Canadian high school junior Jeffery Zhang had been searching for mock trial competition opportunities since his freshman year. Then he found Dominion Mock Trial. 

Dominion Mock Trial is a registered Canadian non-profit that aims to expand the domain of competition of mock trial and mooting in Canada. Mock trial and mooting are both extra-curricular activities that students partake in to expand their public speaking and legal advocacy skills. DMT has built a platform for Canadian students – from high school students to first-year law school students– to find their passions in law. 

“Dominion is one of if not the only non-profit organization of its kind in Canada,” Zhang said. “I had never even heard of mock trial before, and for high school students like me, Dominion is the only way we can compete in national level competitions.”

Zhang has now won two Champion Cups – twice winning the mock trial competition hosted by Dominion, and is considered to be one of the most successful competitors sprouted by the organization. 

Before Dominion Mock Trial, there was a clear disparity between Canada and the US regarding legal education. Many American high schools have mock trial clubs, which can go to regional, state and even national-level competitions. For example, the National High School Mock Trial Championship is an American nation-wide annual competition of high school mock trial teams. Thousands of teams compete in regional and state-level tournaments until one representative of each state is chosen to compete in the nationwide competition. 

That was not the case in Canada. “There isn’t much [competition] outside a few regional competitions,” John Wu, co-founder and director of Dominion Mock Trial said. He told the News that in Canada there was a lack of interest and support for mock trial, but most importantly, there was a lack of competition. 

Dominion Mock Trial aims to provide students with what current law extra-curricular education in Canada lacks – competition resources for students. 

Dominion Mock Trial was founded during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Its director, John Wu holds a business degree and a Juris Doctor degree. He said that he wanted to do something in the non-profit sector outside of his time talking to clients and teaching his students mock trials. He recognized how the pandemic has disconnected students from learning and also from public speaking. 

“It felt like a unique opportunity to bring people together on something that I was passionate about, [which is] law,” said Wu.

Dominion Mock Trial offers more than legal knowledge, however. A long-time volunteer with DMT, Tony Wang, told the News that “students take away more than legal knowledge” when competing with DMT. 

“Legal advocacy education hasn’t been explored in Canada,” he said explaining how Dominion Mock Trial is the organization that is currently trying to fill the gaps. 

Wang mentioned that especially with the revelation of the country’s role in destroying Indigenous identity through residential schools, now working to educate youth values such as justice and fairness, as well as skills including public speaking and advocacy, becomes more important than ever. 

The news heard from Wang that Dominion Mock Trial is just like any other Mock Trial Competition organizer. Consisting of passionate volunteers from high school and other professionals within the law, they start planning a competition by developing a mock trial case. Their competitions consist of high school, college, and first-year law students – with each competition specific to an age group. 

The volunteers then reach out to student participants, lawyers and experienced law students to act as judges. The competitions are generally held on weekends, spanning many hours each day until a winner is crowned. Organizers also recognize that mock trial may be difficult at first for beginners, so they included helpful resources on their website to explain the basic rules and concepts of mock trial and mooting. 

Dominion Mock Trial has quickly gained popularity in the community of student mock trials. 

“Dominion is one of if not the only non-profit organization of its kind in Canada, and has become one of the biggest names in Canadian mock trial,” said Jeffery Zhang, a frequent participant and winner of the 2022 Varsity Cup – a mooting competition held by Dominion.

Zhang told the News that the organization reaches students from the province of British Columbia on the East Coast all the way to New Brunswick on the other end of the country. For participants such as Zhang, mock trial has helped him explore where his passions lay and he is interested in becoming a lawyer one day. 

In addition to inspiring students, DMT also seems to be rewarding for the volunteers. Reina Xue, a long-time volunteer for the organization, said that volunteering allowed her to be involved in the community. Being a competitor herself, she told the News that “competitions are the paths to improvement.”. Xue also said that volunteering allowed her to learn new technology. 

“I learned how to use spreadsheets effectively, the organization uses many automation tools to make the competitions run smoothly,” Xue added. She said she also believes that since the organization is already very well known in Canada, it has the potential of becoming bigger. 

When asked what he imagines the future of the organization looks like, Wu said that “by continuing the scope of our activities, we can offer students of all backgrounds an unparalleled experience.” It seems that it is the direction the organization is heading, as volunteers prepare for The Champions Cup in the winter, with hopes of having more participants than ever. 

Since its foundation in 2020, Dominion Mock Trial has held competitions for three years, with over 800 participants at the high school, college and first-year law school level across 11 competitions.