Prof. Kent Roach writes "Colten Boushie’s family should be upset: Our jury selection procedure is not fair"

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

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).

Indigenous Initiatives' Amanda Carling and Prof. Kent Roach co-authors of "Mandatory minimum sentencing should be Trudeau’s first resolution"

Wednesday, January 3, 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).

SJD student Daniel Del Gobbo writes "In cases of sexual violence, justice can come from outside the courts"

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

In a commentary in the Toronto Star, SJD student and Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholar Daniel Del Gobbo writes about rethinking the way that the law handles sexual violence and introducing the option of a restorative justice process ("In cases of sexual violence, justice can come from outside the courts," July 25, 2017).

Read the full commentary on the Toronto Star website, or below.

Obscene intentions and corrupting effects

Simon Stern
Monday, July 17, 2017

[Cross-posted from the OUP Blog)   The 1868 decision in R. v Hicklin created a formula for evaluating obscene works that British and American courts would use for nearly a century. Chief Justice Alexander Cockburn, in a succinct phrase that numerous courts would quote, explained that “the test of obscenity is … whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall.” Hicklin is often taken as inaugurating a new era in obscenity law, shifting attention away from the author’s intentions, and towards a vague and subjective evaluation of the work’s effects.

Prof. Kent Roach co-authors "A report card on the national security bill"

Friday, June 23, 2017

In an analysis in Policy Options magazine, Prof. Kent Roach and University of Ottawa professor Craig Forcese conduct a detailed assessment of Bill C-59, An Act respecting national security matters, recently introduced by the federal government to reform Canada’s national security law ("A report card on the national security bill," June 22, 2017).

Reform: It's always been difficult but necessary

Thursday, June 8, 2017

“Reforming Criminal Justice and National Security” symposium calls for much needed improvements

By Christopher R. Graham, JD 2007

A Trip to the Court: a JD student reflects on an Asper Centre Intervention at the SCC

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

By Patrick Enright

JD student Patrick Enright at the SCCPatrick Enright is a second-year JD candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and was a student in the Asper Centre half time clinic in the Winter 2017 term.

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