Nina Haikara

Emotions play a key role in shaping people’s views on renewable energy: Study

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:26:08 +0000

Emotions play a key role in shaping people’s views on renewable energy: Study

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 07/23/2024 - 10:26

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The influence of emotions on people's perceptions of energy issues was explored in a meta-analysis study led by Steve Lorteau, doctoral candidate at U of T's Faculty of Law (photo by Daniel Vogl/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Nina Haikara

Topic

Breaking Research

Faculty of Law

Research & Innovation

Sustainability

Subheadline

New research from U of T's Faculty of Law examines the policy impact of climate concerns and worries

Concern and worry over climate change result in support for renewable energy but don’t necessarily translate into opposition to fossil fuels, according to a study led by Steve Lorteau, doctoral candidate at the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law.

Lorteau and researchers in psychology and sociology from the University of British Columbia, Université de Montréal, University of Ottawa and Université de Saint-Boniface set out to examine how emotions affect people’s perceptions of energy issues – and what implications this could have on shaping policies and communicating the impacts of climate change.

Their paper, published in Energy Policy, lays out the results of a meta-analysis on the link between climate concerns and worries and opinions about energy sources, based on data from over 85,000 participants in 36 countries. The studies asked questions such as, “Are you concerned about climate change?” or “Are you worried about climate change?” The studies also asked participants questions about how they view different energy sources, such as support for wind, oil and gas and nuclear.

“At first, we expected that if you are concerned about climate change, you would support renewable energy like wind and solar – and oppose coal, oil and gas to the same degree. But that’s not what we found,” says Lorteau. “We found that people with concerns and worries about climate change supported renewables, but also found these emotional responses only translate into a slight opposition to fossil fuels because people really like the status quo.

“Most people consider, ‘How am I going to gas my car if there are no fossil fuels? How am I going to heat my home?’”

As a result, policymakers need to consider how people view energy and climate policy questions, since emotional aspects will shape how they view change, Lorteau says, noting this point builds on Faculty of Law Professor Brenda Cossman’s earlier work on how climate anxiety can lead people away from the political process.

“In terms of a policy outcome, people don’t want to be inconvenienced,” Lorteau says. “They seem to think that we can solve climate change by just adding more renewables to the mix while keeping the same baseline of fossil fuels, which is not the consensus among climate scientists.”

The analysis also found that climate concerns and worries were not associated with support for – or opposition to – nuclear energy. This, Lorteau says, is due to the fact that support for nuclear energy tends to depend on context and how questions are worded. For example, the questions “Do you support zero-emissions nuclear energy?” and “Would you support a nuclear facility next door to you?” resulted in equal opposition and support.

“Some countries rely heavily on nuclear energy – France being an example – and in those countries, I think [there is] some acceptance that nuclear energy is part of the status quo versus memories of where nuclear energy goes wrong and so those concerns become more salient,” he says.

For his doctoral research, Lorteau is focused on zoning laws in Canada and the U.S. and how people are concerned about losing out on environmental policy change. He says zoning laws preserve and protect the status quo of property owners while not evaluating the potential gains that can happen in society, especially when it comes to environmental initiatives.

He notes the concept of winners and losers of policy decisions is a big theme of University Professor Emeritus Michael Trebilcock’s groundbreaking research, and an influence on his own. "If the policy losers are powerful enough, have a legitimate claim or feel aggrieved, change won’t happen,” Lorteau says.

“How do you bring environmentalism into a space that is so biased against it in big ways? You need to consider emotions, and the potential losers of a policy transition, to understand what their complaints are.”

U of T legal scholar honoured for contributions to legal philosophy, defending rule of law

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 19:45:18 +0000

U of T legal scholar honoured for contributions to legal philosophy, defending rule of law

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 11/23/2023 - 14:45

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David Dyzenhaus researches the idea of legality in philosophy of law and political thought, constitutionalism, and the modern legal state (photo by Nina Haikara)

Nina Haikara

Topic

Our Community

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Law

Philosophy

SSHRC

Subheadline

University Professor David Dyzenhaus was awarded a Gold Medal by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

David Dyzenhaus’s scholarly interests were shaped during his legal studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, at a time when South Africa’s apartheid regime held total sway.

“I thought there must be more to law than what a government with a total grip on power enacted, as lawyers were able to find legal resources to resist oppression and discrimination despite the fact that there was no written constitution,” says Dyzenhaus, a University Professor at the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts & Science's department of philosophy.

“Lawyers… found legal resources despite all of this to resist what was being visited on the majority of South Africans by law. That made administrative law – a seemingly boring subject – very interesting.”

David Dyzenhaus (supplied image)

That feature of legal order led to a career-long fascination with the rule of law and administrative law, the substantive area of law he teaches.

Dyzenhaus’s exceptional contributions to his field were recognized with a Gold Medal from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The medal is the council’s highest honour and is awarded to an individual whose leadership, dedication and originality of thought have inspired students and colleagues.

“David is a renowned scholar and teacher, celebrated by peers and students alike,” said University Professor Jutta Brunnée, dean of the Faculty of Law. “It signals a lifetime of academic achievement and extraordinary expertise to receive this very special prize from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.”

A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and corresponding fellow of the British Academy, Dyzenhaus researches the idea of legality in philosophy of law and political thought, constitutionalism, and the modern legal state.

In the department of philosophy, he teaches an introductory course on the philosophy of law as well as undergraduate and graduate courses on political and legal philosophy. He also taught a first-year humanities seminar titled “Trump, the rule of law, and the rise of illiberal democracy”.

