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In this document is a summary of Jack White's case as well as more answers.

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This photo was taken outside the courthouse after his case was reopened after serving around 15 years in prison.
It took 17 years for Jack White to clear his name after being wrongfully convicted of sexual assault.

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Innocence Canada, formerly known as the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, is a Canadian, non-profit legal organization.
This explains Jack White's entire case including past evidence and how the miscarriage of justice happened.

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On December 3, 2009, the Supreme Court ordered that the Ontario Court of Appeal reconsider Jack's case. On June 30, 2010, Jack was at long last granted the chance to clear his name: assisted by Mr. Lockyer and fellow Innocence Canada lawyer Joanne McLean, Jack told his story before the Court.

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A life ruined by abuse and 'bashed around' by the courts

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A life ruined by abuse and 'bashed around' by the courts

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This article includes information about his past. Stating how he was accused of having a learning disability as a child and how that evidence was not shown in his trial, resulting in him being wrongfully convicted.
After being placed in the Huronia Regional Centre at the age of 9, he was released after 13 years after the rest results came back stating he did not have a learning disability.
He returned to Huronia as a counsellor and during his time he received a number of awards for his community service.

If these points of evidence were stated by White’s lawyer, he may not have ended up behind bars for around 15 years.

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It was Jack White's dream job: working with developmentally handicapped children at the very treatment centre where he had suffered 12 years of institutional abuse at a time when such horrors were commonplace.

But what might have been a Hollywood script for a feel-good movie went badly awry in 1993, when Mr. White was himself convicted of sexually abusing a helpless resident and fired.

Sixteen years later, Mr. White has asked the Supreme Court of Canada to help exonerate him. He maintains that his life was ruined by two miscarriages of justice - the first, when the system incorrectly incarcerated him as being mentally deficient; and second, when a resentful co-worker framed him for the sexual assault.

"I want the stain removed from my name," Mr. White, 64, said in an interview. "Society will finally be told that it didn't happen."

Abandoned at birth by his mother, Mr. White spent nine years in foster homes before he was transferred to Huronia based on a theory that he was incapable of learning.

On Monday, Mr. White described sexual and psychological abuse the children endured - such as being stripped naked and forced to stick their noses between one another's buttocks; and standing inside rings of flaming alcohol.

"I can see the pictures in my mind," he said, breaking down in tears. "It is not an easy thing to talk about."

Upon turning 21, Mr. White was released. Several years later, he took two years of social work training and was hired by Huronia as a counsellor. He spent the next 23 years working with children who were severely disabled by autism or other mental afflictions.

"I always treated the residents as my sisters and brothers, because I was once there myself," Mr. White said. "I treated them like human beings and my friends. I liked getting the paycheque, but it wasn't a job."

Mr. White was hailed as a hero who had soared above his tragic beginnings, and was once selected as Orillia's volunteer of the year.

However, in 1989, Mr. White co-wrote a hard-hitting report documenting alleged episodes of abuse at Huronia. Soon afterwards, a fellow counsellor, Daniel Wither, lodged a complaint claiming that the report implicitly identified him as an abuser.

Four years later, Mr. Wither accused Mr. White of grabbing the breast of a severely handicapped resident after showering her. He said that Mr. White had joked: "Have you ever seen a body like this before? Have you ever seen such a nice tit in your life?"

Being incapable of speech, the 38-year-old resident could not confirm or deny the alleged incident.

An hour into Mr. White's trial on March 28, 1995, his lawyer surprised him by offering no defence. "I turned and said: 'What? Aren't you going to put me on the stand?' " Mr. White recalled. "He thought that he had destroyed Wither. And he did destroy him! But my lawyer forgot one thing ... you have to rebut what the guy says."

After deliberating for 62 minutes, the jury convicted Mr. White. The trial judge noted that Mr. White was "legendary" at Huronia for his dedication, and gave him a suspended sentence.

"Being bitter and upset wasn't going to help me," Mr. White said Monday. "Let the law take care of this man [Mr. Wither] I'll fight to get my name cleared."

In 1999, the Grievance Settlement Board ended a 29-day hearing into the case by ruling that there was "overwhelming evidence" that no sexual assault had ever occurred. It said that Mr. White had been wrongly convicted because of an incompetent defence and a lying witness who "held ill-will" towards Mr. White. The board rejected Mr. Wither's accusations as "not credible in the extreme."

However, its ruling was quashed on appeal on the basis that grievance boards lack the power to overturn a court's verdict. His battle apparently stymied, Mr. White began to eke out an existence on welfare and handyman jobs.

Should the Supreme Court agree with AIDWYC lawyers James Lockyer and Joanne McLean later this fall that the case ought to be reopened, the Ontario Court of Appeal will consider fresh evidence in the case.

"This chap has really been bashed around - first by Huronia and then by the judicial system," Mr. Lockyer said Monday. "He was sent to live with people who are seriously mentally handicapped when he was not, and then, having come through it, he went down again. It is terrible."

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A life ruined by abuse and 'bashed around' by the courts

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It was Jack White's dream job: working with developmentally handicapped children at the very treatment centre where he had suffered 12 years of institutional abuse at a time when such horrors were commonplace. But what might have been a Hollywood script for a feel-good movie went badly awry in 1993, when Mr. White was himself convicted of sexually abusing a helpless resident and fired.

