focus on the period after Assoun's conviction, but before he launched his appeal. It was during that period that the RCMP was accused of withholding information that could have helped Assoun's case.

"To investigate allegations that the RCMP inappropriately destroyed evidence and whether any member of the Halifax Regional Police committed an offence related to the conviction," Nauss said.

Assoun was initially found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in September 1999 for the stabbing death of Brenda Lee Anne Way. 

The court heard Way's body was found behind an apartment building in Dartmouth, N.S., on Nov. 12, 1995. The 28-year-old woman had been stabbed six times and her throat was slashed.

Assoun, who was living in British Columbia when he was arrested two years later, had always maintained his innocence.

The federal Justice Department later conducted a preliminary assessment and ordered Assoun released from prison on
strict conditions in 2014. The assessment, released in July of that year, revealed the RCMP had chosen not to disclose an investigator's theories about other suspects in the murder case. As well, the assessment found the Mounties had destroyed most of this potential evidence.

After the preliminary assessment was released, the RCMP issued a statement saying the files were deleted for "quality control purposes,'' but the actions were "contrary to policy and shouldn't have happened."

Nauss said this file is a priority for her office, but she couldn't say how long it will take to find an outside agency, or how long that agency might take to complete an investigation.

Assoun agreed to an undisclosed compensation deal with the Nova Scotia and federal governments in March 2021. He died earlier this year.