Case Summary
In early 1992, Wilfred Beaulieu was experiencing life outside prison for the first time in nearly eight years. In the evening of February 2, the paroled Indigenous man left his residence at a halfway house and got together with some friends at a house party in north Edmonton. Throughout the evening, witnesses recalled Wilfred brushing off advances from a party attendee, Ms. Campbell.1 When Wilfred’s girlfriend momentarily left the party, he briefly kissed a different attendee, Ms. Horseman, with her consent. Later, Ms. Campbell made more advances towards Wilfred and this time the pair engaged in consensual kissing. However, once Wilfred’s girlfriend returned to the party, Wilfred fled to a different room in the house.2
Upon his return to the halfway house where he was living, Wilfred was questioned by an RCMP officer. The officer informed Wilfred that Ms. Campbell and Ms. Horseman had lodged complaints against him. Mere days after, Wilfred was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault.3 At trial, the judge conceded that there were “frailties” in Ms. Campbell’s testimony but still found Wilfred guilty of sexually assaulting Ms. Campbell and Ms. Horseman.4 The next day, he was sentenced to three and one-half years in prison; when added to the year remaining on his prior sentence he had been serving on parole and an additional six months for violating parole, Wilfred faced a total of five years in prison.5
While in prison, Wilfred was threatened by friends of Ms. Campbell and Ms. Horseman. He also spent nearly a year in solitary confinement.6 Wilfred was not allowed to attend his brother’s or sister’s funeral, both of whom died while he was serving his sentence.
Despite being stuck in prison, Wilfred did not stop his pursuit for justice. He appealed his conviction but the Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal from the bench without calling on the prosecutor to respond. The court upheld the trial judge's assessment of the credibility of the witnesses, finding that the trial outcome was not "even open to question."7
Wilfred’s lawyer then filed a civil lawsuit against Ms. Campbell and Ms. Horseman for making false accusations against Wilfred. During examination for discovery in 1994, Ms. Horseman made the startling admission that Ms. Campbell instructed her to lie during the criminal trial by testifying that she witnessed the assaults when, in fact, she did not.8 In the same lawsuit, Wilfred’s lawyer sought and obtained Ms. Campbell’s psychiatric records. The records showed that Ms. Campbell had a history of delusional behaviour, including accusing fellow patients in group therapy of sexually assaulting her even though they had never met before.9
Armed with this information, Wilfred’s lawyer approached Alberta’s Attorney General and asked for a new trial, but was told the evidence he presented was not sufficient.10 Wilfred’s lawyer then applied to federal Justice Minister Allan Rock in August 1994 for a review of Wilfred’s conviction. Nearly a year and a half later, Justice Department officials began investigating Wilfred’s case. Both Ovide Mecredi, then Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations and Jack Ramsay, then a Reform MP and a former RCMP officer, complained about the delay.11
In November 1996, Minister Rock ordered Wilfred’s case back to the Alberta Court of Appeal. Only seven months shy of completing his five-year sentence, Wilfred was released from prison in December 1996 on bail pending the new and second appeal.12
In May 1997, the Alberta Court of Appeal took mere minutes to acquit Wilfred of the charge of assaulting Ms. Horseman and to order a new trial on the charge of assaulting Ms. Campbell. Crown prosecutors stayed the latter charge and Wilfred was finally cleared of all sexual assault charges despite having served nearly five years in prison for them.13
He told reporters: “I feel like I am finally free. I don’t have to worry about these charges any more. They have been hanging over my head a long time.”14 He added: “I feel bitter because I have been maintaining my innocence all these years and nobody has been paying any attention… This is what happens when people lie to the police, this is what happens when the police don't do a thorough investigation, and this is what happens when police interview two people together.''15
Wilfred’s application to the federal government for compensation for his wrongful conviction was denied.16