Verdicts and Voices

NYU professor Margaret Satterthwaite has been monitoring threats to the rule of law on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council since 2022. She has seen autocrats around the world unleash assaults on their legal systems, but now she finds herself writing to the government of her own country about attacks on judges and lawyers in the United States. And she has plenty of advice for Canadians and people everywhere about how to identify and respond to early warning signs that the rule of law may be at risk.Verdicts & Voices is a legal current affairs podcast presented by the Canadian Bar Association. With her retinue of expert guests, host Alison Crawford keeps listeners up to date on news, views, and stories about the law and the justice system in Canada. For more Canadian legal news, read CBA National, the CBA's bilingual online magazine. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When the Government of Canada launched its AI Strategy Task Force on September 26, 2025, Dr. Gideon Christian noticed a significant omission: Black people. Three weeks later, he was among 60 signatories of an open letter warning that Canada’s Black community “bears some of the greatest harms from AI bias and automated decision-making systems,” and calling for the inclusion on the task force of Black Canadians with relevant expertise.In this episode, Dr. Christian and another signatory, Jake Effoduh, describe how AI systems can exacerbate systemic biases, and how to mitigate the risks.Dr. Gideon Christian is University Excellence Research Chair (AI and Law) at the University of Calgary. Jake Effoduh is an Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Lincoln Alexander School of Law.Verdicts & Voices is a legal current affairs podcast presented by the Canadian Bar Association. With her retinue of expert guests, host Alison Crawford keeps listeners up to date on news, views, and stories about the law and the justice system in Canada. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On October 23, 2025, Canadian Justice Minister Sean Fraser introduced Bill C-14, the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act. The legislation notably aims to make bail “stricter and harder to get” and impose harsher sentences on repeat offenders. While some, like the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Retail Council of Canada, have welcomed the new bill, the Canadian Bar Association has argued that our bail system needs more capacity, streamlined procedures, and better social services – not new legislation.Melanie Webb chairs the CBA’s Criminal Law Section; she’s a Toronto-based criminal trial and appellate lawyer at Webb Barristers. Daniel Lerner is a former Crown Attorney who now practices criminal law at Lerner Law in Toronto.Verdicts & Voices is a legal current affairs podcast presented by the Canadian Bar Association. With her retinue of expert guests, host Alison Crawford keeps listeners up to date on news, views, and stories about the law and the justice system in Canada. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode is a panel discussion with Anita Szigeti of Anita Szigeti Advocates, a Toronto firm that focuses on mental health and the law; Hamna Anwar, a criminal lawyer at Lindsay Law in Toronto; and Kyla Lee, who specializes in impaired driving cases at Acumen Law in Vancouver. They are all members of Women in Canadian Criminal Defence (WiCCD), an organization Szigeti founded to support and advocate for female and gender-non-conforming criminal defence lawyers.Verdicts & Voices is a legal current affairs podcast presented by the Canadian Bar Association. With her retinue of expert guests, host Alison Crawford keeps listeners up to date on news, views, and stories about the law and the justice system in Canada. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Verdicts & Voices is a legal current affairs podcast presented by the Canadian Bar Association. With her retinue of expert guests, host Alison Crawford keeps listeners up to date on news, views, and stories about the law and the justice system in Canada.In this episode, Toronto lawyer and Supreme Court expert Nadia Effendi highlights some of the cases and issues the justices will be dealing with for the rest of 2025. These include matters involving:Disclosure of police misconduct records (Chief of the Edmonton Police Service v. John McKee, et al.)Medical patents (Pharmascience Inc. v. Janssen Inc., et al.)A disappeared man believed to be alive by his insurance company (Deborah Carol Riddle v. ivari)A dispute between a former Alberta MLA and the province’s Chief Electoral Officer (Glen L. Resler v. Joseph V. Anglin)The bilingualism of the New Brunswick Lieutenant Governor (Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick v. The Right Honourable Prime Minister of Canada)Sentencing considerations when an Indigenous perpetrator commits violence against an Indigenous woman (His Majesty the King v. Harry Arthur Cope)Overlapping Indigenous territorial claims (Nisga’a Nation v. Malii, aka Glen Williams, et al.; Skii km Lax Ha, aka Darlene Simpson, et al. v. Malii, aka Glen Williams, et al.) