Innocence McGill is a legal clinic based at McGill University's Faculty of Law and dedicated to researching and investigating claims of wrongful conviction for serious crimes in Quebec. Founded in 2005, we are a student-led and student-run organization with oversight by our supervising lawyer (a criminal defence attorney in Montreal) and our Faculty Advisor. Our ultimate goal is to help secure the freedom of those who are factually innocent of serious crimes for which they continue to serve sentences in Quebec prisons.
Since 1992, various Innocence Projects in North America, including one at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, have worked to free over 300 innocent people. The stories of Donald Marshall, David Milgaard, Romeo Phillion and others have raised serious questions about the extent of wrongful convictions in Canada, and Innocence McGill joins this network in search of justice in Quebec.
If you have been wrongfully convicted of a crime and would like Innocence McGill to consider your case, please find out more about whether you qualify for assistance and how to make an application.
For more information or to apply to become a student volunteer, please like and follow our Facebook page, send us a message, or visit our YouTube channel.
Note: By virtue of the laws of the Quebec Bar Association (la Loi sur le Barreau du Québec), Innocence McGill cannot represent you, nor act in your name nor provide legal advice. Innocence McGill's role is to study an applicant's file until such a time where the applicant is represented by a lawyer. It is not until this last step in the review process that Innocence McGill officially accepts both the application for assistance, and the obligation to work with the lawyer to continue the research and investigation required by the file. The members of Innocence McGill assure the confidentiality of all correspondence with the applicants but cannot guarantee the same protection as provided by attorney-client privilege.
