In celebration of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, six students from North Battleford Comprehensive High School participated in a mock trial at the provincial court in Saskatoon Saturday.
For the past 12 years, the Canadian Bar Association has held the McKercher Cup, which is a tournament of mock trials for teams across Saskatchewan. The McKercher Cup is one of the many events that the Canadian Bar Association puts on to commemorate the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As a team in a mock trial, two members took on the role of witnesses, and four would be lawyers in order to present their side of the case that was judged by actual judges. Each team participated in two trials, one where they were the prosecution and one as the defence. The judges then chose the two best teams to participate in the final.
After the trials, the teams attend a banquet at the Sheraton where the winner and the awards are presented. In the case this year, the accused, who had been a police officer for 30 years, was charged with impaired driving due to the effects of a dental anaesthetic and alcohol.
This year, there were six teams participating in the Mckercher Cup including St. Louis Community School, St. Mary High School, Aden Bowman Collegiate, Yorkton Regional High School Team 1 and 2 and NBCHS.
Participating from NBCHS were Brandon Horrell, Ebonie Zary, Taisley Isaac, Colton Hutchinson, Sean Newton and Laura Oignon. As the defence case, Zary, Isaac, Newton, and Oignon were lawyers while Hutchinson was a witness and Horrell was the accused.
As the prosecution, Isaac, Horrell, Zary and Hutchinson were lawyers while Newton and Oignon were witnesses.
NBCHS won both of their cases. In addition, Isaac won the award for the best overall individual performance.
To prepare for the mock trial, the team was taught by their legal advisers. Monte Migneaul and Suzanne Reid, and coaches, Lynne Thompson and Rob Wall.
Along with having fun, and learning about courtroom procedures, the NBCHS mock trial team members were proud of their efforts because it was the first time NBCHS had ever won a trial while in the role of the prosecution.
