Today the Nova Scotia Supreme Court lifted a sealing order related to Justice Canada's Criminal Conviction Review Group's preliminary assessment of Glen Assoun's second-degree murder conviction in the 1995 homicide of Ms. Brenda Way. This has resulted in an RCMP Nova Scotia Administrative Review being made public.
In 2014, a then serving member of the RCMP alleged that his analysis and material related to the homicide of Ms. Brenda Way were missing and had been intentionally destroyed. Given the seriousness of the allegations, the Nova Scotia RCMP immediately began an administrative review to determine what occurred.
The review was conducted by the Officer in Charge of Major Crime at the time who was an expert in ViCLAS analysis. The administrative review was extensive and found that ViCLAS worksheets had been deleted in 2004 when employees of the ViCLAS unit were asked to review a number of analyses completed from 2001-2003 for quality control purposes. The deletions were contrary to policy and shouldn't have happened. They were not done, however, with malicious intent.
In full transparency, the RCMP provided the administrative review to the Criminal Conviction Review Group, the results of which factored in its preliminary assessment.
Media availability: Inspector Lynn Young will be available to speak to media today at 1:30 p.m., Nova Scotia RCMP Headquarters, 80 Garland Avenue, Dartmouth.