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 talks about a troubling but increasingly common scam, where people impersonate trademark lawyers. Our guests are Gavin Manning, an experienced intellectual property lawyer at Oyen Wiggs, and Brent J. Arnold, a partner at Gowling WLG who specializes in privacy and cybersecurity law. (01:32 to 15:42)

We welcome Amy Salyzyn, an author, legal ethicist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, to talk about a recent case of AI hallucinations in documents that were submitted at the Ontario Superior Court. (15:46 to 32:24)

We also take a look at a one of the most consequential cases in the history of the Supreme Court of Canada: the 1998 Secession Reference. Our guest is Warren Newman, who served as co-counsel on the Secession Reference. (32:28 to 53:31)

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 [email protected].

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 the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario Geoffrey Morawetz for a conversation about the Civil Rules Review and its bold Phase 2 Report. (01:58 to 25:34)

As far fewer Canadians are now traveling to the United States, we talk about the current realities of crossing the US-Canada border with Gabriela Ramo, former Chair of the CBA Immigration Law Section and Partner at EY Law. (25:42 to 38:19)

We also take a look at landmark immigration cases at the Supreme Court of Canada with one of Canada’s most respected and influential immigration, refugee and human rights lawyers, Barbara Jackman. (38:22 to 54:08)

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 [email protected].

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast in which we delve into legal news, landmark cases and feature expert guests who provide unique insights into Canada’s justice system.

In this special election edition, host Alison Crawford welcomes two of Canada’s top criminal lawyers Matthew Gourlay, from Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, and Daniel Lerner from Lerner Law, as we take a closer look at the federal parties’ criminal justice platforms. (01:35 to 24:44)

Anne McLellan and Peter MacKay, who both served as Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General, have a lively discussion on major legal issues that have been missing from the political debate during the campaign. (24:47 to 46:20)

We also hear from CBA President Lynne Vicars, who talks about the Canadian Bar Association’s priorities for this federal election campaign. (46:25 to 52:50)

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 [email protected].

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 two international law experts, Gib Van Ert from Olthuis van Ert and Miriam Cohen from Université de Montréal, to evaluate the current state of the international rule of law.

As its tax season in Canada, we talk tax reform with Heather Evans, CEO of the Canadian Tax Foundation. A timely conversation as the governor-general has called a federal election.

We also take a look at some landmark Supreme Court decisions on access to abortion with University of Calgary law professor Jennifer Koshan.

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 [email protected].

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 Federal Court of Canada Chief Justice Paul Crampton, who explains how the court is swamped with an unprecedented number of cases and how virtually no one is declaring the use of AI in their filings.

We talk with two family law experts, Shelley Hounsell, K.C. from Pressé Mason and Vanessa Lam from Lam Family Law, about the recent Supreme Court hearing into the proposed new tort of family violence.

We also dive into R v. Drybones, the first case the Supreme Court decided under the 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights. Alison Crawford take a look at this landmark 1969 case and its impacts with Naiomi Metallic, a Mi'kmaq lawyer who teaches law at Dalhousie University, and Brian Purdy, the lawyer who represented the appellant, Michael Drybones.

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 [email protected].

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 Marion Sandilands, a practicing lawyer, part-time law professor and member of the CBA’s Working Group on the Notwithstanding Clause, and Geoffrey Sigalet, director of the UBC Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies, for a lively discussion on the notwithstanding clause and how provincial premiers are using it.

In an exclusive interview with Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner about the court’s milestone 150th anniversary, he explains how the court has started to explore the possibility of offering judicial mediation to expand access to justice.

With Ryan Manucha, research fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and expert on interprovincial trade in Canada, we take a good look at Gold Seal Ltd. v. Alberta, a prohibition-era judgment that, even 100 years later, continues to affect interprovincial trade.

Nadia Effendi joins us again to review the output of the Supreme Court last year, shares her thoughts regarding Chief Justice Richard Wagner’s recent comments about the high number of judicial vacancies as well as comments about restricting interveners to virtual appearance. We discuss some recent judgments rendered (Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, Ontario (Attorney General) v. Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner) and the Reference re An Act respecting First Nations). She also weighs in on cases to watch that were recently granted leave, including AGO v. Working Families Coalition, a rare section 3 Charter case, and Sanis Health, which deals with the BC law that allows recovery of health-care costs from opioid providers.

