Post-conviction review of wrongful convictions: A failure to reform

Section 696 of the Canadian Criminal Code is an insufficient mechanism to detect and remedy wrongful convictions in Canada. One of the main criticisms of this process is that the Minister of Justice should not be responsible for reviewing alleged wrongful convictions because it is a conflict of interest for the same agency to prosecute criminal offences and also to review them. This thesis compares the independent review commission in the United Kingdom to Canada's section 696 to determine if an independent review commission would improve the current post-conviction review process of handling alleged miscarriages of justice in Canada. The conclusion is that Canada has failed to provide appropriate means to address wrongful conviction cases and that the role of the Minister of Justice under section 696 of the Criminal Code should be replaced with an independent review commission similar to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.