Claude Paquin, a Quebec resident 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 all three parties in a joint statement released on Friday. The City of Montreal and the Attorney General of Quebec expressed hope that this settlement would help Mr. Paquin move forward from this challenging period in his life without the need for a lengthy trial set 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 murdered in 1978 in the Laurentians. Following 18 years in prison, Paquin was 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 suggesting a potential miscarriage of justice. Paquin, now 83, was acquitted on November 6, 2024.
Paquin credited his legal team, part of Projet Innocence Québec, for his acquittal. The case against him heavily relied on the testimony of Bernard Provençal, a prominent police informant, but evidence uncovered by Projet Innocence Québec over the years raised doubts about his credibility.
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 was either fabricated or altered.
Paquin’s legal team argued in the lawsuit that his case was not just a miscarriage of justice but a “stolen life,” with a sentence that extended beyond prison walls, describing it as an existence taken away. The lawsuit stated that Paquin had been seeking damages of slightly over $89 million, although the exact settlement amount was not disclosed due to a confidentiality clause.
Since the lawsuit was settled out of court, the claims were not litigated, and all parties agreed not to make any further public statements regarding the matter.