Tuesday, November 7, 2023

In an opinion published in the Toronto Star (Nov. 5), Professor Kent Roach, co-founder of the Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions, and the Hon. Harry LaForme write how a new bill before Parliament fails to address miscarriages of justice. 

LaForme is an Anishinabe from Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and is the first Indigenous person to sit as an appellate court judge in Canada. He serves as senior counsel with Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP.

Roach is also the author of Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice (Simon & Schuster, 2023).

"Those who have suffered miscarriages of justice have waited too long for half-measures. Unfortunately, a government bill before Parliament does just that.

Seven public inquiries since 1989 have recommended a permanent and independent commission patterned after one in England to refer suspected miscarriages of justice back to the courts. In 2021, the federal government asked us to conduct consultations and make recommendations on the design of such a commission.

We spoke to exonerees and more than 200 other people. We then prepared a detailed report. We fear that, like so many reports before, ours has largely been ignored.

We recommended a commission of nine to 11 people, chosen through an independent committee and with non-renewable terms. At least one commissioner would be Indigenous and another Black to reflect the populations most at risk for wrongful convictions."

Read the full opinion in the Toronto Star (paywall)