Verdicts & Voices

Friend of the pod Nadia Effendi returns to talk us through the fall agenda of Canada’s top court. Topics include online gambling, price-fixing, religious freedom, prison lockdowns, the Ontario Place redevelopment, the federal assault weapons ban, and the theft of the Winston Churchill portrait from Ottawa’s Château Laurier.

Nadia is a partner at BLG in Toronto and a member of the CBA’s Federal Courts Bench and Bar Liaison Committee. She has appeared before the Supreme Court numerous times and clerked for Hon. Michel Bastarache.

Links:

• Atlantic Lottery Corporation, et al. v. Attorney General of Ontario
• NHK Spring Co., Ltd., et al. v. Tony Cheung, et al.
• John Vabuolas, et al. v. Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, et al.
• Durrell Diggs, et al. v. Attorney General of Nova Scotia, et al.
• Canadian National Railway Company v. Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Inc.
• Ontario Place Protectors v. His Majesty the King in Right of Ontario and Attorney General of Ontario
• Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, et al. v. Attorney General of Canada
• Jeffrey Wood v. His Majesty the King

Live and recorded Supreme Court hearings can be watched online.

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When the Supreme Court of Canada created a new tort of intimate-partner violence in May 2026, family lawyers Shelley Hounsell and Vanessa Lam joined us to contemplate its likely effects. Four months later, we check in to see how things are working out.

Among the questions on the agenda: Is this proving to be merely a remedy for rich people? What is the role of expert witnesses? And should these claims be folded into family law proceedings or treated as distinct civil matters?

Shelley Hounsell of Presse Mason in Halifax is back, along with Tiffany Paulsen of Robertson Stromberg in Saskatoon, and Joanna Radbord of McCarthy Hansen & Company in Toronto.

Links:

• Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia, 2026 SCC 16
• A turning point for a tort of family violence (Verdicts & Voices S4:E14)

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As artificial intelligence keeps evolving, so do the ways of using and misusing it in the courts. To kick off our new season, University of Ottawa expert Amy Salyzyn joins the show to explain everything from prompt injection attacks to shadow AI, and how the human beings who work in Canada’s justice system are handling the challenge.

For more on AI and the law, listen to past episodes about hallucinated cases, racial bias in AI, and the first Canadian judge to encounter AI-generated fake citations.

Also, check out AI in Practice, a monthly CBA webinar series that examines AI in the Canadian legal context.

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How should Canadian courts incorporate Indigenous cultural and legal practices? Why might some judges be reluctant to do so? And are we moving toward a tri-jural system in which Indigenous legal orders exist alongside civil and common law?

To mark National Indigenous Peoples Day, we’re replaying a discussion from June 2025 with two chief justices for whom these questions are front and centre: Leonard Marchand of the BC and Yukon Courts of Appeal and Glenn Joyal of the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench. 

Notes:

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.

Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this final episode of the spring, three law students discuss their reasons for studying law, their first forays into law firms, and their impressions of a changing profession and a tumultuous world. See you in September!

Maria Kalapurayil just graduated from the University of Alberta. Sophie Poitras has one year under her belt at the Université de Moncton. And with one year to go at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, Justine Morin-Laporte chairs CBA Quebec’s student section.

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 1976, when Harvey Brownstone told his mother he was gay, she became “volcanic” and kicked him out of the house. He spent five years on welfare, without stealing – much. Somehow, though, he got a law degree from Queens, clerked for a young Rosalie Abella, and became Canada’s first openly gay judge in 1995. Now, in retirement, his celebrity interview show has 70 000 YouTube subscribers, and the memoir he just released is being made into a movie starring David Arquette.

As Pride season begins, Harvey joins the pod to discuss his cinematic life, the clubby Canadian legal world of the late 20th century, and the role of the judge as public educator.

Notes:

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Supreme Court of Canada issued a landmark decision earlier this month that created a new tort of family violence. This means people who have suffered harm due to intimate partner violence will be able to seek damages. The 6-3 decision in Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia was more than a year in the making. What will it mean for victims and legal professionals?    

Shelley Hounsell is a family law lawyer and senior counsel at Presse Mason in Halifax. Vanessa Lam provides specialized legal advice and research to other family law practitioners through her firm, Lam Family Law, in Markham, Ontario. Both previously appeared on the podcast in February 2025 to talk about this issue.

Notes:

2026 SCC 16 (CanLII) | Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia | CanLII

Verdicts and Voices: The use of AI at the Federal Court, the tort of family violence, and R v. Drybones | Verdicts & Voices

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Since the Supreme Court’s 1999 Gladue decision, sentencing judges in Canada are supposed to consider the “unique systemic or background factors” that bring Indigenous people in contact with the law. The idea is to reduce Indigenous overincarceration and promote alternative sanctions. But how does this work in a place like Nunavut, where the trauma of colonialism affects just about everyone, and scarce infrastructure exists for non-carceral penalties? In cases of gender-based violence, in particular, are Inuit women being sacrificed on “the altar of reconciliation?”

After a career in criminal law as both a prosecutor and defence counsel, Neil Sharkey spent 15 years as a judge, including eight as Nunavut’s Chief Justice. Qajaq Robinson is a Nunavummiuq human rights lawyer and workplace investigator who served as a commissioner on the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In the inquiry’s final report, Call to Action 5.17 urged a thorough evaluation of Gladue principles as they relate to violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

Notes:

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For two years, much of the BC legal community has been warning that changes to the regulation of lawyers in that province risk making them answerable to the state rather than their clients. Last week, the BC Supreme Court upheld the changes as constitutional, despite noting the government’s “inability, or failure, to justify overturning 150 years of self-regulation.”

Connor Bildfell is First Vice President of the Canadian Bar Association’s BC Branch. He was part of a team from McCarthy Tétrault that argued against the changes on behalf of the CBA. On this episode, he discusses why the BC court’s recognition of the independence of the bar as an unwritten constitutional principle is an important silver lining.

Notes:

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Everyone is supposed to be entitled to their day in court. But how should we weigh that principle against the reality of litigants who misuse court processes, tying up resources and subjecting other parties to harm? What approaches exist to identify vexatious or abusive litigation at an early stage and nip it in the bud? 

Donald Netolitzky, K.C., was complex litigant management counsel for the Alberta Court of King’s Bench. He argues that abusive litigation is often linked to mental health problems, and that letting it proceed unimpeded harms other parties, the courts, and the abusive litigants themselves.

Notes:

Stashin v. Van Norman, 2026 ABKB 297

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.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the CBA.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.