Effendi is a partner at BLG, based out of Toronto and Ottawa, a member of the CBA’s Federal Courts Bench and Bar Liaison Committee. She is also the chair of BLG's Appellate Advocacy and Public Law Group. Before joining the firm, she served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada to then-Justice Michel Bastarache.

To contact us (please include in the subject line ''Podcast''): [email protected].

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine hits the two-year mark – 10 years since the invasion of the Crimean Peninsula – the situation is dire. The ground battle had become mostly deadlocked until Ukrainians retreated earlier this month from the town of Avdiivka. Support from Western democracies has been skittish of late. Republicans in the U.S. Congress have stalled sixty billion U.S. dollars' worth of defense aid for Ukraine. Still, there is some hope for the resistance: the unblocking of $ 54 billion in European Union aid; Sweden has announced it will give $682 million worth of military equipment. Canada is promising to donate $70 million worth of drones from already announced spending dating back to the summer.

The word we hear a lot these days is that the conflict in Ukraine is reaching an inflection point of sorts, though shifts in momentum are notoriously hard to read in times of war.

What hasn’t changed in all of this is that the invasion of Ukraine remains a war of aggression – in violation of the United Nations Charter and customary international law. It’s also an international crime under the Rome Statute. Over a fifth of Ukrainian territory is currently under occupation by Russian troops.

Arguably, it should be possible to prosecute a war of aggression committed by Russia's leadership before the ICC, as it should not be difficult to prove. 

But that isn’t the case. Although the ICC can charge individuals for war crimes, it doesn’t have jurisdiction over Russian crimes of aggression. Our guest today will discuss why that is and what a core group of members of the international community and Ukraine are trying to do about it.

Dr. Anton Korynevych is the Ambassador at Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. He’s a lawyer specializing in public international law, international humanitarian, and international criminal law. He’s the Agent of Ukraine before the International Court of Justice, where he has been arguing the case that Russian President Vladimir Putin abused the U.N. Genocide Convention by using an alleged genocide in eastern Ukraine as a pretext for invasion). 

Dr. Korynevych is also in charge of gathering international support to establish a special tribune that could try Putin and his inner circle for the alleged crime of aggression — which no international court, including the International Criminal Court, has jurisdiction to do right now.

To contact us (please include in the subject line ''Podcast''): [email protected]

Our guest today is Arif Virani, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada who has kindly agreed to share with our listeners the status of several pressing issues. We discuss criminal justice reform, the recent pause on the expansion of medical assistance in dying and plans to introduce online harms legislation. He also addresses judicial vacancies and the increasing resource challenges that our courts are facing.

Arif Virani was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Parkdale—High Park in 2015. Throughout his career, he has served in various roles, including as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Democratic Institutions, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage (Multiculturalism), and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

Before entering politics, he practised law for 15 years, starting his career as a civil litigator at Fasken Martineau and subsequently working as a constitutional litigator at the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario, advocating for human rights and access to justice.

Minister Virani previously worked as an analyst with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Ottawa, an investigator at the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse in Montréal, and an Assistant Trial Attorney prosecuting genocide at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. 

To contact us (please include in the subject line ''Podcast''): [email protected]

In the field of law, there are several crucial areas where generative AI demonstrates considerable promise – namely in the efficiencies it can create in contract generation, document review, legal research, and predictive analytics. So it’s expected to become an indispensable productivity tool across the legal profession The question then arises: how can this technology be effectively integrated into a legal practice or department?

Amanda Chaboryk joins us for the second time on the show. She’s the Head of Legal Data and Systems within Operate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. Having started  her career in legal project management, she now focuses on the operational delivery of complex managed legal programs and helps clients navigate emerging technologies. We're also joined by Alex Hawley, an ESG regulatory solicitor for PwC in London. Having started her career as a commercial litigator, she now collaborates with clients new ESG developments and helps them incorporate emerging technologies, including Generative AI.

Last year, PwC announced an exclusive partnership with the legal startup Harvey, a platform built on AI technology from OpenAI.