Claude Paquin, a man from Quebec who was wrongly convicted of a double murder and later acquitted after 41 years, has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Montreal and the provincial government. The agreement was announced by the three parties in a joint statement released on Friday. The statement expressed the hope that the settlement would help Mr. Paquin move forward from the challenging chapter of his life, avoiding a lengthy trial scheduled for this fall.
In 1983, Paquin was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder related to the deaths of Ronald Bourgouin and Sylvie Revah, a couple who were killed in 1978 in the Laurentians. He served 18 years in prison before being granted full parole in 2001 under strict conditions that lasted for the next 23 years. In 2024, the federal justice minister ordered a retrial due to new information suggesting a potential miscarriage of justice. Paquin, now 83, was acquitted on November 6, 2024.
Paquin attributed his acquittal to the diligent work of his legal team from Projet Innocence Québec. The case against him heavily relied on the testimony of Bernard Provençal, a known police informant. However, evidence uncovered by Projet Innocence Québec over the years raised doubts about Provençal’s credibility.
Represented by lawyers from Woods LLP, Paquin filed a civil lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court in May 2025 against the City of Montreal and the Attorney General of Quebec. The lawsuit alleged failures by various agents, including Montreal police, the Sûreté du Québec, and the Quebec Crown prosecutor’s office. It claimed that police and prosecutors knew as early as 1983 that the informant’s testimony was false and that any physical evidence linking Paquin to the crime had been falsified or tampered with.
Paquin’s legal team described the case as more than just a miscarriage of justice, but as the tale of a life stolen and an existence unjustly constrained beyond prison walls. The lawsuit sought damages of over $89 million, although the exact settlement amount remained confidential due to a non-disclosure agreement.
As the lawsuit was resolved through the settlement, the claims were not litigated in court, and the involved parties agreed not to provide further comments on the matter.