“Throughout his career, David has produced a body of work of unusual depth and importance.” said Professor Martin Pickavé, chair of the department of philosophy. “It is wonderful to see his rich research now recognized with one of the country’s most important national awards.”

For Dyzenhaus, who holds the Albert Abel Chair of Law, teaching and research go hand in hand. “I can't do research without talking to students about it, and I can't teach without it engaging directly with my interests,” he said.

He says questions in legal philosophy are often posed in an abstract way: What is law? What is legal order? But Dyzenhaus says many countries have “this thing simply known as ‘law’ and the issue for philosophy of law is to try to find an account of the nature of that thing.

“When it comes to the more difficult question – what is the rule of law – the simple answer is that one has the rule of law when the state acts in accordance with law,” he says. “So if the state enacts law, and then its officials abide by the law they implement, the real question becomes whether if, in so doing, officials do something that's morally worthwhile.”

This spring, Dyzenhaus will take his expertise to the London, U.K.-based Centre for Transnational Legal Studies – a joint venture between U of T’s Faculty of Law and 20 other premier law schools – where he will teach courses on the philosophy of judicial review and the politics of legal space. The latter course, which Dyzenhaus will co-teach with his former student Kirsten Rundle, a professor at Melbourne University’s law school, will examine the dilemmas human rights lawyers face and how these are shaped by the legal spaces in which they operate.

“Such lawyers know that when they're using legal resources to struggle against legalized oppression, they're not going to be able to overturn an oppressive regime and might actually help to legitimate it,” says Dyzenhaus.

His next research project will examine the social basis for law through the lens of social theory and sociology, and explore how individuals participate in society’s constitutional foundation.

"It’s not what people do in their daily lives, but what happens when they engage a lawyer, and through that lawyer, participate in the legal order,” Dyzenhaus said.

Rebuilding public trust after COVID-19: U of T experts review law, ethics and policymaking

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:08:09 +0000

Rebuilding public trust after COVID-19: U of T experts review law, ethics and policymaking

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 10/13/2023 - 10:08

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Trudo Lemmens, a professor in U of T’s Faculty of Law, is co-leading a study about the impact of COVID-19 public health measures on disadvantaged communities (photo by Nina Haikara)

Topic

Disability rights, disability justice and disability advocacy have been an increasing focus of Trudo Lemmens’s research – particularly in the wake of COVID-19.

“The recent COVID-19 pandemic revealed again how various measures and policies often uniquely impact on persons with disabilities,” says Lemmens, a ��߲ݴ�ý Faculty of Law professor who holds the Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy with cross-appointments to U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Joint Centre for Bioethics.

“The voices of disabled persons were largely ignored, and the disability community was not meaningfully involved in the decision-making process.”

Lemmens and co-principal investigator Alison Thompson, an associate professor and a bioethicist at U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, as well as former members of the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, are leading a global interdisciplinary study on “Rebuilding public trust after COVID-19: Examining public health measures and their impacts on disadvantaged communities.”

Their research, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) New Frontiers in Research Fund for post-pandemic recovery, aims to shed light on the challenges faced by disadvantaged communities during the pandemic and provide insights to rebuild public trust and address health disparities.

“Viruses don’t discriminate, societies do,” says Thompson, who has worked on ethics and policymaking issues both nationally and internationally and was a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Bioethics Advisory Table.

“We need to listen to persons living with disabilities, for example, about how their concerns can be better addressed, and how policy processes can be made more inclusive and responsive to the needs of people who are disproportionately harmed because of pre-existing, unjust social conditions.”

Alison Thompson (supplied image)

Their post-pandemic recovery research is born in part out of earlier work by the project's team members, including Deborah Stienstra, a professor of political science and director of the Life Work Well Research Centre at the University of Guelph, and Kevin Bardosh, an applied medical anthropologist at the University of Washington. The work was also informed by policy discussions on clinical triage policies with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, ARCH Disability Rights Centre, and the AODA Alliance (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Alliance).

Stienstra’s report, “Consistently excluded: A disability inclusion analysis of Canada’s COVID-19 policies,” was featured during the Faculty of Law’s ongoing Health Law, Policy & Ethics Seminar Series, which was organized by Lemmens.

Another seminar featured the collaborative research paper – “The Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Vaccine Policy: Why Mandates, Passports, and Segregated Lockdowns May Cause more Harm than Good” – written by Bardosh, Lemmens, and others involved in the new project. A recording of the discussion for "Unintended Consequences" has since received more than 77,000 YouTube views.

“Experts have been recommending development of pandemic policies for a long time – since SARS-CoV [severe acute respiratory syndrome] in Ontario – and still it appears we were unprepared and failed to have equitable policies in place,” Lemmens says.

He adds that other countries introduced different measures and policies during COVID-19 and that we can learn from various approaches. Fernando Aith, a visiting professor of health law at University of São Paulo, is part of the research team that will be exploring Brazil’s approaches.

“Brazil had one of the highest COVID-19 fatality rates in the world. Denialism, mistaken political and administrative decisions, lack of co-ordination between the different Brazilian federative entities, stand out among the problems faced throughout the pandemic, which killed more than 700,000 people in the country,” says Aith.

“A comparative study between Brazil-Canada will allow us to understand the similarities and differences of these countries in confronting the pandemic, and thus consolidate strategic knowledge to prevent future public health emergencies."

