TRU LAW FACULTY NEWS

By Ryan Gauthier*

Tru Law Takes First Place In Two National Moot Competitions

TRU Law took first place at the 2023 Federal Courts Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Law Moot. The winning duo was Salman (Sammy) Abbasi (2L) and Kimia Shiri (3L). They were aided by their team members Tiffany Syyong (2L), Hania Malik (2L) and Nadia Ahmed (2L). The team was coached by David Knapp and Erin Estok, who were keen to point out that the victory was a true team effort.

TRU Law also took first place at the 2023 National Family Law Negotiation Competition. The team of Amandeep Cheema (2L) and Dallas Boyer (2L) took home top team honours. Dallas Boyer was also ranked the top negotiator for the competition. The other team members, Laurie Paulin (3L) and Stephanie Attachie (3L), also represented TRU Law at the competition. The team was coached by Amanda Winters and Sara Hillard.

Competitive Moot Season Wraps Up

TRU Law students competed in various other moots across Canada. In addition to the above two moots, TRU Law sent teams to the BC Law Schools Moot, Davies Corporate Securities Moot, Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada, Jessup Moot, Kawaskimhon Moot, MacIntyre Moot and Wilson Moot.

The Jessup team took home honours for second-best respondent memorial (written submissions) and fifth-best memorial overall. Meanwhile, the Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada team advanced to the quarterfinal round.

We thank the coaches from the British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario legal communities for their work coaching these moots. Without them, the moot program could not run, let alone be as successful as it is. In addition to the coaches named above, thanks to our other moot coaches: Danielle Ching McNamee and Brad Smith, K.C. (BC Law Schools); Chelsea Hunter and James Reid (Davies); Michael Geib, Tiana Reid and Dylan Taylor (Hockey Arbitration); Ryan Gauthier, Greg Pun, K.C., Natasha Little and Alex Devitt (Jessup); Chrystie Stewart (Kawaskimhon); Kelly Melnyk and Iain Currie (MacIntyre); and Brodie Noga, Sergio Ortega, Jane Mayfield and Karin Kotilarsky (Wilson).

Supreme Court Justice Visit

TRU Law welcomed the Honourable Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin from the Supreme Court of Canada on March 7, 2023. She engaged in a “fireside chat” with TRU Law students.

Student Awards

With the academic year wrapping up, TRU Law is pleased to congratulate the following award recipients: valedictorian, Benedict Turner; gold medallist, Pardeep Birak; and Abella Prize recipient, Cem Bicer.

Tenure And Promotion Announcement

We are also pleased to recognize the promotion of Dr. Katie Sykes, Dr. Andrew Pilliar and Dr. Krish Maharaj within the professorial ranks.

Katie has been promoted to the rank of professor. This is the highest rank active professors can achieve. Andrew has been granted tenure, and promoted to the rank of associate professor. Krish, who joined our faculty this past year with tenure, was also promoted to the rank of associate professor earlier this academic year.

Tru Inaugural Professorial Lecture

As law professors are promoted to full professor, they may deliver an inaugural professorial lecture. These lectures are a chance to celebrate the promotion of faculty to full professor and highlight their teaching and scholarship.

Dr. Chris Hunt, promoted to full professor in 2022, delivered his professorial lecture titled “Normative Tensions in Constitutional Privacy Rights Adjudication”. He explored tensions surrounding privacy and surveillance approaches with the need to prove if a reasonable expectation of privacy existed in a legal search or seizure in the first place. This builds off his extensive publication record in the areas of privacy and evidence.

Research Series

Finally, the TRU Law research series came to an end for the 2022/23 academic year with Dr. Colton Fehr’s talk titled “Moral Principles as Defences”. He discussed whether the criminal law should focus less on particular categories of defences, and instead focus on the moral principles underlying those defences.