A 50-Year-Old Fire, a Taxi Driver’s Conviction, and Jack MacDougall's Fight for Justice

On the latest episode of The Carr Brothers Show, Jack MacDougall didn’t hold back. Nearly 50 years after a fire ripped through the Saint John Jail, killing 21 inmates, he’s still fighting to clear the name of the man convicted for it—his former employee, taxi driver John Kenny.

"I believed, and still believe, he's 100% innocent," MacDougall told hosts Jack, Jeff, and Jody Carr, his voice firm with conviction.

It’s a story that’s been simmering for decades in Saint John, where arson cases were once a grim reality. But this one stood out. On June 21, 1977, a fire broke out inside the jail. By the time the flames were doused, 21 men were dead. Investigators pinned the crime on Kenny, who was working for MacDougall at the time.

MacDougall remembers the moment he found out. His dispatcher called him, rattling off the shocking details. “Yeah, 21 guys. And they caught the murderer.” Then came the gut punch—it was his own driver.

MacDougall testified as a character witness at Kenny’s trial, arguing there was no way his employee could have smuggled a pack of matches past multiple searches. But the case moved swiftly, and Kenny was convicted.

Now, with a renewed national conversation around wrongful convictions—thanks in part to Bill C-40, which aims to address miscarriages of justice—MacDougall sees a new window for Kenny’s case. He points to a recent article by journalist Michael Staples and the proposed creation of a Miscarriage of Justice Commission as reasons why this story deserves another look.

"This isn’t the first time I’ve pushed for this,” he admitted. “The problem for me is, I have no standing. I’m just an observer."

The show also dug into the biases MacDougall believes played a role in Kenny’s conviction. “If he had been a person of any degree of reputation, it would have been an outrage. But he was a taxi driver. He was just a write-off.”

Beyond revisiting the past, MacDougall also reflected on his long political career—from leading the New Brunswick Green Party to saving the historic Imperial Theatre. But it’s clear the Kenny case is unfinished business for him.

"If we can nudge the ball down the road a little bit,” he said, “and somebody in power, in a position of importance, says, ‘this does take another look,’ then maybe we get somewhere."