On Friday, February 28th, we had the incredible opportunity to represent Osgoode in the 3rd Annual West Coast Environmental Law Twitter Moot (TwtMoot). We greatly appreciate the support of Saxe Law Office, who sponsored Team #Osgoode Law. This was one of our favourite experiences at #Osgoode, giving us the opportunity to transcend conventional notions of advocacy. Five teams across Canada put the #hashtag in advocacy, submitting arguments for their clients in tweets of 140 characters or less before the Supreme Twitter Court of Canada #STCC. This innovative moot takes steps towards accessibility to legal issues one tweet at a time (#access2justice!).
Five teams were selected among nine teams who tried out from seven law schools Canada-wide. We were joined by teams from Schulich School of Law (Melanie Gillis and Sarah Walsh), Lakehead University (Elysia Petrone and Ayoub Ansari), University of Alberta (Kim Hyok and Matthew Mowbrey) and the University of Victoria (Erin Gray and Mae Price). Each team was given 10 minutes to submit the arguments and answer questions from the judges (Omar Ha-Redeye @omarharedeye, Justice Robert Johnston @islandpuisne, and Theresa McClenaghan @TheresaMcClenag), which was a test that called on our ability to be concise, accurate, and creative with our character choices.
The case at issue was an appeal of the Ross River Dena Council v Yukon decision from the Yukon Court of Appeal level to the #STCC. Arguments focused on reconciling the conflict between open-entry mining interests and Aboriginal rights. We represented the Yukon Chamber of Mines in the moot. To view the Counsel’s arguments and to see the winning tweets, visit the #twtmoot list on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/WCELaw/lists/twtmoot. To read the Yukon Court of Appeal Judgment, visit Canlii at http://www.canlii.org/en/yk/ykca/doc/2012/2012ykca14/2012ykca14.html.
Congratulations to @ErinRGray and @MaePrice for winning the #twtmoot, who represented the Ross River Dena Council. We had a great time tweeting with all of the competitors and encourage the Osgoode community to try-out for next year’s #twtmoot. The #twtmoot hashtag was trending in Canada, generating more awareness to the cause, showing us the importance of social media and public education in striving for access to justice.
We had a great time connecting with new friends from British Columbia to Nova Scotia with similar interests in environmental and aboriginal law. We are forever grateful for this experience, but at the same time, are very thankful that our exams do not have a 140 character limit!
Thank you West Coast Environmental Law for hosting the #twtmoot, to Saxe Law Office for sponsoring Team #Osgoode and to all the competitors and judges. Thank you for an interactive and innovative experience, showing us the power of knowledge, advocacy, and social media.
– @ninamazze and @michaelcapitano