Lemmens says public health policy has traditionally emphasized the importance of building, strengthening, and maintaining public trust. To that end, researchers will explore how the implementation or absence of different measures, such as testing strategies, vaccine and mask mandates, clinical triage policies and public health communication have influenced public trust – particularly between already disadvantaged communities, health authorities and other institutions such as universities.

“Our research is built on this premise that trust is key to promote public health in the long-term and to ensure compliance with public health measures,” Lemmens says. “But during the pandemic, measures and policies – often of a rights-restrictive nature – were implemented or withdrawn without discussion with those particularly affected.”

He says it can be argued that the seriousness and urgency of the public health threat may have hindered elaborate consultation, but stresses that the need for inclusion in decision-making is a must.

“In our research, we want to explore what the impact is on how governments, health-care institutions and universities acted during the pandemic, and whether things could have been done differently, particularly from a disability justice perspective. We want to come up with more inclusive public health governance approaches,” he says.

“Could we design an advisory committee structure that involves more stakeholders from the disability community, racialized minorities, Indigenous Peoples and those living in poverty? How would such a different governance structure function during a pandemic?”

By examining the intersection of public health policies and societal factors, the project can help inform future policymaking and public health interventions.

“We shouldn’t too quickly turn the page and move on as if everything went well,” says Lemmens. “We need to learn from our experiences.”

U of T Faculty of Law hosts screening of film celebrating 'the supreme life of Rosalie Abella'

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:56:10 +0000

U of T Faculty of Law hosts screening of film celebrating 'the supreme life of Rosalie Abella'

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/27/2023 - 09:56

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A U of T alumna, Rosalie Abella was the first pregnant woman appointed to the judiciary in Canada, the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada and the first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada (photo by Polina Teif)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

"Rosie has been motivated by the pursuit of justice and a steadfast, infectious belief in the power of individuals, institutions and the law to be forces for the good"

Equal rights champion. Innovator. Icon.

For her many accomplishments, retired Supreme Court of Canada justice Rosalie Silberman Abella, a dual graduate of the ��߲ݴ�ý’s University College and the Faculty of Law, is the focus of a new documentary about her life, Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella.

U of T Law will host a special screening of the film Thursday, which had its debut premier at Hot Docs International Film Festival this spring. The event will be held at the Jackman Law Building in the room that honours Abella: The Rosalie Silberman Abella Moot Court Room.

“Rosie has been motivated by the pursuit of justice and a steadfast, infectious belief in the power of individuals, institutions and the law to be forces for the good,” says University Professor Jutta Brunnée, dean of the Faculty of Law and James Marshall Tory Dean’s Chair. “She's inspired generations of students and young lawyers.”

Abella’s is an especially storied legal career.

Her father graduated with master’s degree in law from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, but war broke out before he was ever able to practise. Her parents were married on Sept. 3, 1939 – the day Britain declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland – and both survived several years in different concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Abella was born after the war on July 1, 1946 in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany. The family came to Canada as Jewish refugees in 1950. But as a non-citizen, her father could not practise law.

“It's one of my earliest memories in Canada, of his coming home and saying, 'I can't be a lawyer here’. I remember saying – ‘Then I'm going to be a lawyer’ – I had no idea what it meant. But I was four years old and could see how disappointed he was,” she told a U of T audience in 2019 when she received U of T’s Rose Wolfe Distinguished Alumni Award.

“I just stayed on that course. I was going to be what he couldn't be. What was amazing was that he never complained. Neither of my parents or grandmother ever complained. They thought that this is a country of opportunities, but you have to make them happen.”

True to her vow, Abella graduated from U of T Law in 1970. She was one of only seven women in a class of 150 law students.

She became the first pregnant woman appointed to the judiciary in Canada at age 29. She was also the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada, as well the first Jewish woman appointed to Canada’s Supreme Court.

Among her many contributions to legal thought and jurisprudence, Abella created the term and concept of employment equity when she was the sole commissioner of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment. Her definition of equality was adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in its first decision under Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Our generation revolutionized how the law worked for people,” says Abella in Without Precedent.

Rosalie Abella with her late husband Irving Abella in a still from the film (image courtesy of Melbar Entertainment Group)

Following the screening, Abella, the distinguished jurist-in-residence at U of T Law who received an honorary degree from the university in 1990, will be joined in conversation with the award-winning filmmakers of Melbar Entertainment Group.

"In a long career of documenting the famous and the infamous, the rare opportunity to focus on an individual with the insight, humanity and power to change history and lives was one of the great highlights of my career," says director and producer, Barry Avrich, a graduate of Woodsworth College whose previous credits include Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz and David Foster: Off the Record.

"This film is a testament of an infinitely inspiring journey that will be remembered for generations."

Producer Mark Selby, a graduate of the cinema studies program in the Faculty of Arts & Science, says he's thrilled to have the documentary screened at U of T.

“Canada does not make celebrities out of its Supreme Court justices, but if ever there was someone who should be renowned across the country for her incomparable achievements and devotion to helping people, it’s Rosalie Abella,” Selby said.

Meet four future lawyers and leaders from U of T's Faculty of Law

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:16:18 +0000

Meet four future lawyers and leaders from U of T's Faculty of Law

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 06/20/2023 - 12:16

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Clockwise from top left: Faculty of Law grads Meaza Damte, Tomas Jirousek, Nik Khakhar and Sabrina Macklai (all photos by Nina Haikara)

Nina Haikara

Convocation 2023

Faculty of Information

Faculty of Law

Graduates of the juris doctor (JD) program at the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law recently crossed the stage at Convocation Hall.

