The project, launched in 2025 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court, was developed over more than two years by the uOttawa Faculty of Law and its audiovisual platform, Jurivision, to raise public awareness of the court’s inner workings, history and legacy.
The Supreme Court Experience has two components. Echoes of the Court is an immersive video game where players wander through the Supreme Court looking for “echoes,” fragments of testimony from those involved in cases heard there. Meanwhile, Keys to the Court is a learning platform combining short documentaries and interactive tools.
Joey Issa, now a fourth-year computer science student, helped design the game. She developed visual narratives, digital content, game mechanics, educational objectives and more.
“It was one of the best experiences I’ve had at the University,” says Joey, who worked on the project for four months when she was in her first year.
“I applied concepts that I had learned in classes and with the Game Development Club at uOttawa to a real-world project that impacts all of Canada.”
Joey Issa
— Fourth-year computer science student
Working with three other student developers and Faculty of Law professor Thomas Burelli, she conceptualized game themes and mechanics that would make the game fun but also honour the Supreme Court.
The interior of the court was scanned using 3D cameras and then recreated digitally by 3D visual artists at Awastoki, an Indigenous studio based in Wendake, Quebec. In all, more than 500 items — like portraits of former justices, a distinctive clock and the full bench where the justices sit — are included in the virtual replication of the hallowed halls.
Keys to the Court shows the court in action from different perspectives: those of judges weighing their decisions, lawyers speaking for their clients, people whose lives have been affected by a judgment, and academics analyzing what these trials reveal about our society. Watching the vignettes offers an intimate experience of a court whose judgments reflect the world we live in.
Third-year civil law student Delphine Vauclair was a legal researcher for Keys to the Court, transforming complex cases into stories about the people behind key decisions. She helped ensure that the language used was clear, concise and understandable to people with little knowledge of the law.
“I was certainly in awe throughout the experience. I was doing my job while also feeling slightly starstruck, which I think many law students would relate to,” says Delphine.
Delphine says during her 18 months working on the project with Jurivision, she learned a lot about Canada’s judicial system, how judges collaborate and how the court functions on a day-to-day basis.
“I gained insight into what it’s like to appear before the Supreme Court as a litigator, a career path that strongly appeals to me. While it seems undeniably stressful, it also appears intellectually exhilarating.”
Delphine Vauclair
— Third-year civil law student
The videos were produced using material shot all around the country, from Halifax to Victoria, to capture the various stories. Five of the 50 vignettes give a voice to citizens who took their cases all the way to the Supreme Court. These five stories cover their issues, their experiences with the legal system and the consequences for them, their families and their communities. The videos offer five ways to understand justice and its stories on a human scale.
Sophia Fiorilli, a second-year student in the Programme de droit canadien, is a production assistant. She’s helping to promote the game among organizations involved in legal education, including the Rideau Hall Foundation and Éducaloi, as well as in communities across Canada.
“Now it’s a matter of reaching out to other organizations and spreading the word,” says Sophia, adding that the primary audience is high school students.
“When we were writing the course and the audio that goes into the game, it was tailored to a more general audience” she says. “But I think, as early as high school, people should know what’s going on in our government, how our courts work. And I think it’s important for university students who didn’t learn that in high school to freshen up or learn these things for the first time.”
Charlie Morham, also a second-year student in the Programme de droit canadien, says a highlight of being involved in the project launch event was meeting Supreme Court justices. He says that was a “really cool” experience for a law student, even if some were a little wary of the project at first.
Axel Kouamé, a second-year public administration student, was among the many students who tried the Supreme Court Experience for the first time at a showcase held in CRX on November 26. Axel says he usually plays Yu-Gi-Oh! or Genshin Impact, but he really enjoyed the immersive nature of the simulation.
“This game is a fantastic initiative by the Faculty of Law, one that could give anyone a chance to explore the legal world, including the Supreme Court.”
Axel Kouamé
— Second-year public administration student
Now it’s your turn to gain a unique perspective and have fun. Try the Supreme Court Experience and take pride in the fact it was made right here by uOttawa students, for students across Canada.
