Criminal Law 

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 Globe and Mail, Prof. Kent Roach argues that Alexandre Bissonnette could and should have been charged with terrorism as well as murder, on the basis of s.231(6.01) of the Criminal Code ("Why the Quebec City mosque shooting was terrorism," April 20, 2018).

Read the full commentary on the Globe and Mail 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.

Colten Boushie in a photo posted Nov. 6, 2011 (photo via Facebook)

By Geoffrey Vendeville

The verdict in the Colten Boushie case has provoked outrage across the country and prompted reflection about how the justice system treats Indigenous people. 

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Prof. Kent Roach argues that the ability of both the prosecution and the defence to exercise peremptory challenges of prospective jurors means the current method of jury selection in Canadian trials  is fundamentally unfair and makes it possible for lawyers to discriminate against Indigenous persons and others ("Colten Boushie’s family should be upset: Our jury selection procedure is not fair," January 20, 2018).

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).