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 Karin Wells discusses her new book, Women Who Woke up the Law: Inside the Cases that Changed Women’s Rights in Canada. The conversation notably focuses on the cases of Jane Hurshman, who killed her abusive husband in 1982, and R v Ewanchuk, a landmark case about consent that featured a testy exchange between Justice John McClung of the Alberta Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé.

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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 system.

In this episode, Canadian-American political analyst David Frum joins host Alison Crawford before a live audience in Toronto at an event jointly presented by the Canadian and American Bar Associations as part of the American Bar Association’s annual meeting. They discuss public attitudes toward democracy and the rule of law, the implications of the Safe Third Country Agreement governing migration between Canada and the U.S., and the role of lawyers in the prevention of democratic decline.

If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org.

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 system.

In this episode, host Alison Crawford welcomes professor and historian Constance Backhouse to discuss her 2022 book Reckoning with Racism: Police, Judges, and the RDS Case, about the first time the Supreme Court of Canada considered a complaint of judicial racial bias. Ironically, the judge in question was Corrine Sparks, the country’s first Black female judge. (18:30 to 34:44)

For a look at the lighter side of legal practice, we talk with two lawyers, Michael Currie and Nadia Halum, who litigate by day and self-deprecate by night, performing stand-up comedy in their spare time, and we learn about the Fantasy Courts league run by lawyer Thomas Slade that turns guessing how the Supreme Court will rule on decisions into a game. (34:44 to 57:57)

We also take a look at the Safe Third Country Agreement. Our guests are immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman and Anwen Hughes, Senior Director of Legal Strategy, Refugee Programs at Human Rights First in NYC. (01:42 to 18:30)

If you have any comments on this episode, or if you would like to send us any story ideas, you can write to us at podcasts@cba.org.