One thing AIDWYC hopes will come out of this inquiry is a heightened level of scrutiny by all of the players in the justice system to not take what somebody says as a given just because of the number of qualifications they have. “We would hope and expect that the conclusions and recommendations of Justice Goudge will have wider implication into the acceptance of expert scientific evidence in general,” he says.

Broadly, says William Trudell, president of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, the inquiry is important and timely, as criminal justice becomes more complex and more experts find their way into the courtroom, not only from the medical field but right across the board. “I’m not looking for this inquiry just to be helpful in relation to Charles Smith, this inquiry is going to help all of us because there have been too many wrongful convictions,” he adds.

Historically, he says, one of the problems is that there has been too much deference shown to experts, especially pathologists and medical experts, too much acceptance of what they say at the front end of the system. As well, lawyers  have been shy to challenge them. “This expert comes with qualifications and so, in some cases, you accept what this expert has to say because they are experts, they have been recognized and we don’t think that they might have tunnel vision ,and we don’t think that they might be prejudiced, and we don’t think that they might need to sort of look at both sides more carefully,” he says. “I think that this inquiry will be really important to shine a light on the use of experts, especially in some respects the use of experts in sensitive areas where we’re afraid to ask the question, they must be right,” adds Trudell, a Toronto defence lawyer.

There is always a concern about expert evidence, especially relating to different scientific fields, says Justice John Vertes, president of the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association, because of the value that judges and juries place on the testimony of expert witnesses. He adds that as there is often a certain aura of scientific certainty surrounding this type of evidence “the qualifications of the expert, the methodology that any expert uses, the reliability of the science itself . . . these are the sort of things that have to be looked at very closely, because when an expert witness gets up to testify and reads off his or her credentials, then obviously this carries great weight with a judge and, particularly, a jury.”

Anything that would help to either set some guidelines or clarify the role of expert witnesses in a courtroom would be welcome, says Vertes, who sits on the bench of the Northwest Territories Supreme Court. Although, he adds, he is not sure the Goudge inquiry will be doing that. Sokolov says AIDWYC wants to see appropriate checks and balances put in place at all stages of the process. “So that in those instances where you have what may amount to be unreliable evidence, you have systems in place within the coroner’s office, within the pathologists office, within the Crown attorney’s office, among the defence bar as well as the judiciary to catch this unreliable evidence before it can result in wrongful convictions,” he says.

Trudell notes that, historically, defence counsel has not cross-examined these experts properly, reluctant to forget that they are not just experts, but human. He says, however, that chances are the more experienced lawyers are, the less blinded they are to experts. “The criminal justice system is a human experience. If you get somebody who comes in to testify and everybody agrees that they’re superhuman, then we’ve got a problem,” says Trudell.

The inquiry, says Trudell, will be important in order to put a human face on those providing expert evidence. He says: “Just like we do everything else, we have to question them and keep them on their toes and make sure that they’re not prejudiced, make sure that they see the larger issue, and make sure that they’re open to new ways of thinking and changes and also . . . that they are not just the Crown’s expert.”