A Winnipeg defence lawyer already suspended by the Manitoba Law Society for professional misconduct has now been charged with conspiracy to smuggle cannabis into a jail west of Winnipeg.

Chad Sutherland, 43, was arrested March 27 following a year-long investigation, according to RCMP.

The investigation spawned from an incident on March 30, 2025, when correctional officers at Headingley Correctional Centre noted a cannabis odour and set out to determine who brought the drug into the facility, RCMP said in a Tuesday news release.

Officers with the Manitoba Integrated Law Enforcement Team took charge a week later and identified Sutherland, who was still working as a criminal defence lawyer at the time, as a suspect.

Sutherland is also charged with conspiracy to possess a prohibited or restricted firearm, according to the news release.

Two other Winnipeggers were each charged with two counts of conspiring to commit an indictable offence in connection with the investigation, RCMP said. They remain in custody.

Sutherland was given an indefinite suspension and a $6,000 fine at a Jan. 22 hearing by the Law Society of Manitoba after a disciplinary panel found him guilty of professional misconduct.

The panel found he asked a former client for money and failed to show up for court three times. He was unresponsive during the provincial law society’s investigation into his conduct last year, the panel found.

Sutherland is also being sued by a former client who is currently an inmate at Brandon Correctional Centre.

The man retained Sutherland in January 2023 to represent him on numerous criminal charges.

His lawsuit claims he paid Sutherland $40,000 in cash, which was to be a retainer of $10,000 and $30,000 that would remain in trust. 

Sutherland “performed no meaningful legal work,” the lawsuit alleges. While $31,420 was returned to the client, the remaining $8,580 is unaccounted for, it states.

None of the allegations in that lawsuit have been tested in court.