A funeral for the first accused ...

...what I mean by this is that Marshall really stands as the first case, for most people, of the wrongfully accused in Canada ...

Funeral for Mi'kmaq icon held in Nova Scotia.
Canwest News ServiceAugust 9, 2009

SYDNEY, N.S. - Mourners gathered at a Sydney, N.S. church Monday for the funeral of Donald Marshall Jr., - a Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq icon -who died Thursday due to complications arising from a double-lung transplant operation.
The 55 year old was at the centre of one of Canada's highest profile wrongful conviction cases, and his path to prominence was a bitter one that repeatedly passed through courthouses at all levels of jurisdiction.
He spent 11 years in prison after being convicted - at age 17 - of murder in the 1971 stabbing death of Sandy Seale in Sydney, N.S.
In 1982, his case was referred to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and a year later he was acquitted on all charges. He had always maintained his innocence.
In 1990, Marshall was finally exonerated in the report of a royal commission into the wrongful murder conviction. The inquiry concluded Marshall was a victim of racism and incompetence, and the Nova Scotia justice system failed him at every turn.
He was eventually compensated with a lifetime pension of $1.5 million.
A second, high-profile legal case involved Marshall's 1996 conviction for illegally catching and selling eels out of season and without a licence.
In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a centuries-old treaty between Mi'kmaq natives and the British Crown in acquitting Marshall.
The high court ruling also confirmed that Mi'kmaq and Maliseet in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have the right to earn a moderate livelihood from hunting, fishing and gathering.
Marshall also found himself in court for other reasons over the years, including a recent case involving charges of assaulting and threatening his wife, Colleen D'Orsay, and her ex-husband who is a lawyer in Sydney.
That matter had been scheduled to return to court later this month.
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