Judicial Decision-Making

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail on the anniversary of the acquittal of Gerald Stanley for the killing of Colton Boushie, Prof. Kent Roach assesses what little has been done, and what more needs to be done, to ensure "Canadian justice does not continue to be experienced by Indigenous people as injustice." ("One year after the acquittal of Gerald Stanley, little has changed," February 9, 2019).

Justice Elena Kagan, centre, with Prof. Albert Yoon (far left), the Hon. Frank Iacobucci and Chancellor Rose Patten at the Convocation ceremony. Photo by Lisa Sakulensky.

By Romi Levine, U of T News

Elena Kagan’s career has been both varied and accomplished. The associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States has worked in the White House, taught at the University of Chicago, and is the first woman to become dean of Harvard Law School and to hold the job of U.S. solicitor general.

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Amanda Carling, manager of the Indigenous Initiatives Office, highlights the issue of innocent people – a disproportionate number of them First Nations, Inuit and Métis people – pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit ("Pleading guilty when innocent: A truth for too many Indigenous people," May 23, 2018).

Read the full commentary on the Globe and Mail website, or below.

SJD student and Trudeau Scholar Daniel Del Gobbo has co-authored (with Vathsala Illesinghe) a commentary in the magazine Policy Options, "The #MeToo movement has exposed inequalities in the legal system that disadvantage women. Restorative justice could help in certain sexual violence cases" (April 23, 2018).

Read the full commentary on the Policy Options website, or below.

In a commentary in the Ottawa Citizen, Prof. Kent Roach argues that the federal government's proposal in Bill C-75 to eliminate peremptory challenges in jury selection is an important first step towards ensuring representative juries ("Ending peremptory challenges in jury selection is a good first step," April 2, 2018).

Read the full commentary on the Ottawa Citizen website, or below.

Amanda Carling, Manager of Indigenous Initiatives, and Prof. Kent Roach are among the co-authors of a commentary in the Globe and Mail calling on the federal government to amend the criminal code to allow judges to depart from mandatory minimum sentences if they give specific reasons for doing so, as recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ("Mandatory minimum sentencing should be Trudeau’s first resolution," January 2, 2018).