Cultural Diversity: Bias in Forensic Risk Assessment and Research Project (1:44:59)

3:05 – 4:30 pm: Panel Four | Cultural Diversity: Bias in Forensic Risk Assessment

This panel will discuss whether the current risk assessment tools are appropriate in assessing offenders from minority cultures and ethnicities. In Ewert v. Canada, 2018 SCC 30, the Court ruled that Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) tools for assessing psychological risk were inadequate for Indigenous prisoners, which breached their statutory obligations but not their Charter rights. How has the use of psychiatry been critiqued in propagating cultural biases in diagnosis and treatment? In what ways must the CSC reassess its practices and policies?

Chair

• The Hon. Judge Gerald M. Morin, Provincial Court of Saskatchewan, Prince Albert

Speakers

• Ms. Emily Hill, Interim Legal Advocacy Director, Aboriginal Services, Toronto
• The Hon. Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin, Superior Court of Justice, Ontario

(At 1:15:00)

4:30 – 5:00 pm: Presentation of the Charles D. Gonthier Research Fellowship

Recipient

• Prof. Véronique Fortin, Associate Professor, Université de Sherbrooke Faculty of Law, Member of the Critical Legal Research Laboratory

Research project: “Les tribunaux en santé mentale: la justice comme service?” (Mental Health Courts: Justice as a Service?)