I was delighted to be invited once again to join with other members of the environmental law bar to judge the biannual Willms & Shier environmental law moot which took place last weekend at the Federal Court Building in Toronto.

A number of law schools fielded teams to argue a real case, from both appellant and respondent perspectives, in the fictional “Supreme Environmental Moot Court of Canada”.

The case under appeal was the Ontario Court of Justice decision in R. v. Consolidated Homes which raised the question of what constitutes the “habitat” of the Blanding’s Turtle, a protected species under the.Endangered Species Act.

The contestants maintained the high standards of advocacy set by previous moots (a high bar, as it were). They demonstrated a deep knowledge and understanding of the cases they were arguing and impressive resilience in the face of close questioning from the bench. Congratulations to all the contestants.

I was particularly pleased to have the opportunity to join with colleagues Paula Boutis (our Chief Justice for the day) and Anand Srivastava to judge two of the first round moots. We are pictured in the excellent photo above taken by our bailiff, Candice Gomes.

Many congratulations once again to Marc McAree, Joanna Vince and their colleagues at Willms & Shier for organizing another keynote environmental law moot.

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Manning Environmental Law is a Canadian law firm based in Toronto, Ontario. Our practice is focussed on environmental law, energy law and aboriginal law. 

Paul Manning is a certified specialist in environmental law. He has been named as one of the World’s Leading Environmental Lawyers by Who’s Who Legal. Paul is also ranked by Lexpert as one of Canada’s Leading Practitioners in Environmental Law.

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