In total, 231 new JDs comprise the latest cohort of future lawyers and leaders – and join the ranks of an accomplished global network of U of T Law alumni.

U of T’s Faculty of Law asked four JDs from this year’s graduating class to reflect on their time at law school and what they learned.

Meaza Damte (JD 2023)

Class of 2023 Valedictorian
��߲ݴ�ý Student Leadership Award
John Willis Award for Leadership and Gina Caldarelli Memorial Prize for Spirit

What’s next?
Articling at McCarthy Tétrault LLP

Looking back, I chose to study law because I understood the power that the law holds in our society. Becoming a lawyer was the logical next step to harness that power and use it to uplift marginalized communities and vulnerable populations.

It’s surprising just how rigid the law can be in the face of systemic injustice. Crafting creative legal arguments can be difficult within the confines of precedent. The ever-present, and frankly flawed, ‘reasonable person’ standard was created by straight white men with immense privilege. The rigidity built into our legal system is intentional.

When I started law school, I viewed the law as a tool to create social change. Three years later, my perspective on the law has shifted: I still believe the law can be a tool for social change, but it needs to be wielded in creative and sometimes disruptive ways. The adversarial common law system is not the only way forward.

Long-term, I want to find a way to combine my passion for advocacy with my love for community and kinship. Becoming a lawyer is a great privilege – and I am hopeful that I can use that privilege to make positive change in the lives of as many people as possible.

Tomas Jirousek (JD 2023)

��߲ݴ�ý Student Leadership Award
Senior editor, Indigenous Law Journal
Co-president, Indigenous Law Students’ Association (ILSA)
U of T Varsity Blues Rowing

What’s next?
Clerkship, Court of Appeal for Ontario

I was inspired to study law by my grandparents. They weren’t lawyers, but they never stopped helping people. My maternal grandma worked as a nurse at the Indian Hospital in our community, the Kainai First Nation.

My paternal grandfather was a school principal at a remote First Nations community a few hours north of Whitehorse. My paternal grandpa isn’t an Indigenous person, instead coming to Canada with his family from the Czech Republic, but that never stopped him from dedicating his career to supporting Indigenous youth in the Yukon.

While I’m the first person in my family to go to law school, I’m most definitely not the first to dedicate myself towards supporting Indigenous communities. For me, the law is just a platform to advance the same principles of equity and kindness that my grandparents worked towards.

I want to continue using the law to help marginalized communities. Law school has shown me that you can promote equity through an incredible number of avenues. Whether through volunteering at community legal clinics, or working at an Indigenous law firm, I feel being a small part of Indigenous communities’ ultimate success is the best goal I could aspire to.

Nik Khakhar (JD 2023)

Caseworker, Innocence Canada
Blog editor, Criminal Law Students' Association (CLSA)
Founder and co-organizer of the inaugural U of T Faculty of Law Students’ Research Symposium

What’s next?
Articling at Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC)

I am constantly inspired by the amount of interdisciplinary learning that comes with legal studies and practice. In law school, you have the benefit of learning from diverse peers and professors who all come in with different experiences and understandings of justice. In legal practice, interdisciplinary collaborations are not only encouraged but necessary.

You learn so much every day in this profession, and the learning experiences teach you humility, compassion, and open-mindedness – all of which are necessary for good character.

As I get more practical experience at the federal Crown, I hope to synthesize my passion for academia with my enthusiasm in legal practice through seeking opportunities to participate in criminal law policy reform, and hopefully, will someday have the privilege of teaching our next generation of law students as an adjunct professor.

Sabrina Macklai (JD/Master of Information 2023)

Editor-in-Chief (2020-2022), Ultra Vires
Co-founder & co-president of the Legal Innovation & Technology Group (LIT)

What’s next?
Clerkship, Federal Court of Canada

I chose to study law out of a desire to understand the tension underlying intellectual property (IP) law regimes. In particular, I came to law school hoping to determine if a balance could be struck between protecting creators’ rights and promoting innovation.

My interest in this area stems from my undergraduate and graduate training. I was introduced to IP law while working as a student in an analytical chemistry lab at McMaster University. It was there that I learned why patents were an important asset for inventors. Later, during my master’s at U of T’s Faculty of Information, I studied the history of IP and the way it has been used to hinder access to information. Struck by these conflicting views, I entered law school eager to find answers.

This August, I will be heading to Ottawa to clerk for Justice Russel W. Zinn at the Federal Court of Canada. I am excited to get a behind-the-scenes look at how judges make decisions and hopefully participate in some exciting patent trials!

Long-term, I wish to practise intellectual property law and hope to eventually contribute to the scholarship in this area.

New book by U of T law professor Kent Roach examines the injustice of wrongful convictions in Canada

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 19:46:27 +0000

New book by U of T law professor Kent Roach examines the injustice of wrongful convictions in Canada

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/21/2023 - 15:46

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In his latest book, U of T law professor Kent Roach outlines Canada's history of of wrongful convictions and how the legal system can better safeguard justice (photo of Roach by Faculty of Law)

Topic

Kent Roach, a professor in the Faculty of Law at the ��߲ݴ�ý, has spent decades sounding the alarm on wrongful convictions in Canada.

His new research underlines the dangers of wrongful convictions based on false guilty pleas or imagined crimes that never happened.

“In judgments, the courts recite ‘the facts’ – but sometimes the legal system gets ‘the facts’ wrong, and the wrongfully convicted and their families suffer as a result,” Roach says.

