In early January, twenty-eight brave (or possibly foolish) U of T law students made the trek out to Winnipeg to participate in this year’s Law Games, which is, at least theoretically, a big sports competition between all the law schools. At this year’s Law Games, a sport or two may have been played and a beverage or several may have been consumed. Here is what happened that week, to the best of my recollection.
The days at Law Games are long. Sports start at eight in the morning, and social events go until two at night. I am proud to say that U of T did not default any games, which meant that enough people got out of bed to take a forty-minute bus ride in -25 degree weather after three hours of sleep. As former Chief Justice Bora Laskin once said, “86 percent of success is about showing up.” That is about all the success that U of T had on the sports field. Rumour has it we won a couple hockey games, but I slept through that part.
Special shout out to Carly Hicks and Jacquelyn Smalley for literally breaking a Université de Montréal student’s ankles on the basketball court. It is safe to say that girl will not be getting in U of T’s way again anytime soon.
Special shout out to me, Liam Thompson, Mark Leonard, Sarah Teich, and Kyle Jackson for playing to stereotype and winning trivia. When the moderator read out the winning team, he prefaced the announcement with “It pains me to say this.” It was all thanks to Mark knowing every single Lady Gaga song, and Liam knowing everything else.
At the talent show, there were some very impressive acts that clearly took a lot of time and talent to prepare. Then there was the U of T act, which was written in around fifteen minutes and was just a few snide jokes followed by us walking off the stage. Which is basically my writing process with this and all UV articles.
Western dominated the sports during the week, and won some awards for that. It must have been nice for them to succeed at something. U de M won some award called the Dirty Cup, and there were rumours of unprintable things that they did over the course of the week.
Jenn Duff and Scott Dallen were recognized as team MVPs for their dedication to playing sports and all the other stuff too I’m sure. (Editors’ Note: Scott’s round-up of last year’s Law Games is a lot better than this one.) New Zealand exchange student Jack Elliott was the team’s best partier, and he can proudly say that the only time he stopped drinking at the hotel was for the bar crawl. He probably was the smartest of the entire team. Jeremie Lachance also deserves mention for making the team video, which was certainly complete.
Before this ends, I need to thank the team captains Jessy van Kooten, Jacquelyn Smalley, and Michelle Holmes. They did a great job organizing this, and convincing twenty-five people to go to Winnipeg in January shows that they have strong futures in the legal profession.
Law Games can thankfully go ahead next year with the cancellation of intersession. I hope U of T sends a team for many more years to come. It is a great opportunity to connect with students at other law schools, and to get to know other students at U of T. I honestly learned more at Law Games than in the average week of law school. I learned that hard work and dedication can get U of T all the way to a 28-3 loss to UOttawa at basketball. I learned that only fifteen people were allowed in the Delta hot tub, and somehow there were always fifteen Western people already there. I learned that shotgunning a beer, “tarps off,” on the balcony is the best way to warm up on a January afternoon in Winnipeg. Finally, I learned that Winnipeg has casinos in bars, which is both great and horrible
