The third edition of the Michel Bastarache Moot Court Competition on language rights took place in March

By Common Law

Communication, Faculty of Law

Faculty of Law - Common Law Section
Language rights
The third edition of the Michel Bastarache Moot Court Competition on language rights took place in March
The third edition of the Michel Bastarache Moot Court Competition on language rights took place from March 19 to 21.

The competition, which brings together participants from six Canadian law schools, enables students to develop superior mooting skills in French while expanding their knowledge of language rights.

The moot is named for the Honourable Michel Bastarache, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and leading jurist and champion of language rights.

Six teams faced off in this year’s edition, representing the universities of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Calgary, Ottawa (Civil Law Section), Ottawa (Common Law Section) combined with Saskatchewan, and Moncton. A total of 24 mooters and 30 judges took part during the three days of competition.

We wish to highlight the efforts of Vincent Charest, a uOttawa common law student, who was recognized as one of the competition’s best mooters, as well as Catherine Ouellet, a uOttawa civil law student who received a special mention.

Here are the results

Best pairs 

Prizes are awarded to the two best pairs, as chosen by the judges in the final matches.

First place: Université de Moncton (respondents) — Krista Potter and Mélanie Blier 

Second place: University of Calgary (respondents)  — Thomas Heine and Catherine Duguay 

Best mooters 

Awarded to the four best mooters, ranked according to their grades for their oral arguments.

First place: Krista Potter (Université de Moncton)

Second place: Catherine Ouellet (University of Ottawa, Civil Law Section) 

Third place: Thomas Heine (University of Calgary) 

Fourth place: Vincent Charest (University of Ottawa, Common Law Section) 

Pierre Foucher Prize 

Awarded to the two teams who receive the highest combined grades for factums, based on the total grades received for the appellant’s and respondent’s respective factums for their school.

First place: University of Saskatchewan (Maruska Giacchetto, Ashley Fulton, Acacia Rambow and Britannia Mohrbutter)

Second place: University of Calgary (Rebecca Lang, Neil Burnside, Thomas Heine and Catherine Duguay)

Michel Bastarache Prize 

Awarded to the team that best exemplifies the spirit of fair play, dedication to French and camaraderie among colleagues that the Bastarache competition represents. The winner is chosen by their peers from the other schools. This year, the team from Alberta received this prestigious prize. 

Winning team: University of Alberta (Éric Decorby, Adrienne Faulkner, Andrew Kim and Rayleigh Lee)

Factum judges: Emmanuelle Léonard-Dufour, Alexandra Heine, Sara-Marie Scott

Mooting judges: Hon. Michel Bastarache, Pierre Asselin, Sacha Baharmand, Darius Bossé, Tava Burton, Ronald Caza, Marie-Pier Dupont, Justice of the Peace Harley D’Août Gervais, Pascale Giguère, Jason Godin, Hon. Constance Hunt,  Amanda Kimpinski, Justin Kingston, Jennifer Klinck, Bianka Kratt, Mathieu Lemieux, Roger Lepage, Andrée-Anne Martel, Christian Monnin, Joëlle Pastora-Sala, Gabriel Poliquin, Hon. Marc Richard, Marion Sandilands, David Taylor, Alyssa Tomkins and Geneviève Tremblay-Tardif

Congratulations to the participants, professors and coaches!

A big thanks to Shadie Bourget, Audrey LaBrie and Caroline Magnan, who not only worked many months on this competition, but also laid the groundwork for the next one.