Friday, February 19, 2021

2021 Isaac Moot

U of T Law students took home Best Factum at the 14th annual Julius Alexander Isaac Moot (“The Isaac") – held virtually, February 5 & 6, 2021.

The Isaac is named after the late chief justice of the Federal Court of Appeal, Julius Alexander Isaac, the first Black judge to sit on the Federal Court of Canada. Since 2008, this moot has focused on an area of law in which issues of equity and diversity arise.

The Isaac generally concerns a fictitious decision. In Williams v Canada (Minister of Health), the failure to collect race-based health information relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether that failure unjustifiably infringes either ss. 7 or 15 of the Charter

The mooters (Madeline Stewart and Aya Refaat for Appellant; Artimes Ghahremani and Mackenzie Claggett for Respondent) gave an excellent performance in each of their rounds and with high praises from the judges. 

The team was proudly coached by adjunct moot advisors Joseph Cheng, General Counsel with the Department of Justice Canada’s National Litigation Sector (Ontario Regional Office), and Emily Lam, Kastner Lam LLP, and 3L students Daniel Yang and Kristen Kephalas, who took part in last year's Isaac moot.