Supreme Court to hear appeal in Churchill portrait theft case

The Supreme Court of Canada will hear Jeffrey Wood’s appeal of his jail sentence in the theft of The Roaring Lion from Ottawa’s Château Laurier.

The Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal from Jeffrey Wood, the man who stole The Roaring Lion , the famed Winston Churchill portrait taken from Ottawa’s Château Laurier hotel.

Wood is challenging his jail sentence of two years less a day, imposed in May 2025 after he pleaded guilty to forgery, theft over $5,000 and trafficking property obtained by crime. Three other charges were withdrawn.

The case drew international attention because of the portrait’s history and the length of time it was missing. The image was made by celebrated photographer Yousuf Karsh, a longtime Château Laurier resident, and was given to the hotel in 1998.

The portrait disappeared sometime between Christmas 2021 and early January 2022. It was later returned to the hotel after an international search that ended in September 2024.

Wood’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, appealed the sentence after calling it “unnecessarily harsh.” Ontario’s highest court dismissed that appeal in October, and Greenspon then sought to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Supreme Court said Thursday it would hear the appeal. Dates for the next steps have not been set.