After being wrongly convicted of a double murder and acquitted 41 years later, Claude Paquin, a Quebec resident, has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Montreal and the provincial government. The agreement was announced by all three parties in a joint statement released on Friday. This settlement aims to help Mr. Paquin move forward from the challenging chapter in his life without the need for a lengthy trial scheduled for this fall.
In 1983, Paquin was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Ronald Bourgouin and Sylvie Revah, a couple murdered in 1978 in the Laurentians. He served 18 years in prison before being granted full parole in 2001, under strict release conditions that lasted for the next 23 years. In 2024, the federal justice minister ordered a retrial due to new information indicating a potential miscarriage of justice. Consequently, Paquin, now 83 years old, was acquitted on November 6, 2024.
Paquin credited his acquittal to the diligent work of his legal team, who are associated with Projet Innocence Québec. The case against him heavily relied on the testimony of Bernard Provençal, a prominent police informant, whose credibility was questioned over time by Projet Innocence Québec.
Represented by lawyers from Woods LLP, Paquin filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court in May 2025 against the City of Montreal and the Attorney General of Quebec. The lawsuit alleges that police and the prosecution were aware as early as 1983 that the informant’s testimony was false and that any physical evidence linking Paquin to the crime had been manipulated or falsified.
The lawsuit described Paquin’s ordeal as not just a miscarriage of justice but a story of a life stolen and an existence seized beyond the prison confines. His legal team emphasized the significant deprivation of liberty endured by Paquin, which they claimed to be the longest unjustified deprivation recorded in Quebec.
Although the lawsuit sought damages exceeding $89 million, the exact settlement amount remains undisclosed due to a confidentiality clause in the agreement. As the lawsuit was settled out of court, the claims were not litigated, and all parties have agreed not to provide further comments on the matter.