Verdicts & Voices
by Canadian Bar Association
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.
Episodes
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The rise of women-led law firms
The challenges women can face at traditional law firms are well known: pay gaps, burnout, glass ceilings. But what happens when women decide to build something different? And what can all lawyers learn from their experiences? Grace Cleveland chairs the Canadian Bar Association’s Women Lawyers...
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Was Nova Scotia’s last hanging a wrongful conviction?
In July 1933, two Halifax boys were found dead by the train tracks. Daniel Perry Sampson, a Black WWI veteran, was hanged for their murder. Almost a century later, his great-great-grandson – a celebrated musical artist – is fighting to clear his name. Lance Sampson, aka Aquakultre, won the 2018…
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The pith and substance of Alberta’s referendum questions
On October 19, Albertans will answer questions on complex topics including immigration, judicial appointments, voting rights, and whether to remain in Canada. How did the province get here? How likely is this process to result in clear mandates for the provincial government? And will any of it…
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Supreme Court fall preview
Friend of the pod Nadia Effendi returns to talk us through the fall agenda of Canada’s top court. Topics include online gambling, price-fixing, religious freedom, prison lockdowns, the Ontario Place redevelopment, the federal assault weapons ban, and the theft of the Winston Churchill portrait…
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A remedy for people who can afford it?
When the Supreme Court of Canada created a new tort of intimate-partner violence in May 2026, family lawyers Shelley Hounsell and Vanessa Lam joined us to contemplate its likely effects. Four months later, we check in to see how things are working out. Among the questions on the agenda: Is this...
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Kudos to the humans
As artificial intelligence keeps evolving, so do the ways of using and misusing it in the courts. To kick off our new season, University of Ottawa expert Amy Salyzyn joins the show to explain everything from prompt injection attacks to shadow AI, and how the human beings who work in Canada’s...
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Indigenous practice in Canadian courts (from the archives)
How should Canadian courts incorporate Indigenous cultural and legal practices? Why might some judges be reluctant to do so? And are we moving toward a tri-jural system in which Indigenous legal orders exist alongside civil and common law? To mark National Indigenous Peoples Day, we’re replaying…
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Approaching the bar
In this final episode of the spring, three law students discuss their reasons for studying law, their first forays into law firms, and their impressions of a changing profession and a tumultuous world. See you in September! Maria Kalapurayil just graduated from the University of Alberta. Sophie...
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“I thought she was nuts when she said I’d be a judge.”
In 1976, when Harvey Brownstone told his mother he was gay, she became “volcanic” and kicked him out of the house. He spent five years on welfare, without stealing – much. Somehow, though, he got a law degree from Queens, clerked for a young Rosalie Abella, and became Canada’s first openly gay...
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A turning point for a tort of family violence
The Supreme Court of Canada issued a landmark decision earlier this month that created a new tort of family violence. This means people who have suffered harm due to intimate partner violence will be able to seek damages. The 6-3 decision in Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia was more than a year in the...
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Nunavut’s Gladue dilemma
Since the Supreme Court’s 1999 Gladue decision, sentencing judges in Canada are supposed to consider the “unique systemic or background factors” that bring Indigenous people in contact with the law. The idea is to reduce Indigenous overincarceration and promote alternative sanctions. But how does...
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“A landmark decision for the independence of the bar”
For two years, much of the BC legal community has been warning that changes to the regulation of lawyers in that province risk making them answerable to the state rather than their clients. Last week, the BC Supreme Court upheld the changes as constitutional, despite noting the government’s...
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When courts get vexed
Everyone is supposed to be entitled to their day in court. But how should we weigh that principle against the reality of litigants who misuse court processes, tying up resources and subjecting other parties to harm? What approaches exist to identify vexatious or abusive litigation at an early…
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How to judge slop
B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Masuhara may have been the first judge in Canada to encounter AI-generated fake citations. As he wrote at the time, “generative AI is still no substitute for the professional expertise that the justice system requires of lawyers.” Two years later, the phenomenon...
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The badge of good character
Canadian law societies require licensed lawyers to be of good character. But what does that mean? How is the requirement enforced? And can a person who sexually abused multiple children, and lied about it for years, still meet this standard? Nadia Liva practices regulatory and disciplinary…
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Will the Protecting Victims Act do just that?
When Justice Minister Sean Fraser unveiled the federal government's latest bill to reform the criminal justice system last December, he said Bill C-16 would confront the rise in coercive control and intimate partner violence, and “keep kids safe from predators.” But will it actually live up to…
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Quebec’s secularism law gets its day in court
When Quebec’s secularism law finally has its day at the Supreme Court next week, it will be a case for the ages. There will be dozens of interveners, six provinces and the federal government will be represented, and Ontario’s Attorney General will even make his argument personally. At issue are...
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A lightning rod and a symbol of courage (from the archives)
Corinne Sparks of Nova Scotia was Canada’s first black woman judge. She was also the object of a racial bias complaint that reached the Supreme Court and stunted her career. To mark the International Day of Women Judges, we’re replaying this July 2025 interview about it with Constance Backhouse…
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Jordan turns ten
In 2016, when the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in R. v. Jordan, it called out a “culture of complacency” toward delays in Canadian court proceedings. The decision revolutionized Canadian criminal law, imposing strict timelines for bringing cases to trial: 18 months for provincial...
