On Thursday, January 21st, CrimSL held the second event in the Critical Perspectives on Justice and Inequality series. Dr. Ayodele Akenroye (Postdoctoral Fellow, CrimSL) presented Wheels of Change, Critical Considerations: Visual and Digital Technologies in Canadian Criminal Courts, with discussants Wumi Asubiaro Dada (PhD Student, CrimSL) and Anne Marie Morphew (Principal Lawyer, Morphew Symes Barristers) , moderated by CrimSL Profeesor Kamari Clarke.
This event was presented with LSQ (langue des signes québécoise) interpretation. English language subtitles are also available. The recording can be viewed below, or on the CrimSL YouTube channel.
Description:
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.
Critical Perspectives on Justice and Inequality is a new series on criminological and sociolegal dimensions of anti-Black racism, Indigenous peoples, and settler colonialism.
Our next event in the series is Thursday, March 11th, 2021 (2:00–3:30pm): Policing the Womb with Dr. Michele Goodwin (Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy)