L to R: Chris Samuel (coach), Erin O'Neill, Ashton Menuz, Daniel Nunez, Heather Cave
UAlberta Law students Erin O'Neill, Heather Cave, Daniel Nunez, and Ashton Menuz are back in Edmonton following an exciting moot - and a very special meeting.
Not only did the students compete in the 25th annual Wilson Moot at the Federal Court in Toronto on February 24-25, they also had the opportunity to meet Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, who participated in the moot for the first time since she became Chief Justice more than 17 years ago.
In the moot, O'Neill and Cave acted as the appellants, while Nunez and Menuz were the respondents.
Although the team did not win any of the competition's formal awards, the team was heavily praised by their competition panellists. In particular, the team was commended for their "exemplary" factum writing.
In addition to meeting Chief Justice McLachlin, the mooters also heard from prominent constitutional scholar Peter Hogg, Q.C., who judged one of the team's Friday rounds and delivered a speech at the evening reception commenting that he had just presided over one of the finest moot rounds he had seen in years.
Our Wilson mooters expressed gratitude for their coach, Chris Samuel, a federal Crown Prosecutor with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. Samuel, who coached the Clinton J. Ford Moot last year, is a former UAlberta Law Legal Research and Writing instructor. This was his first year coaching the Wilson.
"Chris was a fantastic coach and mentor. He was constantly available to provide feedback on our submissions and answer our questions. We have learned so much from Chris about how to be better advocates and cannot thank him enough for all of his hard work. Chris, you truly made our team come together and we were privileged to have you as our coach this year!"
In addition, the Wilson team would like to extend their sincere gratitude to all the faculty, students, and practitioners who helped prepare the team to compete in Toronto. The team was awed by the level of support they received.
UAlberta Law would also like to acknowledge the generous support of Chancellor Douglas Stollery (LLB '76), who has sponsored the Wilson Moot team since we first began participating in the competition in 2013-14.
The Wilson Moot - which explores legal issues concerning women and minorities - was founded in 1992 to honour the contributions to Canadian law made by the late Honourable Bertha Wilson. The topics chosen for past competitions include the Charter implications of the taxation scheme for child support payments, freedom of religion in the context of state-funded education, and a challenge to the anti-terrorism provisions of the Criminal Code.