For the first time in nearly 15 years, a team from the Programme de common law en français (the common law program in French) has won the Coupe Guy Guérin competition, which this year was held on February 11, 2022. In addition to winning the team competition, the PCLF teams also won three of the five individual prizes.
The team, comprising François Bélanger and Nicolas Besner, who are second- and third-year PCLF students respectively, was coached in preparation for the competition by three Crown attorneys: Anya Kortenaar, François Dulude, and Tanya Roy. Both Kortenaar and Roy had taken part in the Coupe Guy Guérin competition in 2011 and 2019, respectively. “We are very proud of François and Nicolas,” said Kortenaar, “they truly deserved to win these prizes and spent a great deal of time and effort preparing.”
The Coupe Guy Guérin is one of four regional competitions leading to the Sopinka Cup, Canada’s only national trial advocacy mooting competition. The top two teams from each of the four regional competitions will face off at the national event, which will be held on March 17 and 18, 2022.
Long hours of work paid off, said Roy: “François and Nicolas have worked very hard over the past few months and it was a real pleasure to guide them in their preparations. I am confident that they will apply the same determination in preparing for the national Sopinka competition.”
This year, our team took on the role of the Crown during a first-degree murder trial, a hate crime committed in the fictional city of Pointe Claire in the mythical province of Sopinka. At the end of four hours of competition, the PCLF team had placed in first. The team also won the following individual prizes:
Nicolas Besner - Best Opening Statement
François Bélanger - Best Direct Examination and the Assad-Sklar Award for Best Pleader
According to Dulude, “The jury’s verdict was unequivocal: the accused, Angela Scarconi, would have been found guilty of the charge of murder in the first degree. François and Nicolas proved their case brilliantly. The talent, determination, and hard work they put in over the previous months paid off.”
“This result was both completely unexpected and a real honour, since we will be participating in the national competition,” said François Bélanger. “We couldn’t have done it without guidance from our three coaches.” Nicolas Besner added “Our work isn’t done yet, but I have faith in our dedication and preparation. It’s motivating to see that our efforts could place us among the best of this new generation of digital pleaders.”
Interim dean Alain Roussy was delighted with this success, saying “The entire Common Law Section was elated to hear of the superb success of our pleaders, François and Nicolas, who did us proud at this mooting competition. We warmly congratulate them for this victory and we also sincerely thank their coaches for their work and dedication. We send all our best wishes for success to François and Nicolas as they now turn their attention to the Sopinka Cup!”