FREE PUBLIC EVENT: The Hamilton Science Faith Forum and the CSCA present a lecture by James Sloots (Retired Forensic Biologist).
Science for Justice: My Life in Crime
Isaiah 1:17 teaches: “learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Justice requires action on behalf of those without resources or power but the pursuit of justice is challenging. Truth seeking is difficult, emotional, time consuming and costly. Truth telling also demands intensity, ethics, attention and high levels of quality control/assurance. Trust and integrity lie in the balance. Forensic Biology has altered the landscape of expertise offered to the courts in the last 40 years especially with the advent of increasingly powerful DNA technologies. In this talk we discuss these technologies, how they assist the trier of fact and how it has, in often surprising ways, rescued the oppressed.
James Sloots is a Forensic Biologist who worked at the Centre of Forensic Sciences for over three decades. He helped usher DNA fingerprinting technology into the provincial lab in Toronto and their regional laboratory in Sault Ste Marie, and testified dozens of times in the Ontario courts as an expert witness. Justice is a theme that still motivates him in his pursuits as a retiree at home, church and the wider community.