OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada ordered the reopening of a 20-year-old sexual assault case, giving a convicted Ontario man a chance to clear his name.

Without giving reasons, the court gave Jack White, who says he was framed, the right to provide fresh evidence to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

"This is a big step for me," White said in a news release distributed by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, which has taken up his cause.

"I'm looking forward to going to the court of appeal and getting my good name back."

The association said that White has been trying for 14 years to clear his name after being wrongly convicted of sexual assault in Orillia, Ont., in 1995.

"We still have a lot of work to do in the court of appeal, but I am optimistic that justice is coming Mr. White's way," said James Lockyer, a Director of AIDWYC.

White was convicted of sexually assaulting a resident at the Huronia Regional Centre where he worked as a counsellor helping people with developmental handicaps.

White was given a suspended sentence, but after his criminal conviction he was fired from his job.

The Crown's case was built around the testimony of one of White's co-workers.

Ten years ago, an arbitration board heard the co-worker's story and did not believe any of it, said AIDWYC.

The board ordered White reinstated with back pay, but the province of Ontario appealed the ruling, successfully arguing that the conviction in the criminal court was final and could not be challenged at a subsequent arbitration hearing.

AIDWYC, in its release, said that White had a long history at the Huronia Regional Centre. At the age of eight, he was sent there as a resident on the strength of a claim that he was learning disabled.

Thirteen years later he was released when it was discovered that he was not mentally challenged at all.

After his release, he earned a Grade 12 equivalency and went on to study and receive a diploma in what was then called "Mental Retardation Services."

In 1970, White returned to Huronia Regional Centre as a counsellor.