His latest book – Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice – bookends his trilogy on Canada’s criminal justice system with previously published books on Canadian policing and the case that saw Gerald Stanley acquitted in the 2018 killing of Colten Boushie.

All three books, published in the span of less than five years, strongly advocate for policy change and reform.

Roach's 2019 book Canadian Justice Indigenous Injustice was shortlisted for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing. And Canadian Policing: Why and How It Must Change, published last year, was a finalist for both the Balsillie and Donner prizes for public policy books.

His books also grapple with injustice towards Indigenous people in Canada’s justice system.

“Wrongful convictions affect the so-called ‘usual suspects’ – and in Canada, the ‘usual suspects’ are too often Indigenous, racialized, socio-economically marginalized or suffering with mental health challenges,” Roach says.

Another thread in his work is the necessity of police reform. He says police can still use aggressive and deceitful ways of questioning suspects that are not always prohibited by judicial regulation of police interrogation techniques.

Roach adds that one of the lessons to be learned from Wrongfully Convicted is that police should not be so aggressive when interviewing people who are vulnerable, have cognitive challenges, or are suffering from addiction or mental health issues. He notes that police need to consider alternative suspects and be aware of stereotypes that associate groups and individuals with crime.

“Police are subject to a very natural human tendency of zeroing-in on a suspect and interpreting evidence so that it confirms the suspect's guilt – while disregarding evidence that points in another direction, such as an alternative suspect,” he says.

Though not perfect, computerized case-management tools can help, Roach says, adding such tools are currently underutilized but can provide case-linkage and analysis to help guard against tunnel vision or confirmation bias.

“If we wait for the courts to correct these errors, it's too late. The courts alone cannot produce good policing.”

In 2007, Roach was appointed research director of Ontario’s public inquiry into systemic concerns in pediatric forensic pathology in the wake of revelations that former forensic pathologist Charles Smith had performed flawed child autopsies that resulted in wrongful convictions.

Amanda Carling (photo by Jesse Johnston)

In Wrongfully Convicted, Roach revisits the cases that were the result of Smith’s misleading forensic evidence. A section of the book examines ‘imagined crimes’ that never happened – such crimes constitute one-third of the wrongful convictions recorded in the Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions that Roach co-founded with Métis lawyer Amanda Carling, a 2012 graduate of the JD program at U of T's Faculty of Law.

Roach and Carling co-taught a seminar on wrongful convictions at U of T, which led to the development of the registry.

“Smith had suspicions directed towards young, single mothers and racialized men. The system, which is designed to be a check on mere suspicions, didn't stop Smith's,” Roach says.

He notes there are more recent cases of ‘imagined crime’ wrongful convictions. In fact, three more cases involving such imagined crimes will soon be added to the registry with the help of U of T JD alumni Jessie Stirling, Joel Voss and Sarah Harland-Logan.

The registry was launched this past February with 83 cases. The three new cases will bring the total to 86 – two cases involved Black parents wrongfully convicted in the death of their child and another case of a woman with intellectual challenges who is unhoused.

Roach explains that both the registry and his new book are designed to raise awareness that wrongful convictions are not just a historical or U.S. problem.

“I want Canadians to know that we too have problems in our criminal justice system. The registry is just the tip of the iceberg," he says.

"The real question is, how large is the iceberg? We really won’t know that until we have a better system than we do now.”

Earlier this year, just days before the registry’s launch, the federal government introduced legislation to create a federal commission to review potential cases of wrongful conviction.

Roach led the research on A Miscarriages of Justice Commission report in November 2021, which advocated for the creation of an independent federal commission to consider cases of wrongful conviction.

He says the announcement of a permanent federal commission to investigate allegations of wrongful convictions is an important next step in addressing the issue.

Roach notes that the proposed commission will need to be properly funded and staffed to be able to help people, and will need to be made aware of the realities of wrongful convictions – including false guilty pleas and crimes that never happened.

"We also need to find a way to compensate the wrongfully convicted more quickly and humanely for the terrible injustices done, in all our names," he says.

“It's a long, hard climb to reverse or remedy a wrongful conviction."

U of T Faculty of Law event focuses on law and policy amid climate change

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 14:29:13 +0000

U of T Faculty of Law event focuses on law and policy amid climate change

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 02/28/2023 - 09:29

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(Photo by Lewis Parsons/Unsplash)

Topic

How is climate change affecting the law – and the role of law – in society?

The question will be at the centre of a two-day conference hosted by the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law beginning March 2.

Law in a Changing World: The Climate Crisis aims to broaden legal and policy discussions and explore how climate change is impacting law and the legal profession.

Jutta Brunnée
(photo by Alice Xu)

“Climate change is not only for experts to grapple with but for all members of society at all levels,” says University Professor Jutta Brunnée, dean of the Faculty of Law and James Marshall Tory Dean’s Chair.

“Similarly, climate change has implications for virtually all areas of law, as well as legal institutions and lawyers, so it requires nothing less than rethinking who, what and how law regulates.”

Nearly two dozen U of T Law professors, as well as U of T Law students and guest speakers, will present a series of papers under five key themes that intersect with climate change: governance, law and justice, law and institutions, legal practice and law and technology.

Indigenous law scholar John Borrows, the inaugural Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law, will talk about how Indigenous law can address climate governance, drawing from Indigenous Peoples’ lived experiences with climate change over millennia.

“Indigenous laws contain intellectual and cultural resources to help us make decisions, regulate our affairs and resolve disputes related to climate justice in the present and future,” Borrows says.