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Photo used in the Star in an article titled: "Rare second chance as sex assault conviction reopened" by Donovan Vincentstaff, published on Fri., Dec. 4, 2009.

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Unable to find any videos on Jack White's Wrongfully Conviction case

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This database has information on Jack White's case including the charge, sentence, year of crime, year charged, year cleared, location and summary of case and innocence

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Jack White - Innocents Database of Exonerations

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This article includes information about his past employment at the Huronia Regional Centre he was once a patient in. Some longtime staff did not approve of a former patient working with them, therefore his co-workers motive to fabricate his allegation against him. White co-wrote a report on lack of qualification by some employees. One of his co-workers did not like that claiming that White identified him as an abuser and then made a false accusation on him which lead to White being convicted.

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Jack White spent nearly 25 years working with residents of a home for the developmentally disabled and his community volunteer activities earned him recognition by the federal government.

But his reputation was ruined in little more than two hours when a jury, after a 62-minute trial plus deliberations, convicted him of sexual assault in 1993.

Now, nearly 16 years later, White's little-known story is attracting the attention of Canada's premier advocacy group for the wrongly convicted, as well as a Conservative MP. They want the Supreme Court of Canada to reopen White's case, sending it to the Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto for a rehearing.

"It is very clear a miscarriage (of justice) has occurred here and his conviction should be overturned," Bruce Stanton, MP for Simcoe North, told the Star in an interview Monday from Ottawa.

"The guy is just salt of the earth. He is an upstanding citizen. He would never hurt anybody. That's not just my opinion," Stanton added, "it is attested to in the bulk of the evidence."

Documents filed in the Supreme Court of Canada by the Toronto-based Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted suggest White, convicted of sexually assaulting a female resident at the Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia, was the victim of retaliation by longtime staff members and their relatives, who were angry he assisted police in the early 1990s with their investigation into the death of a resident nearly 40 years earlier and that he had co-authored a report critical of the harsh treatment of residents by several "ex-biker type" counsellors.

One counsellor wrote to the institution's administrator expressing disgust with the report and threatened White personally, according to court documents.

After being convicted, White, 64, lost his counselling position, was fired from a subsequent job as a Red Cross homemaker and couldn't make his mortgage payments.

Financial help from friends enabled him to keep a roof over his head. White has since found work as a custodian at an Orillia mall.

Pardoned by the National Parole Board three years ago, he still wants to clear his name.

"It means a lot to me to fight for this right. The allegations did not happen," White said in an interview Monday at lawyer James Lockyer's office. "It's totally against my morals."

He wanted to testify at his trial, but his lawyer, Brian Turnbull, didn't call him as a witness and made little use of material that cast doubt on the credibility of the Crown's chief witness.

A report by Toronto defence lawyer John Rosen concludes Turnbull, who had just four years' experience as a lawyer and is now deceased, deprived White of his right to effective assistance of counsel.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of White's story is that although he was not disabled, he spent 12 years as a resident at Huronia himself, starting at age 9.

After his birth, at Toronto General Hospital, he was placed with a foster family. Years later, his foster mother said authorities believed because he was hyper at school, he was incapable of learning.

White was placed in what was then known as the Ontario Hospital School in Orillia and grew up alongside residents, many with severe cognitive disabilities, whom he considered brothers and sisters.

White was released at 21, found work as a cook, and completed Grades 5 to 12. Later, on a visit to Huronia, a former attendant suggested he apply for a job.

Some longtime staff resented that a former resident was now working alongside them, White said.

In 1993, a fellow counsellor claimed that in 1989, White had fondled the breast of a resident when he was assisting her in the shower and used crude language to describe her physique.

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Jack White spent nearly 25 years working with residents of a home for the developmentally disabled and his community volunteer activities earned him recognition by the federal government. But his reputation was ruined in little more than two hours when a jury, after a 62-minute trial plus deliberations, convicted him of sexual assault in 1993.

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This shows you how you can be awarded compensation in Canada

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An applicant is considered to have been wrongfully convicted when:

1. the applicant has served some or all of a prison term;

2. following a final conviction;

3. the conviction has been reversed, outside the normal appeal process, on the basis of a new or newly discovered fact (following a review ordered by the Minister of Justice of Canada under section 696.1 and following of the Criminal Code, as part of an appeal concerning an extension of time or after a free pardon is granted under section 748(2) of the Criminal Code);

4. the new fact shows that the applicant is factually innocent, in other words that the applicant did not commit the crime.

When an application for compensation is received by the Ministère de la Justice, a preliminary analysis of the case is conducted to determine whether the application meets the three main objective criteria set out in the Guidelines:

At this stage, if the application does not qualify, the applicant is informed.

If the application qualifies, a full administrative analysis of the case is conducted to determine factual innocence, since compensation can only be granted to a person who did not commit the crime for which he or she was convicted. In other words, the Attorney General must be convinced of the applicant's "factual" or "actual" innocence; a person who has been acquitted of the crime because the evidence did not provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not eligible for compensation.

A person acquitted at trial or during the normal appeal procedures is therefore not eligible.

If the application is granted, a lawyer in private practice is given instructions to determine the amount of the compensation.

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Compensation for Wrongfully Convicted and Imprisoned Persons

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An applicant is considered to have been wrongfully convicted when: the applicant has served some or all of a prison term; following a final conviction; the conviction has been reversed, outside the normal appeal process, on the basis of a new or newly discovered fact (following a review ordered by

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Photo from Innocence Canada.