Former Thompson city councillor Holly Beard, the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench judge who ordered Kyle Unger to be released on bail in November 2005 while the federal government reviewed his 1993 murder conviction, is now a judge on the Court of Appeal of Manitoba following a September appointment by Rob Nicholson, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada.
Murder charges against Kyle Unger were dropped Oct. 23 in a Winnipeg courtroom, ending a 19-year legal odyssey after the Crown determined it didn't have enough evidence to retry him for the 1990 killing of Brigitte Grenier near the site of a summer music festival in Roseisle, Man.
"I find that there are very serious concerns that the applicant may have been wrongfully convicted and, apart from this conviction, there is no reason to refuse to release Mr. Unger," Beard wrote in her decision to release Unger on bail in 2005. "As a result, I find that it is not necessary in the public interest that Mr. Unger be further detained."
Beard, who was appointed as a judge of the Court of Queen's Bench in Winnipeg in 1992, was born in Dauphin and moved to Thompson in 1960 with her brother Bill, mother Mabel and father Gordon, the MLA of the Churchill constituency, which then included Thompson, from 1962 until his death in November 1972, for whom the Gordon Beard Arena is named.
A graduate of R.D. Parker Collegiate in 1970, Beard completed two years of undergraduate studies in administration at the University of Manitoba and received her Bachelor of Laws from the university in 1977. She was called to the bar in 1978 and took an articling position with the Thompson firm of Bancroft, Whidden, Mayer and Buzza, eventually becoming a partner in 1985. Beard had a general practice in Thompson involving both litigation and solicitor work, including family, criminal, real estate, commercial, municipal and estates law.
In addition to her practice, Beard was involved in numerous community organizations in Thompson, serving as treasurer of the Thompson ski club for four years, a founding member of the Thompson Restitution Committee, a member of the founding committee of the Northern House shelter for abused women and children, and two terms as a bencher with the Law Society of Manitoba (the governing body for lawyers in the province).
She was elected to first term on city council with 1,838 votes in the municipal election of Oct. 22, 1986 and re-elected three years later with 1,417 votes.
Beard was also a director with Manitoba Telephone System, a member of the ministerial committee on community college governance for the Department of Education and a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
In 1990, she was appointed Queen's Counsel.
Beard's appointment to the Court of Queen's Bench by Justice Minister Kim Campbell in 1992 came shortly after she completed her second term on council, after which she did not seek re-election.