“In dealing with climate change, we should recognize and revitalize Indigenous law amongst the other important actions we pursue.”

Trudo Lemmens, a professor and Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy, co-authored a paper with disability rights advocate Gabrielle Peters on how climate change debates and initiatives are continuing exclude those living with disabilities.

“Negative impacts of climate change are disproportionately experienced by disabled people, including those who are racialized, poor or living on low incomes, or senior,” Lemmens says.

From left to right: John Borrows, Trudo Lemmens and Abdi Aidid (supplied images)

“For example, extreme heat or poor air quality issues are well-known and can result in untimely deaths. However, state interventions, such as alerting the public, tend to rely on individual solutions, rather than our collective responsibility.”

An assistant professor in the Faculty of Law, Abdi Aidid will share insights on “Ethical Lawyering and Existential Threats” as part of the discussion on legal practice.

“Lawyers are deeply implicated in the climate crisis, yet the mechanisms we have for regulating lawyer behaviour are conspicuously absent from discussions about appropriate responses to global warming’s existential threat,” Aidid says.

“Is the discipline of legal ethics – rules, institutions and mechanisms currently in place – capable of responding to challenges on the scale of the ongoing climate crisis?”

The event will kick off with a keynote address by best-selling science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, who works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and University of Califronia San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. He was named “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine in 2008.

Robinson will speak to the role of law and law schools in tackling climate change, drawing on his latest book, The Ministry for the Future. The book is set in the near future and revolves around the efforts of a division established under the current international treaty on climate change: the Paris Agreement.

“The book crosses over from the sci-fi world to contemporary policy discussions around climate change and catastrophe,” says Brunnée. “It raises many interesting questions, including whether we may indeed need a ‘Ministry for the Future’ to tackle climate change?

“We want conference participants to think outside of the box and to underscore that climate change is a multilayered challenge to which there are no easy solutions. But if we can act on multiple fronts, from all levels of expertise – law being just one of them – we can come to grips with it.”

Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions highlights failures of the criminal justice system

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 16:37:13 +0000

Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions highlights failures of the criminal justice system

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 02/21/2023 - 11:37

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(Photo by Anne-Marie Jackson/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Topic

Kent Roach, a professor in the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law, and four alumni of the JD program – Amanda Carling, Jessie Stirling, Joel Voss and Sarah Harland-Logan – have launched the Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions.

Kent Roach

The registry includes 83 publicly documented cases where a criminal conviction was overturned based on new matters of significance related to guilt not considered when the accused was convicted or pled guilty. The researchers do not have access to confidential information, do not make determinations of guilt or innocence, nor do they act on behalf of the wrongfully convicted.

Initiated in 2018, the registry has been developed with the dedicated support of multiple U of T Law student researchers and several William Southam Journalism Fellows from U of T’s Massey College.

Roach has been teaching a course on the subject of wrongful convictions for more than two decades.

“Students are asked, what are the facts of the case? It’s important that we problematize this idea that the facts are the facts,” says Roach. “Wrongful convictions are largely the result of factual errors: Mistaken eyewitness identification, people lying, expert witnesses basing their testimony on their interpretation of the facts and their opinion.”

Roach says the wrongful convictions recorded in the registry “are underinclusive of all miscarriages of criminal justice because of the difficulty people experience, once they have been convicted, in finding new evidence and having the courts accept it.”

In the registry’s first report – Canada Has a Guilty Plea Wrongful Conviction Problem – Roach highlights some key findings about the relationship between guilty pleas and wrongful convictions.

“We weren’t surprised that 18 per cent of the cases that met our definition were the result of false guilty pleas,” says Roach. “What was surprising, however, was that almost all the people who pled falsely were Indigenous, racialized, female or living with a disability.”

Most miscarriages of justice happen when vulnerable people without proper legal representation plead guilty to get it over with, says Carling.

A Métis lawyer and the chief executive officer of the BC First Nations Justice Council, Carling worked at Innocence Canada for three years before joining Roach to co-teach the wrongful convictions course at the Faculty of Law.

“I did a lot of public legal education, primarily in First Nations, about the causes of wrongful convictions,” she says. “As a new lawyer, I wanted to share the little that I knew to try to prevent miscarriages of justice. I had seen firsthand how difficult it is to overturn a wrongful conviction and how few resources there are in Canada to support victims of miscarriages of justice.

“But when I did those presentations, when I talked about the leading causes of wrongful convictions, I used the statistics from the U.S. registry [because] we didn’t have Canadian data.”

Stirling, who is Kwakwaka’wakw and a member of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation on Vancouver Island, says Indigenous and racialized people are overrepresented among the wrongfully convicted.

From left to right: Amanda Carling, Jessie Stirling, Joel Voss and Sarah Harland-Logan.

“That much is clear when you look at the Registry’s data visualizations,” she says.

A primary contributor to the registry, Stirling’s work on the project began in 2018 as a Gerald W. Schwartz research fellow at U of T Law. She received the U of T President’s Award for Outstanding Indigenous Student of the Year in 2020.

“As a research fellow, I worked to compile our master list of cases and refine our research parameters. I also researched and wrote on Indigenous wrongful convictions and, since 2018, I have been responsible for managing the project,” adds Stirling, who is now an associate at Olthius Kleer Townshend LLP, a leading Aboriginal Law firm in Canada.

Voss, who works in securities compliance, began volunteering with the project in 2020 with a focus on data analysis, research, data entry and website development.

