Suspended Manitoba lawyer arrested, accused of smuggling cannabis into jail

A Winnipeg lawyer is accused of conspiring to smuggle cannabis into a Manitoba jail.

A Manitoba lawyer who was indefinitely suspended from practicing law has been arrested and charged with conspiracy to smuggle cannabis into a provincial jail last year.

RCMP say the Manitoba Integrated Law Enforcement Team arrested Chad Sutherland, 43, on Friday. He is also charged with conspiracy to commit mischief and conspiracy to possess a restricted firearm.

According to Mounties, the yearlong investigation stemmed from an incident on March 30, 2025, when correctional officers noticed a cannabis smell inside Headingley Correctional Centre.

Officers sought to find out who had brought the drug into the facility and identified Sutherland a week later, who was working as a criminal defence lawyer in Winnipeg at the time.

After legal proceedings related to an ongoing investigation concluded earlier this month, officers were able to charge him, according to a news release.

Sutherland remains in custody.

RCMP also charged two other suspects in the case last year with two counts of conspiring to commit an indictable offence.

The charges have not been tested in court.

In April 2025, the Law Society of Manitoba revoked Sutherland’s practicing certificate after he failed to comply with conditions previously imposed on him. The law society later found him guilty of professional misconduct on Jan. 22 and suspended him indefinitely from practicing in the province.

According to the law society’s written decision on the suspension, Sutherland repeatedly asked a client for payment in an improper manner, failed to appear in court on multiple occasions, and didn’t respond to the law society during its investigation.

The document notes in June 2025, Sutherland encountered a former client on a street and repeatedly asked her for money. He told her that the amounts owed were a “substantial reduction” from what she owed for work he had done when associated with a Winnipeg law firm.

“To entice a former client to pay him directly for unspecified service performed when he was working in association with a firm were dishonest,” reads the decision document.

“Trying to persuade a client to make payment for legal services directly to him, which on its face amounted to cheating the member’s former firm where the services were performed, clearly undermines public confidence in the trustworthiness and the ethics of the legal profession.”

Sutherland, who was called to the Manitoba bar in 2018, was also ordered to pay $6,000 as part of the law society’s investigation and prosecution.

CTV News had reached out to Sutherland for comment.