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 attacks on judges and lawyers in the United States. And she has plenty of advice for Canadians and people everywhere about how to identify and respond to early warning signs that the rule of law may be at risk.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. For more Canadian legal news, read CBA National, the CBA's bilingual online magazine. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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17:34
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17:34
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 AI bias and automated decision-making systems,” and calling for the inclusion on the task force of Black Canadians with relevant expertise.In this episode, Dr. Christian and another signatory, Jake Effoduh, describe how AI systems can exacerbate systemic biases, and how to mitigate the risks.Dr. Gideon Christian is University Excellence Research Chair (AI and Law) at the University of Calgary. Jake Effoduh is an Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Lincoln Alexander School of 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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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 Police and the Retail Council of Canada, have welcomed the new bill, the Canadian Bar Association has argued that our bail system needs more capacity, streamlined procedures, and better social services – not new legislation.Melanie Webb chairs the CBA’s Criminal Law Section; she’s a Toronto-based criminal trial and appellate lawyer at Webb Barristers. Daniel Lerner is a former Crown Attorney who now practices criminal law at Lerner Law in Toronto.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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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22:12
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 members of Women in Canadian Criminal Defence (WiCCD), an organization Szigeti founded to support and advocate for female and gender-non-conforming criminal defence lawyers.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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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32:10
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32:10
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 Supreme Court expert Nadia Effendi highlights some of the cases and issues the justices will be dealing with for the rest of 2025. These include matters involving:Disclosure of police misconduct records (Chief of the Edmonton Police Service v. John McKee, et al.)Medical patents (Pharmascience Inc. v. Janssen Inc., et al.)A disappeared man believed to be alive by his insurance company (Deborah Carol Riddle v. ivari)A dispute between a former Alberta MLA and the province’s Chief Electoral Officer (Glen L. Resler v. Joseph V. Anglin)The bilingualism of the New Brunswick Lieutenant Governor (Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick v. The Right Honourable Prime Minister of Canada)Sentencing considerations when an Indigenous perpetrator commits violence against an Indigenous woman (His Majesty the King v. Harry Arthur Cope)Overlapping Indigenous territorial claims (Nisga’a Nation v. Malii, aka Glen Williams, et al.; Skii km Lax Ha, aka Darlene Simpson, et al. v. Malii, aka Glen Williams, et al.) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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.
Canada - english