Issues With the Ministerial Review Process and the Law of Confessions: Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance’s Fight for Freedom
Authors: Jayden Kyryluk and Andreas Kastellanos Introduction The case of Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance (the “sisters”) highlights...
R v Webbe-Wong: A Reminder of the Frailties of Cross-Racial Identification Evidence
On its own merits, eyewitness evidence is problematic and poses challenges to the truth-finding function of Canada’s legal system. Every individual, and thus every eyewitness, is affected by biases and prejudices that can make it more difficult to assess who or what was seen at the time a crime took place. This paper will explain that reliability issues with eyewitness testimony are aggravated by cross-racial bias.
R v Webbe-Wong: A Reminder of the Frailties of Cross-Racial Identification Evidence
This paper will explain that reliability issues with eyewitness testimony are aggravated by cross-racial bias, a phenomenon which causes eyewitness identifications to be less reliable when the witness is a different race than the identified individual. In doing so, it will examine the 2022 case of R v Webbe-Wong (2022 ONCJ 423) to underscore that even credible, convincing, and well-intentioned eyewitnesses can be mistaken as a result of cross-racial bias.
