What is Project 50?

The quote above is from AI when I searched “James Wigmore and Project 50.” I was amazed at how well it summarized Project 50. AI, however, changes from day to day. The most complete AI description of my Project 50 just before I published this article was:

Overview of Project 50:

The Concept: Each entry in the project highlights a significant event, legal case, or breakthrough from his five decades of experience.
The Author: James (Jim) Wigmore is an acclaimed forensic scientist who spent nearly 30 years at Ontario’s Centre of Forensic Sciences. He has testified in over 700 criminal cases and authored widely cited reference textbooks on the toxicology of alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine.

Notable Installments:

Entry #36: Discusses testimony at a Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission hearing in Ottawa, where my expert report regarding alcohol and workplace safety was officially accepted.
The H. Ward Smith Award: An entry detailing my 9,108 km road trip to Vancouver to attend the International Association of Forensic Sciences (IAFS) conference.
Military Court Martial: A reflection on flying to the Canadian Forces Base in Lahr, Germany, to testify on blood alcohol concentration in a military hit-and-run case.
These memoirs represent the highlights of a long and rewarding career.

I first started at the Centre of Forensic Sciences on the 5th floor of the Toxicology Section at 25 Grosvenor Street in downtown Toronto and stayed there for the rest of my 29 years. I was fortunate to obtain a Factor 80 retirement and so have been working independently in the field for an additional 21 years. This longevity has given me a unique perspective to write these memoirs.

Since 1987, I have been writing nearly daily accounts into 68 (so far) 330-page Records – about 18,000 pages in total. It was relatively easy writing into the journal when I was away travelling for court, as I spent a lot of time in motel rooms. These journals became the raw material for my memoirs. Without them, I could not have remembered the details of cases from decades ago.

My Project 50 involved rereading all my entries and finding the top 50 moments of my forensic career and writing up a small memoir for each. Upon the 50th anniversary of my forensic career, I decided to write up 50 short memoirs on LinkedIn. I should have all 50 completed by the end of 2026.

My first LinkedIn article that I would consider to be related to Project 50 was about my dear colleague and mentor at the CFS, Rita Charlebois, and her experience in court. It was published on September 6th, 2014. I continued with similar enlightening articles over the years, but on my 50th anniversary, I decided to commence Project 50 by searching through my journals for interesting cases.

Each memoir in Project 50 is a window into a different aspect of forensic toxicology. Some are about landmark cases. Others are about the people who shaped my career. A few are about the lessons I learned the hard way. Together, these memoirs tell the story of a career that spanned a period of dramatic change in forensic science – from slide rules to digital breathalyzers, from handwritten reports to AI-generated summaries.

The reason for Project 50 is simple: I will depart some wisdom or knowledge gained over a 50-year career which may be of assistance in the fascinating, difficult but highly rewarding area of forensic toxicology. These memoirs are my gift to the next generation of forensic scientists.

I hope that by reading my memoirs, young forensic toxicologists will learn from my successes and my mistakes. I hope they will be inspired to keep their own journals and to reflect on their own careers. And I hope that one day, they too will look back on 50 years of forensic science and feel as proud as I do.