Claude Paquin, a Quebec man who was wrongfully convicted of a double murder and acquitted 41 years later, has reached a mulitimillion-dollar settlement with Montreal and the provincial government.
The three parties announced the settlement in a joint statement on Friday.
“The City of Montreal and the Attorney General of Quebec hope that this agreement — which allows all parties to avoid a long trial this fall — will help Mr. Paquin turn the page on this difficult chapter of his life,” the statement reads.
Paquin was found guilty in 1983 of two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Ronald Bourgouin and Sylvie Revah, a couple killed in 1978 in the Laurentians.
Paquin spent 18 years in prison before being granted full parole in 2001 under strict release conditions, that remained in place for the next 23 years.
In 2024, the federal justice minister ordered a retrial, saying that new information in the case showed that a “miscarriage of justice likely occurred.”
Paquin, now 83, was acquitted on Nov. 6, 2024.
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At the time, Paquin said his acquittal would not have been possible without the work of his lawyers who are part of Projet Innocence Québec.
The case against Paquin relied heavily on the testimony of Bernard Provençal, a well-known police informant. But over the years, Projet Innocence Québec found evidence that raised questions about his credibility.
Paquin, represented by lawyers at Woods LLP, filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court in May 2025 against the City of Montreal and the Attorney General of Quebec for what the suit says were failings of their agents, including Montreal police, the Sûreté du Québec, and the Quebec Crown prosecutor’s office.
The lawsuit alleges police and the prosecution knew, as early as 1983, that the informant’s testimony was false and that the only physical evidence allegedly linking Paquin to the crime had been fabricated or altered.
“This case is not merely a miscarriage of justice: it is the story of a stolen life, of a sentence that extended far beyond the prison walls. An existence confiscated,” Paquin’s lawyers argued in the lawsuit.
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His lawyers also pointed to Paquin’s “grim record for the longest unjustified deprivation of liberty ever documented in Quebec.”
The lawsuit indicates Paquin had been seeking just over $89 million in damages. However, none of the parties involved would confirm the amount, citing a confidentiality clause in the agreement.
Because the lawsuit was settled, its claims were not tested in court, and the parties said they would not make further comment.