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Verdicts & Voices is a legal current affairs podcast presented by the Canadian Bar Association. With her retinue of expert guests, host Alison Crawford keeps listeners up to date on news, views, and stories about the law and the justice system in Canada.In this episode, Hon. David Brown draws on his 18 years of experience as an Ontario Superior Court and Court of Appeal judge to explain why justice in Canada can move so slowly. He argues a big part of the problem is a lack of transparency about how long cases actually take and where the holdups are. And he proposes “some cracking of eggs and bumping of heads” – for instance, can financial incentives be used to extract more data and speed things up? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Verdicts & Voices is a legal current affairs podcast presented by the Canadian Bar Association. With her retinue of expert guests, host Alison Crawford keeps listeners up to date on news, views, and stories about the law and the justice system in Canada.In this episode, writer and documentarian Karin Wells discusses her new book, Women Who Woke up the Law: Inside the Cases that Changed Women’s Rights in Canada. The conversation notably focuses on the cases of Jane Hurshman, who killed her abusive husband in 1982, and R v Ewanchuk, a landmark case about consent that featured a testy exchange between Justice John McClung of the Alberta Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we unpack key legal stories and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. This special series delves into legal news, landmark cases and features expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this episode, Canadian-American political analyst David Frum joins host Alison Crawford before a live audience in Toronto at an event jointly presented by the Canadian and American Bar Associations as part of the American Bar Association’s annual meeting. They discuss public attitudes toward democracy and the rule of law, the implications of the Safe Third Country Agreement governing migration between Canada and the U.S., and the role of lawyers in the prevention of democratic decline.If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we unpack key legal stories and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. This special series delves into legal news, landmark cases and features expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this episode, host Alison Crawford welcomes professor and historian Constance Backhouse to discuss her 2022 book Reckoning with Racism: Police, Judges, and the RDS Case, about the first time the Supreme Court of Canada considered a complaint of judicial racial bias. Ironically, the judge in question was Corrine Sparks, the country’s first Black female judge. (18:30 to 34:44)For a look at the lighter side of legal practice, we talk with two lawyers, Michael Currie and Nadia Halum, who litigate by day and self-deprecate by night, performing stand-up comedy in their spare time, and we learn about the Fantasy Courts league run by lawyer Thomas Slade that turns guessing how the Supreme Court will rule on decisions into a game. (34:44 to 57:57)We also take a look at the Safe Third Country Agreement. Our guests are immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman and Anwen Hughes, Senior Director of Legal Strategy, Refugee Programs at Human Rights First in NYC. (01:42 to 18:30)If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we unpack key legal stories and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. This special series delves into legal news, landmark cases and features expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this episode, host Alison Crawford welcomes David Parry, Chair of the CBA Criminal Justice Section, and Deanna Okun-Nachoff, partner at McCrea Immigration Law in Vancouver, to discuss the proposed new Strong Borders Act, or Bill C-2. (01:19 to 14:29)As June is Indigenous History Month, we hear from Chief Justice Leonard Marchand of the Court of Appeal of British Columbia and of the Court of Appeal of Yukon and Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Manitoba Court of King's Bench. They share their experiences incorporating Indigenous cultural and legal practices into proceedings. (14:33 to 45:21)We also take a look at the landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision on publication bans, Dagenais v CBC. Our guest is retired senior counsel for the CBC, Daniel Henry. (45:26 to 1:04:36)If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we unpack key legal stories and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. This special series delves into legal news, landmark cases and features expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this episode, host Alison Crawford talks about a troubling but increasingly common scam, where people impersonate trademark lawyers. Our guests are Gavin Manning, an experienced intellectual property lawyer at Oyen Wiggs, and Brent J. Arnold, a partner at Gowling WLG who specializes in privacy and cybersecurity law. (01:32 to 15:42)We welcome Amy Salyzyn, an author, legal ethicist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, to talk about a recent case of AI hallucinations in documents that were submitted at the Ontario Superior Court. (15:46 to 32:24)We also take a look at a one of the most consequential cases in the history of the Supreme Court of Canada: the 1998 Secession Reference. Our guest is Warren Newman, who served as co-counsel on the Secession Reference. (32:28 to 53:31)If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we unpack key legal stories and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. This special series delves into legal news, landmark cases and features expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this episode, host Alison Crawford