Kent Roach is a professor of law at the

University of Toronto Faculty of Law The University of Toronto Faculty of Law (U of T Law, UToronto Law) is the law school of the University of Toronto. The Faculty's admissions process is the most selective of law schools in Canada and is one of the most selective in North America. ...

. He is well known for his expertise and writings on criminal law, the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...

'', and more recently anti-terrorism law. He is a graduate of the university and served as a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to Justice

Bertha Wilson Bertha Wernham Wilson (September 18, 1923April 28, 2007) was a Canadian jurist and the first female puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Before her ascension to Canada's highest court, she was the first female associate and partner ...

of the Supreme Court of Canada. Roach is a recipient of the

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (french: Fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau), commonly called the Trudeau Foundation (french: Fondation Trudeau), is an independent and non-partisan Canadian charity founded in 2001 by friends and family of for ...

Fellowship (2013). He was appointed a

Member of the Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

in 2015.

Career

Roach studied political science as an undergraduate student in the 1980s at the University of Toronto. He studied under

Peter H. Russell Peter Howard Russell (born 1932) is a Canadian political scientist, serving as professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, where he taught from 1958 to 1997. He was a member of the Toronto chapter of Alpha Delta Phi. He ...

, the research director on the

Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP, better known as the McDonald Commission, was a Royal Commission called by the Canadian government of Pierre Trudeau to investigate the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after a nu ...

, and completed his undergraduate thesis in 1984 on the then-newly created

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; french: Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, ''SCRS'') is Canada's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for collecting, analysing, reporting and disseminating int ...

. Roach served as director of research for the public inquiry investigating

Air India Flight 182 Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi–Bombay route. On 23 June 1985, it was operated using Boeing 747-237B registered ''VT-EFO''. It disintegrated in mid-air en route from Montreal to Lond ...

and was also on the research advisory committee for the inquiry on

Maher Arar Maher Arar ( ar, ماهر عرار) (born 1970) is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who has resided in Canada since 1987. Arar was detained during a layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Septe ...

's case. Professor Roach's current research involves the comparative study of miscarriages of justice, comparative

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompa ...

and comparative anti-terrorism law and policy. He is the editor-in-chief of the ''Criminal Law Quarterly'', and member of the advisory committee for both the Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to

and the

Ipperwash Inquiry The Ipperwash Inquiry was a two-year public judicial inquiry funded by the Government of Ontario, led by Sidney B. Linden, and established under the ''Ontario Public Inquiries Act'' (1990), which culminated in a four volume 1,533-page Ipperwash I ...

into the killing of

Dudley George The Ipperwash Crisis was a dispute over Indigenous land that took place in Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario, in 1995. Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park to assert claim to nearby land which had been expropriated ...

. His book ''Canadian Policing: Why and How It Must Change'' was a nominee for the 2022 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.Cassandra Drudi
"Finalists named for 2022 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy"
''

Quill & Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...

'', September 28, 2022.

Select publications

* ''Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley and Colton Boushie Case''. McGill University Press, 2019 *''Criminal Law and Procedure: Cases and Materials'' Emond Montgomery Publications, 11th ed, 2015 * ''Criminal Law'' Irwin Law, 3rd ed, 2004 * ''Brian Dickson: A Judge's Journey'' University of Toronto Press, 2003 (with

Robert Sharpe Robert James Sharpe, OC, FRSC (born December 4, 1945) is a Canadian lawyer, author, academic, and judge. He was dean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law from 1990 to 1995 and a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario from 1999 to 20 ...

) * ''The Supreme Court on Trial: Judicial Activism or Democratic Dialogue'', Toronto, Irwin Law, 2001

References

External links

Kent Roach - University of Toronto - Faculty of LawKent Roach at McGill discussing the Royal Prerogative and Omar Khadr
Canadian legal scholars Clerks of the Supreme Court of Canada Living people University of Toronto Faculty of Law faculty University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni Members of the Order of Canada Yale Law School alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{Canada-law-bio-stub