Ottawa orders Appeal Court to review murder convictions of two Saskatchewan sisters

Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser has ordered the courts to reopen the case of two Saskatchewan sisters who spent almost three decades in prison for what may be wrongful murder convictions.

Fraser says he is sending the case of Odelia and Neressa Quewezance back to an Appeal Court for a review.

Fraser, in a statement Thursday, cited reasonable grounds to conclude that a miscarriage of justice occurred in the 1994 convictions.

“My decision does not decide guilt or innocence, as that will rest with the courts,” Fraser said.

“Our responsibility is to make sure Canadians can trust their justice system, and that means, in rare cases, returning cases to the courts.”

Fraser noted there is new information that was not before the courts during the trial or during the appeal.

James Lockyer, the sisters’ lawyer, said the information that led to their new appeal pertains to their time in custody after their arrest.

Lockyer said the women were held in an RCMP detachment in Kamsack, Sask., about 270 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. They were questioned by white male police officers for days, he said, which was in violation of a court order to send them to the local jail.

“We’ve discovered some more information in that regard that I don’t feel free to talk about at the moment, but will certainly be presented to the Court of Appeal,” he said in a phone interview Thursday.

He said the women were more vulnerable to pressures from police because of their time spent in residential schools. He said their alleged incriminating statements were never recorded and their in-custody environment increases the likelihood their confessions were false.

Lockyer applied for a ministerial review in December 2021, which was granted in June 2022. The two Saulteaux sisters were granted bail in 2023, but have since been returned to custody for breaching bail conditions.

“It’s very difficult for them, when they’ve spent all this time in prison, to be able to readjust in the community,” said Lockyer.

He added they both struggle with substance abuse.

Court documents show both sisters attended St. Philips Indian Residential School and Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School. Their mother and stepmother both died from drug overdoses.

Lockyer said he will be bringing further bail applications for them in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

The sisters said in a statement Thursday that they’re encouraged by the decision, but added that the battle continues.

“We have never stopped fighting,” Odelia said in the statement on behalf of her and her sibling.

“Thank you to all those who have kept the faith in us.”

The statement was issued through Innocence Canada, an organization that fights for those it believes were wrongfully convicted. It assisted the sisters in this case.

Lockyer, also a lawyer with Innocence Canada, said the Quewezance sisters’ case was flagged to the organization by David Milgaard, who spent 23 years in prison for the 1969 murder of a Saskatoon nursing student before his conviction was overturned. He died in 2022.

The two sisters were found guilty of second-degree murder in the 1993 stabbing death of 70-year-old farmer Anthony Joseph Dolff near Kamsack, Sask., about 270 kilometres northeast of Regina.

The women from the Keeseekoose First Nation have always maintained their innocence. Another person, who was a youth at the time, confessed to the killing and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Court has heard the sisters and the youth were drinking with Dolff at his farmhouse that fateful night when he was killed.

Court documents show Dolff was found dead in the bedroom of his home located near Keeseekoose First Nation. It says he had been stabbed 17 times and had a phone cord wrapped around his neck.

The sisters’ bid for an appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1996.

The federal Justice Department said after launching its review in June 2022 that there may be a reasonable basis to conclude there was a miscarriage of justice.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2026.

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press