The 2004 Grand Moot

Persuasive, articulate, and a sense of humour - these qualities characterized the participants in the 2004 the Grand Moot. On September 28, the Supreme Court of Flavelle convened at the Faculty of Law. Presiding were the Hon. Mr. Justice Stephen Goudge of the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Hon. Mr. Justice Michel Proulx, recently retired from the Quebec Court of Appeal, and the Hon. Mr. Justice James M. Spence of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

(L-R) student mooters Jeff Shafer, Sidney McLean, Nadine Harris and Hilary BrookThe Justices engaged the law school's top mooters in a lively dialogue. Third-year law students Hilary Book, Nadine Harris, Sidney McLean, and Jeff Shafer showed that they were equal to the task. This year's moot problem raised administrative law and Charter issues, particularly with respect to the boundary between the powers of the judiciary and those of the executive. Hilary Book and Nadine Harris represented the appellants, a fictional Flavellian citizen who had been extradited to the United States and subsequently transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba suspected of being involved with terrorist activity. Sidney McLean and Jeff Shafer, on behalf of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, defended the government's decision not to intervene following the extradition.

Following the submissions, Justice Spence said that the Grand Moot was "very much like the real thing" and praised the mooters for their sharpness and thoroughness.

From the Fall 2004 issue of Nexus