welcomes the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario Geoffrey Morawetz for a conversation about the Civil Rules Review and its bold Phase 2 Report. (01:58 to 25:34)As far fewer Canadians are now traveling to the United States, we talk about the current realities of crossing the US-Canada border with Gabriela Ramo, former Chair of the CBA Immigration Law Section and Partner at EY Law. (25:42 to 38:19)We also take a look at landmark immigration cases at the Supreme Court of Canada with one of Canada’s most respected and influential immigration, refugee and human rights lawyers, Barbara Jackman. (38:22 to 54:08)If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we delve into legal news, landmark cases and feature expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this special election edition, host Alison Crawford welcomes two of Canada’s top criminal lawyers Matthew Gourlay, from Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, and Daniel Lerner from Lerner Law, as we take a closer look at the federal parties’ criminal justice platforms. (01:35 to 24:44)Anne McLellan and Peter MacKay, who both served as Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General, have a lively discussion on major legal issues that have been missing from the political debate during the campaign. (24:47 to 46:20)We also hear from CBA President Lynne Vicars, who talks about the Canadian Bar Association’s priorities for this federal election campaign. (46:25 to 52:50)If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we unpack key legal stories and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. This special series delves into legal news, landmark cases and features expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this episode, host Alison Crawford welcomes two international law experts, Gib Van Ert from Olthuis van Ert and Miriam Cohen from Université de Montréal, to evaluate the current state of the international rule of law.As its tax season in Canada, we talk tax reform with Heather Evans, CEO of the Canadian Tax Foundation. A timely conversation as the governor-general has called a federal election.We also take a look at some landmark Supreme Court decisions on access to abortion with University of Calgary law professor Jennifer Koshan.If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we unpack key legal stories and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. This special series delves into legal news, landmark cases and features expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this episode, host Alison Crawford welcomes Federal Court of Canada Chief Justice Paul Crampton, who explains how the court is swamped with an unprecedented number of cases and how virtually no one is declaring the use of AI in their filings.We talk with two family law experts, Shelley Hounsell, K.C. from Pressé Mason and Vanessa Lam from Lam Family Law, about the recent Supreme Court hearing into the proposed new tort of family violence.We also dive into R v. Drybones, the first case the Supreme Court decided under the 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights. Alison Crawford take a look at this landmark 1969 case and its impacts with Naiomi Metallic, a Mi'kmaq lawyer who teaches law at Dalhousie University, and Brian Purdy, the lawyer who represented the appellant, Michael Drybones.If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we unpack key legal stories and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. This special series delves into legal news, landmark cases and features expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.In this episode, host Alison Crawford welcomes Marion Sandilands, a practicing lawyer, part-time law professor and member of the CBA’s Working Group on the Notwithstanding Clause, and Geoffrey Sigalet, director of the UBC Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies, for a lively discussion on the notwithstanding clause and how provincial premiers are using it.In an exclusive interview with Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner about the court’s milestone 150th anniversary, he explains how the court has started to explore the possibility of offering judicial mediation to expand access to justice.With Ryan Manucha, research fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and expert on interprovincial trade in Canada, we take a good look at Gold Seal Ltd. v. Alberta, a prohibition-era judgment that, even 100 years later, continues to affect interprovincial trade. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nadia Effendi joins us again to review the output of the Supreme Court last year, shares her thoughts regarding Chief Justice Richard Wagner’s recent comments about the high number of judicial vacancies as well as comments about restricting interveners to virtual appearance. We discuss some recent judgments rendered (Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, Ontario (Attorney General) v. Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner) and the Reference re An Act respecting First Nations). She also weighs in on cases to watch that were recently granted leave, including AGO v. Working Families Coalition, a rare section 3 Charter case, and Sanis Health, which deals with the BC law that allows recovery of health-care costs from opioid providers.Effendi is a partner at BLG, based out of Toronto and Ottawa, a member of the CBA’s Federal Courts Bench and Bar Liaison Committee. She is also the chair of BLG's Appellate Advocacy and Public Law Group. Before joining the firm, she served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada to then-Justice Michel Bastarache.To contact us (please include in the subject line ''Podcast''): national@cba.