The Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin—known as the Kaufman Commission[1] or the Morin Inquiry[2][3]—was a 1996 royal commission appointed by the Government of Ontario to address the wrongful conviction in 1992 of Guy Paul Morin for the murder of Christine Jessop on 3 October 1984, for which he was exonerated by DNA evidence on 23 January 1995.[1][4]
The public inquiry was issued on 26 June 1996 by the Lieutenant Governor-in-Council, appointing Fred Kaufman, Q.C., a former judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal, as commissioner.[4] The hearings began on 10 February 1997 and continued for 146 days. Kaufman's report—commonly known as the Kaufman Report—was released on 9 April 1998 and contained 119 recommendations.[4]
Morin's conviction has been cited as one of Canada's most famous wrongful conviction cases. The inquiry led to significant alterations of how police investigated murders in Canada. Lawyer Bruce MacFarlane said that the report "is arguably the most comprehensive judicial review that has ever been undertaken into the causes of wrongful conviction, and how to avoid them."[2]
The real killer remained unidentified until 2020. On 15 October 2020, Toronto Police identified Jessop’s murderer as Calvin Hoover, a friend and neighbour of the Jessop family who was 28 at the time of the case; he had died in 2015.[5][6]