Nunavut law students take prize in national competition

After months of working up to five extra hours every day on top of a full course load, a team of four Nunavut Arctic College law students secured a top prize in a competition against other law schools across the country.

They came in first for their written submission — called a factum — and beat out 18 other universities at the Gale Cup Moot, with the University of Montreal and University of Toronto coming in second and third.

In moot competitions, law students compete in simulated court hearings based on a real Supreme Court of Canada case. The Gale moot was held virtually this year on Feb. 26 and 27.

The team included Jessica Shabtai, Jasmine Redfern, Pascal MacLellan and Andrew Morrison.

“This just demonstrates to us and everybody else that we are really capable at the same level as all these big schools,” Shabtai said.

“It was really about challenging myself … standing up in court is not something that that we’ve done before.”

Shabtai said she and her teammates didn’t doubt they were capable of the win, but knew they didn’t have the same resources as other teams in the south.

She said they were up against teams with experience, faculties full of experts, researchers, and other resources they didn’t necessarily have.

Pascal MacLellan, another student on the team, added some competitors had acting coaches.

MacLellan said the team started preparing in October, working through weekends and Christmas break. The team had to audition to take part in the moot, then had to prepare two factums and an oral presentation.

He said for the oral submission, the team practised in front of local lawyers and reached out to lawyers in the south over Zoom to get feedback.

“It was just trial and error,” he said.

The team had two coaches: Steve Hayward, a lawyer who works in public prosecution in Iqaluit, and Kathleen Selkirk, a criminal defence lawyer working at the Legal Services Board of Nunavut.

Selkirk said the team got high praise from judges who sat on their panel at the competition.

A lawyer complimented MacLellan on his strong presence, despite having to compete virtually.

Redfern, meanwhile, received praise from Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Jamie Campbell for her oral advocacy skills. Campbell said Redfern “uses her words like hand grenades.”

Nunavut Justice Minister George Hickes also congratulated the team in the legislature on March 10, saying the win shows the quality of the territory’s homegrown law program.

The program was launched in 2017 through a partnership between Nunavut Arctic College and the University of Saskatchewan.

The group of 23 students, currently in their fourth year, is slated to graduate in the first week of June.