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine hits the two-year mark – 10 years since the invasion of the Crimean Peninsula – the situation is dire. The ground battle had become mostly deadlocked until Ukrainians retreated earlier this month from the town of Avdiivka. Support from Western democracies has been skittish of late. Republicans in the U.S. Congress have stalled sixty billion U.S. dollars' worth of defense aid for Ukraine. Still, there is some hope for the resistance: the unblocking of $ 54 billion in European Union aid; Sweden has announced it will give $682 million worth of military equipment. Canada is promising to donate $70 million worth of drones from already announced spending dating back to the summer. The word we hear a lot these days is that the conflict in Ukraine is reaching an inflection point of sorts, though shifts in momentum are notoriously hard to read in times of war. What hasn’t changed in all of this is that the invasion of Ukraine remains a war of aggression – in violation of the United Nations Charter and customary international law. It’s also an international crime under the Rome Statute. Over a fifth of Ukrainian territory is currently under occupation by Russian troops. Arguably, it should be possible to prosecute a war of aggression committed by Russia's leadership before the ICC, as it should not be difficult to prove.  But that isn’t the case. Although the ICC can charge individuals for war crimes, it doesn’t have jurisdiction over Russian crimes of aggression. Our guest today will discuss why that is and what a core group of members of the international community and Ukraine are trying to do about it. Dr. Anton Korynevych is the Ambassador at Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. He’s a lawyer specializing in public international law, international humanitarian, and international criminal law. He’s the Agent of Ukraine before the International Court of Justice, where he has been arguing the case that Russian President Vladimir Putin abused the U.N. Genocide Convention by using an alleged genocide in eastern Ukraine as a pretext for invasion).  Dr. Korynevych is also in charge of gathering international support to establish a special tribune that could try Putin and his inner circle for the alleged crime of aggression — which no international court, including the International Criminal Court, has jurisdiction to do right now. To contact us (please include in the subject line ''Podcast''): national@cba.org     Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our guest today is Arif Virani, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada who has kindly agreed to share with our listeners the status of several pressing issues. We discuss criminal justice reform, the recent pause on the expansion of medical assistance in dying and plans to introduce online harms legislation. He also addresses judicial vacancies and the increasing resource challenges that our courts are facing. Arif Virani was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Parkdale—High Park in 2015. Throughout his career, he has served in various roles, including as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Democratic Institutions, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage (Multiculturalism), and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Before entering politics, he practised law for 15 years, starting his career as a civil litigator at Fasken Martineau and subsequently working as a constitutional litigator at the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario, advocating for human rights and access to justice. Minister Virani previously worked as an analyst with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Ottawa, an investigator at the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse in Montréal, and an Assistant Trial Attorney prosecuting genocide at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.  To contact us (please include in the subject line ''Podcast''): national@cba.org     Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the field of law, there are several crucial areas where generative AI demonstrates considerable promise – namely in the efficiencies it can create in contract generation, document review, legal research, and predictive analytics. So it’s expected to become an indispensable productivity tool across the legal profession The question then arises: how can this technology be effectively integrated into a legal practice or department? Amanda Chaboryk joins us for the second time on the show. She’s the Head of Legal Data and Systems within Operate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. Having started  her career in legal project management, she now focuses on the operational delivery of complex managed legal programs and helps clients navigate emerging technologies. We're also joined by Alex Hawley, an ESG regulatory solicitor for PwC in London. Having started her career as a commercial litigator, she now collaborates with clients new ESG developments and helps them incorporate emerging technologies, including Generative AI. Last year, PwC announced an exclusive partnership with the legal startup Harvey, a platform built on AI technology from OpenAI.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.