Event info

The 2020/21 Kawaskimhon Moot will be held virtually and hosted by the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan on March 12-13, 2021.

Agenda

Note: All times are in CST

March 12, 2021

9-9:30am: Opening
9:30-10:15am: Assigned table meeting
10:30am-12:15pm: Table meetings begin
1-3pm: Table meetings continue
3:30-5:25pm: Table meetings continue

March 13, 2021

9am-12pm: Table meetings continue
12pm-2pm: Caucus
2-4pm: Tables wrap up
4:15-5:30pm: Closing (all tables)

 

 

Table Assignments

Table

Dumont Metis Nation

National Centre for TRC

MNC

Canada

Government of Saskatchewan

RCMP

1

McGill 1

Western 2

 

U of A 1

UNB 2

Dal 2

2

Osg 1

U of MB 2

Laskin

TRU 2

Queens

USaskNT1

3

Osg 2

U of MB 1

 

U of A 2

UBC 2

U of T

4

McGill 2

UVic

Calgary 1

USaskNT2

UNB 1

Windsor 1

5

USask SK

Western 1

Calgary 2

TRU 1

UBC 1

Dal 1

6

Sherbrooke 2

Sherbrooke 1

Ottawa 2 

Montreal 1

Ottawa Civil

Montreal 2

Moot Problem

Paper submissions

Submissions are due Feb. 24, 2021 at 11:59pm your local time.

Table 1 Paper Submissions
https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Table1PaperSubmissions

Table 2 Paper Submissions
https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Table2PaperSubmissions

Table 3 Paper Submissions
https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Table3PaperSubmissions

Table 4 Paper Submissions
https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Table4PaperSubmissions

Table 5 Paper Submissions
https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Table5PaperSubmissions

Table 6 Paper Submissions
https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Table6PaperSubmissions

Facilitators

Benjamin Ralston teaches law at the University of Saskatchewan in both the College of Law and the Kanawayihetaytan Askiy program for Indigenous land managers. He is currently completing his PhD in law while teaching as a sessional lecturer. Benjamin previously held term positions as assistant professor with the College of Law, including a term teaching in the Nunavut Law Program. He has also worked as the Legal Editor/Publications Manager and Research Officer for the University of Saskatchewan’s Indigenous Law Centre.

Benjamin completed his Master of Laws with Distinction at the University of Otago in New Zealand (2014), and his Juris Doctor (2010) and Bachelor of Arts (2007) at the University of British Columbia. His legal career began in Vancouver where his practice was largely dedicated to administrative law, civil litigation, and Aboriginal law, and he continues to carry on a part-time practice exclusively in the area of Aboriginal law to this day.

Isa Gros-Louis holds a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Native Studies, both from University of Saskatchewan.

Ms Gros-Louis began her career as a Legal Counsel and was later employed by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada where she held positions of increasing scope and responsibilities from 1996 to 2008.

She then transferred the Privy Council Office where she provided the Minister responsible for Democratic Reform with advice on an array of democratic reform initiatives.

In 2010, Ms. Gros-Louis was selected as a CAPI candidate within the Canada-Australia exchange program. She first worked at PM & C for two Divisions; the Social Inclusion Unit and the Indigenous Policy Branch. Provided advice to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Social Inclusion, the Australian Social Inclusion Board, the Department of Prime Minister and Executive on social inclusion and indigenous-specific policy issues. From 2011 to 2012 she also worked for AusAID, being the head of the CHOGM Task Force where she was responsible for the development of an Australian economic and development package for CHOGM.

From 2012 to 2013, she returned to Privy Council Office as the Senior Advisor responsible to make recommendations with regard to the interpretation and application of the Access to Information Act, the Privacy Act and the Canada Evidence Act regarding Cabinet Confidences. In January 2013, she accepted the position of Director for the Coordination of Parliamentary Returns where she coordinated the government-wide process for producing and tabling Ministerial responses to written questions, public petitions and notices of motions for the production of papers in Parliament on behalf of the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

In 2016, Ms. Gros-Louis transferred to the Department of Health Canada as the Director of Strategic Policy, Planning and Portfolio Affairs. She provided leadership in the establishment of horizontal and integrated strategic policy frameworks and priority setting across Health Canada.

