Wheels of Change, Critical Considerations: Visual and Digital Technologies in Canadian Criminal Courts
When and Where
Speakers
Description
Video from this event is now available on YouTube: Wheels of Change, Critical Considerations: Visual & Digital Technologies in Canadian Criminal Courts
Since the onset of COVID-19 and the requirements for physical distancing requirements, several Canadian courts embraced digital technologies to conduct remote hearings of cases – even the Supreme Court of Canada was not left behind. The ease of digital technologies in criminal courts, have led some to advocate for their expanded use after COVID-19. While on one hand, using digital technologies in our criminal courts has proven beneficial, on the other hand it also has cultural and political implications for how we understand the role of the judge and people’s perception of such a role in the absence of law’s formalities and mythologies. This presentation will explore how new digital technologies, particularly videoconferencing technology, are radically changing the social landscape in which the judge as authoritative and the court as legitimate are stripped bare and subject to further interrogation.
Discussants:
Wumi Asubiaro Dada, PhD Student, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies
Anne Marie Morphew, Principal Lawyer, Morphew Symes Barristers
Moderator: Dr. Kamari Clarke, Professor, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies
This event is part of Critical Perspectives on Justice and Inequality, a new series on criminological and sociolegal dimensions of anti-Black racism, Indigenous peoples, and settler colonialism.
Dr. Ayodele Akenroye is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto, Canada where he conducts research on the use of digital technologies in Canadian criminal courts. He is also a Tribunal Member with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada where he makes decisions on admissibility hearings and detention reviews for foreign nationals or permanent residents believed to be inadmissible to, or removable from Canada, or detained by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). He had practised criminal defense law in Canada over the past decade and was formerly a Visiting Professional, Prosecution Division of Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands where he provided subject matter expertise in the prosecution of Dominic Ongwen - a child soldier - for 70 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed after 1 July 2002 in Northern Uganda. Dr. Akenroye was a Research Fellow with the International Anti-Corruption Academy, Laxenberg, Austria and was a Consultant to Nigeria’s Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Abuja, Nigeria. He earned his PhD in International Criminal Law from McGill University, his LL.M, from University of Manitoba and LL.B. from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. He is called to the bar in Nigeria, Manitoba (Canada) and Ontario (Canada).