“From our current dataset, approximately one-third of the wrongful convictions stem from an instance in which no crime occurred,” says Voss. “To me, this is staggering. Many of those cases involved a loved one passing away. Invariably, the wrongfully convicted person lost a loved one and then on top of that had to suffer through a justice system that got it wrong. This is a problem in Canada, and we need to do some work to uncover the full extent of this problem.”

Part of uncovering the truth requires coming to terms with the reality of Canada’s colonial history. For example, the registry – funded in part by a grant from the Bennett Family Foundation – includes a timeline of miscarriages of justice dating back to 1755, when 8,000 Acadians were expelled from Nova Scotia over doubts of loyalty to the British Crown.

“The first step unpacking Canada’s colonial legacy is educating people,” says Carling. “Our timeline and the cases that are included in the registry are just the beginning of the story that the Canadian criminal justice system has – and continues to – get wrong.”

Stirling adds that the team behind the registry expects to learn of new cases of wrongful conviction that meet their definition. Team members can be contacted through the contact us form on the registry’s website.

Since only publicly available information such as media sources were used to build the registry, the possibilities for further research – going deeper into the existing cases, as well as adding new cases – are unlimited.

“We have a list of things that we would have added if we had more time and resources,” says Carling. “For instance, we would like to look at wrongful convictions that happened under racist laws like the Indian Act provisions that banned the potlatch.”

She adds that the group’s work is only scratching the surface of the issue and that the need for data on lesser-known cases, as well as information about cases that haven’t yet received a remedy for their wrongful conviction, will become more important as Canadian lawmakers begin to debate the legislation to create Canada’s first Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission.

“We hope that others will take up this work and freely share their findings so that the colonial justice system can work better for everyone,” Carling says.

Roach has spent years shining a light on wrongful convictions and policing in Canada. His forthcoming book on the subject – Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice (Simon & Schuster 2023) – bookends his trilogy on Canada’s criminal justice system with previously published books on Canadian policing and the Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie case.

He also documented the criminal justice system’s failings as research director of the Goudge Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario (2007-2008), discrediting pathologist Charles Smith who gave misleading forensic evidence in several criminal investigations.

More recently, Roach led research for A Miscarriages of Justice Commission, a report filed in November 2021 that advocated for the creation of an independent federal commission to consider cases of wrongful conviction.

Just days before that launch of the registry, the federal government federal government introduced legislation to create a federal commission to review potential cases of wrongful conviction.

Roach, for his part, says that if the true perpetrator of a crime has never been caught, it’s not only failure of the system, “but it's an even more immediate failure of the state, when the state convicts and imprisons a person who is not guilty.”

U of T Law prof's book explores climate policy through the lens of Canadian law and institutions

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 22:29:19 +0000

U of T Law prof's book explores climate policy through the lens of Canadian law and institutions

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 02/16/2023 - 17:29

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Andrew Green, Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law at U of T's Faculty of Law, says institutions have an important role to play when it comes to addressing climate change (photo by Dewey Chang Photography)

Topic

Andrew Green finds reasons for hope when it comes to addressing climate change.

In his recent book Picking Up the Slack: Law, Institutions, and Canadian Climate Policy, Green, a professor in the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law, explores how the law and legal institutions are shaping our current response to climate change.

The book delves into the complexity of the issue in the Canadian context. For example, Green examines the difficulties caused by the discretion embedded in our environmental laws by the diffusion of responsibility for climate law and policy, as well as the deference of courts and the public to government decisions. He also discusses how courts have an increasing role to play and the potential of deliberative processes and social norms for improving climate policy and altering individual behaviour.

“The book is something I wanted others to draw hope from – to be realistic, looking at the problem of climate change and finding ways in which we can move forward,” says Green, who holds the faculty’s Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law.

The book brings together Green’s research in areas that include domestic environmental law, Canadian climate change law and policy, and natural resources law. It also draws from economic, political and philosophical literature to develop a framework for Canadian institutions to take action.

“We know that things have to change and we're not acting fast enough,” says Green, who practised environmental law prior to becoming a law professor at U of T and will speak about the shifting role of Supreme Courts and their role in assessing climate policy at the faculty’s upcoming conference, Law in a Changing World: The Climate Crisis, on March 3.

"The question is why? Climate change is the same problem as other environmental problems – just on a larger scale. How decisions are made – and all the processes to get there – are all elements in telling this story.”

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change was at the centre of new policy development, notes Green, and it returned to the forefront when concerns around the pandemic began to subside. But now, he says, a potential economic recession threatens to push climate change off the top of the agenda.

“You can’t make a stable environmental – or any kind of policy – in that way,” Green says.

Climate change remains polarizing for many, with some worrying we are not acting fast enough, while others warn we are making too many changes too quickly. But Green says our institutions can help us navigate this path.

“For example, one province may fear a reduction in their ability to use its natural resources would prevent them from building a better health-care system,” Green says. “Yet, the risk-sharing nature of Canadian federalism is to try and help reduce that fear of transition. Things like the equalization system or stabilization program were built to help different regions when they faced various types of risk.”

Green says Canadians need to think more broadly about the direction of the country’s climate-change policy. He says narrow thinking has led to an “iron law” that dictates the economy always wins when it is pitted against the environment.

"What do we need as Canadians to live full lives? Of course, it includes markets and economic transactions. But it also includes education, health care and a clean environment,” he says.

“We need to think about how we build our institutions in a way that foster a broader vision for what we want."