In May 2018, she was appointed at Indigenous Services Canada as the Director General responsible for the oversight of the reform for child and family services policies and programs for Indigenous children and families in collaboration with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities and leaders, other federal departments, and provincial and territorial government.

Judge Michelle R. Brass is originally from the Peepeekisis First Nation of the Treaty 4 Territory of Saskatchewan. Judge Brass was appointed to the Saskatchewan Provincial Court on November 22, 2018. She sits in Estevan and on the court circuit points including Weyburn and Carlyle. Prior to her appointment, Judge Brass practiced law for the previous 20 years. She completed her articles with Saskatchewan Justice in 1997 and was called to the Saskatchewan Bar in 1998. Judge Brass graduated from the University of Saskatchewan, College of Law with her LLB in 1997 and University of Regina, Department of Philosophy with her BA in 1991.

Following her articles, Judge Brass joined the Constitutional Law Branch of Saskatchewan Justice. She then joined Justice Canada in Ottawa, Ontario where she worked primarily on Indigenous Law issues related to the Specific Claims Policy, Crown Law, and Environmental Law related to water. Judge Brass left Justice Canada in 2014 to return home and joined the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency. Judge Brass worked solely on Water Law issues at that stage of her career. However, she decided that it was time to leave government and opened her own firm in 2015. She ran Brass Law Office until her appointment in 2018.

Angela Bishop is a Metis Lawyer from the Metis Community of Green Lake, Saskatchewan. Angela is a mother of 2 daughters Crystal and Roberta and grandmother to Shataya, Dakota, CJ, Kayden and Ryan. Angela has been practising Aboriginal and Constitutional Law for over 25 years with the federal Department of Justice.

Angela works primarily in the area of self-government and acted as lead counsel in the negotiation of the first Métis Self Government Recognition Agreements with the Métis Nation of Ontario, Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and the Métis Nation of Alberta. 

Angela is also active within the Indigenous community and is respected for her efforts to promote unity through community. During the initial months of the COVID-19 Pandemic Angela organized a group of Indigenous seamstresses to create free face masks for Indigenous communities. The group of seamstresses made over 15000 face masks.

Angela has also participated in many initiatives promoting awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In this regard, Angela has been involved in many long distance memorial runs for MMIWG. Angela was recognized recently as a champion of Human Rights by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

Angela is a passionate social justice activist who was raised by Metis activists Rose Richardson and Roderick Bishop. Angela is proud to be Metis.

Aaron Starr has a practice that focuses on corporate and commercial law, real estate, estate planning, First Nations legal issues, including natural resource development, Trusts, providing both strategic business and legal advice to clients in developing projects on First Nation Lands. He also provides advice to First Nation’s economic development corporations and businesses on the operational side of such agreements, general corporate/commercial matters, negotiation and formation of joint ventures and partnerships and business and asset acquisition transactions. Mr. Starr has also worked closely with First Nations on governance issues including drafting bylaws, legislation, policies and Land Management regimes.

Aaron Starr is a member of the Star Blanket Cree Nation and obtained his Juris Doctor in 2011 from the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to this, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts with Distinction from the University of Manitoba while playing for the varsity hockey team. Aaron was admitted to the Saskatchewan Bar in May, 2012 and joined McKercher LLP as an articling student. Aaron was invited to join the partnership in 2019.

Aaron was recently selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers™ in Canada 2021 in the field of Aboriginal for Saskatoon. This is the first year he has been listed in Best Lawyers®.

Aaron has kept active in the community making presentations at the College of Law, panel discussions for corporate clients and doing regular presentations for the Canadian and Saskatchewan Bar Association. He has also sat on numerous Boards for community organizations, economic development corporations and continues to be involved in evaluating and coaching Saskatoon Minor Hockey.

Outside the practice of law, Aaron has a son and two daughters and enjoys travelling, spending time with friends and family golfing, playing hockey and playing baseball.

About the Kawaskimhon Moot

The Kawaskimhon Moot was first held at the University of Toronto in 1994, and welcomes students from nearly every law faculty across Canada each year. Kawaskimhon a word of Cree origin roughly translated to “speaking with knowledge” – is a consensus-based, non-adversarial moot that incorporates Indigenous legal traditions alongside federal, provincial and international law. There are no winners or losers. Instead, mooters participate in roundtable negotiations on a particular topic in Indigenous law, representing their assigned party.