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From law to order
Cops and lawyers are famously “separate but equally important groups” within the criminal justice system. Police officers often encounter the practice of law – lawyers, warrants, the witness stand – but what makes some of them join it? How do they manage the transition? And how does their…
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Motion to intervene
On November 21, 2025, a Divisional Court judge ruled that the Black Legal Action Centre could intervene in a case before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The only problem? Twenty-four hours earlier, a different judge had made the opposite ruling. How did that happen? How was the situation...
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Who needs international law?
It’s been a rocky twelve months for the idea that countries’ actions should be governed by rules. Does that mean international law is dead? Was it ever alive? Or is it more relevant than ever? Join two of Canada’s leading experts for a conversation that runs the gamut from tariffs to the ICC to...
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Supreme Court preview with Nadia Effendi
Canada’s Supreme Court will have a lot on its docket in the coming months, and friend of the pod Nadia Effendi is back to talk us through it. Among the highlights: Will the Court recognize a tort of family violence? (Kuldeep Kaur Ahluwalia v. Amrit Pal Singh Ahluwalia) Are the findings of...
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Season’s Readings!
It was a long year, but you made it! Time to put on your fuzzy socks, curl up with some cocoa, and dig into a good book. We’ve assembled an elite Canadian legal brain trust… to give you reading recommendations for the holidays. Want ideas for fiction? Non-fiction? True crime? Children’s lit?...
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Plain language (or, Eschewing unnecessary obfuscation in juridical discourse)
Why can’t lawyers and judges just say what they mean? Legal documents – statutes, contracts, court decisions – are infamous for being dense and full of jargon (not to mention Latin). But a growing community of legal professionals is advocating plain language as a way to make the law more...
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“So fundamentally wrong”: Alexandre Forest and Stéphane Beaulac on Quebec’s constitution bill
In the coming days, Quebec’s National Assembly will hear testimony about a proposed new provincial constitution, known as Bill 1. Alexandre Forest, President of the Canadian Bar Association’s Quebec Branch, will attend and argue that the legislation should be withdrawn in its entirety for reasons...
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Expanding notwithstanding rebranding? (from the archives)
The taboo once associated with Section 33 (the notwithstanding clause) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms seems to be fading. In recent months, Alberta has used it to end a teachers’ strike and pass bills affecting transgender youth and adults. Saskatchewan invoked it in 2023 to…
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Bye-bye to the bar exam? Jennifer Pink and Jordan Furlong
Passing the bar exam has long been accepted as a natural step for new lawyers. But in Canada, that seems to be changing. The Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP) has already replaced bar exams in PEI, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and Nunavut. British Columbia is set to…
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A chat with Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers
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...
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Artificial intelligence, genuine bias: law professors Gideon Christian and Jake Effoduh
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...
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Do we need a bail bill? Melanie Webb and Daniel Lerner react to Bill C-14
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…
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The sisterhood of “gender sellouts” in criminal law: Anita Szigeti, Hamna Anwar and Kyla Lee
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...
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Supreme Court fall preview with Nadia Effendi
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…
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Justice by the numbers: Hon. David Brown on delays, data, and thumping the drum
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...
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“One day, she just had enough”: Karin Wells on the women behind landmark cases in Canadian 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. In this episode, writer and documentarian...
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Verdicts and Voices: David Frum on the rule of law, asylum systems, and why Canada is global democracy’s “least dirty shirt”
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...
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Verdicts and Voices: Canada’s first Black female judge and the RDS Case, lawyers getting laughs, and the Safe Third Country Agreement.
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...
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Verdicts and Voices: Bill C-2, Indigenous legal practices, and Dagenais v CBC
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...
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Verdicts and Voices: A troubling trademark scam, AI hallucination cases and the 1998 Secession Reference
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...
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Verdicts and Voices: The Ontario Civil Rules Review, crossing the US-Canada border, and landmark immigration cases
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...
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Verdicts and Voices: The 2025 Federal Election
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...
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Verdicts and Voices: The international rule of law, tax reform, and access to abortion
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...
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Verdicts and Voices: The use of AI at the Federal Court, the tort of family violence, and R v. Drybones
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...
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Verdicts and Voices: The notwithstanding clause, Gold Seal v. Alberta and a conversation with Chief Justice Richard Wagner
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...
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Episode 37: Supreme court briefing
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…
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Episode 36: Dr. Anton Korynevych on the effort to create a Special Tribunal on Crimes of Aggression Against Ukraine.
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…
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Episode 35: Justice Minister Arif Virani on criminal law reform, expanding MAiD and the state of our courts
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…
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Episode 34: Amanda Chaboryk and Alex Hawley on how to use AI in a legal practice
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...
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Episode 33: Woodrow Hartzog on the dangers of regulating AI with half measures
We've been talking a lot about AI on the podcast and on CBA National, and one of the issues that keeps coming up is the challenge for a country like Canada in selecting the right approach to regulating AI risk. It's not as if there's a single model out there. The EU is trying to set the gold...
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Episode 32: Dr. Carys Craig on generative AI and the dangers of the copyright trap
One of the significant controversies about AI is the impact of generative software on the use and production of cultural works. The fast-growing popularity of these tools raises big questions about the ethics of AI-generated works and whether they amount to a technologically advanced form of...
About this show
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.
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Canadian Bar Association
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