Green also believes people can contribute through their own choices, building trust and momentum through small actions that can make a difference and lead to greater support for large-scale changes.

“Signaling commitment – such as through divestment – is also important,” he says. “We need to be willing to make changes where we think it’s important for ourselves and for future generations, as a sustainable society.”

Universities have a central role to play in fostering change, he adds.

“When you think of U of T, you think of the wonderful people across the different faculties who are working on climate-change issues – and the students, obviously, are a huge source of inspiration and hope, and effort in this area.”

The Legal Singularity: U of T Law profs on how AI will make the law 'radically' better

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 16:16:44 +0000

The Legal Singularity: U of T Law profs on how AI will make the law 'radically' better

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 11/04/2022 - 12:16

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(Image by Pitiphothivichit via Getty Images)

Nina Haikara

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Our Community

Artificial Intelligence

Benjamin Alarie, a professor in the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law, has long believed artificial intelligence will bring seismic change to the legal profession and, consequently, society – resulting in what he’s dubbed ‘the legal singularity.’

Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie

In a forthcoming book, Alarie tackles the topic with Abdi Aidid, who recently joined the faculty as an assistant professor.

The pair argue that the proliferation of AI-enabled technology – and specifically the advent of legal prediction – will radically change the law profession and facilitate “a functional ‘completeness’ of law, where the law is at once extraordinarily more complex in its specification than it is today, and yet operationally vastly more knowable, fairer, and clearer for its subjects.”

Alarie says that’s in stark contrast to how law is practised now.

“There is a ton of uncertainty in the law – we often just don't know what the right legal answer is,” says Alarie, who is the Osler chair of business law. “Uncertainty about facts and law drives litigation. Even if there aren't disputes about the events involved, litigation arises due to a dispute about how the law applies to those facts.”

Alarie and Aidid suggest the book,The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better (��߲ݴ�ý Press, 2023), should be of interest not only to lawyers and technologists, but anyone interested in the future of the labour force or social institutions beyond the law.

“The legal singularity reflects the full development of our legal system, becoming more complete and accessible through advanced technology,” says Aidid. “The idea is that once we are able to reduce uncertainty, individuals and institutions will have a real-time sense of their legal rights and obligations.”

Alarie’s interest in legal technology began more than a decade ago, when he served as associate dean of the faculty’s JD program and was tasked with revisiting how the law faculty delivered its first-year curriculum.

“I remember sitting at my desk and thinking, it’s been almost 40 years since we’ve had a major reform to the curriculum,” he says. “What could change over the course of the next several decades?

“I thought about the deep learning work that was being done by [University Professor Emeritus] Geoffrey Hinton in the computer science department [in the Faculty of Arts & Science] here at the U of T, and how computing power keeps doubling every couple of years and is becoming massively less expensive over time.”

He also recalled Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a renowned legal scholar and former U.S. Supreme Court justice, once offered a provocative view that law is all about prediction. Alarie thought to himself: “Well, what is machine learning? It’s a prediction technology. All these ideas were swimming around in my mind: machine learning is about prediction. Machine learning is getting way better. Law is ultimately about prediction.

“I'd better be thinking about how machine learning is going to influence the practice of law, because that's going to have big implications for how we want to teach our students.”

In 2015, Alarie co-founded legal tech startup Blue J Legal with U of T Law faculty members Anthony Niblett and Albert Yoon. The company’s software draws upon AI to provide instant and comprehensive answers in complex areas of tax, labour, and employment law.

Aidid joined Blue J Legal in 2018.

“While I was an adjunct professor here, teaching courses in legal research and writing, I was seeing first-hand the difficulty [with the way] we currently do legal research and was just hoping for a technological solution,” says Aidid, who served as the startup’s director and vice-president of research, and remains with the company as an innovation specialist.

“Being able to help build Blue J and contribute to improving a profession that I care deeply about was really appealing to me.”

The authors argue that the legal profession has so far failed to keep pace with other industries and professions.

“If you were transported back 50 years into a law school classroom, or a courtroom, it would look largely the same as it does today,” says Aidid. “There might be a laptop on someone's desk, but by and large, we're doing the same things. It’s not just about tech adoption – it's about changing some of the core assumptions about what it means to be a good lawyer, legal academic and a good law student.”

That includes how lawyers bill their time.

“If you come to me and you ask me a legal question, I might have an instinct about the answer but in order to give you professionally sound advice, I'm going to go off and do research until I feel fairly certain about my advice,” says Aidid. “But with the advent of machine learning, you're able to quickly synthesize all the case law in a matter of seconds.”

Alarie says future technological innovation that can interpret legislation, legal principles and translate them into appropriate legal guidance will result in better legal decisions for society. He says it’s not meant to supplant or replace legal professionals, but to enable them to provide fairer and more informed decisions. “For example, it would provide judges with more information to better exercise their discretion,” Alarie says.

He adds that that the notion of a legal singularity is best regarded as an ongoing process of improvement, rather than a final destination. Aidid, for his part, emphasizes the important role lawyers will play in making sure legal technologies are “designed appropriately, ethically and effectively.”

One thing is clear, the authors say: the application of AI to the law is no longer a fanciful sci-fi thought experiment.

“How we get from here to there – wherever that there is – could be a bumpy ride,” says Alarie. “Our goal is to really spread these questions – about the legal singularity – as widely as possible because we don't think they have easy answers, but they are important questions.”

Nina Haikara

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The Legal Singularity: U of T Law profs on how AI will make the law 'radically' better