The Honourable Madam Justice Susan Cooper, Chief Justice
Chief Justice Cooper received a Bachelor of Science in 1983 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1987 from the University of Alberta. She was called to the Northwest Territories Bar in 1988, the Alberta Bar in 1990, and the Nunavut Bar in 1999. Chief Justice Cooper was an associate at the law firm of Cooper Johnson in Yellowknife, NWT from 1988 to 1992 and practised as a sole practitioner in Yellowknife from 1992 to 1993. She practiced in Iqaluit from 1993 to 1998. She was a partner at Chandler & Cooper from 1998 to the date of her appointment. From 1999 to the appointment, she was the first Law Clerk to the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut. Her main practice areas include criminal, family, civil, child protection, municipal, administrative, employment and parliamentary law.
Chief Justice Cooper is a member of the Law Society of Nunavut, the Law Society of Northwest Territories, the Canadian Council of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Federation of Law Societies and the Canadian Council of Administrative Tribunals. She was Vice-Chair of the Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Safety and Compensation Commission, Appeals Tribunal. She is a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Chief Justice Cooper was appointed a Judge of the Nunavut Court of Justice in December 2009, and Chief Justice in November 2024. .
The Honorable Madam Justice Susan Charlesworth
Madam Justice Charlesworth received both her B.Sc. in mathematics and her LL.B. from Queen’s University. She articled with O’Hara, Cromwell and Wilkin in Kingston before joining the criminal practice of the Honourable T.G. O’Hara, who was later appointed to the judiciary. In addition to practising criminal law, Justice Charlesworth also represented children in Children’s Aid Society matters and supported mental health clients and inmates at administrative hearings. In 1996, Justice Charlesworth joined Queen’s University Legal Aid, supervising law students providing much-needed legal services to people in the Kingston area. Under her guidance, hundreds of law graduates have learned valuable ethical and professional lessons in a practical setting.
Between 2013 and 2015, Justice Charlesworth and her husband, David, lived in Iqaluit, where she was criminal defence counsel at Maliganik Tukisiniarvik Legal Services. During this time, they came to appreciate the beauty of the land and the character of the people of Nunavut.
Justice Charlesworth and her husband are the proud parents of three adult children.
Madam Justice Charlesworth was appointed a judge of the Nunavut Court of Justice in June 2018.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Christian Lyons
Justice Christian Lyons was born and raised in Ontario. He holds an LL.B. from Queen’s University and a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Toronto. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 2003, the Nunavut Bar in 2006, and the Northwest Territories Bar in 2014.
Justice Lyons began his career as criminal duty counsel at the Scarborough Courthouse. In 2006, he accepted a position with the Maliganik Tukisiniarvik legal aid clinic and moved to Iqaluit, Nunavut. There he represented Nunavummiut – residents of Nunavut – and appeared before the Nunavut Court of Justice in communities across the territory. He was appointed senior counsel with Maliganik Tukisiniarvik in 2010, and worked in that capacity until 2014. He then joined the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) in the Nunavut Regional Office.
At the PPSC, Justice Lyons first worked as a front-line prosecutor, travelling extensively on court circuits throughout Nunavut. He later assumed leadership and management roles, including that of senior counsel and general counsel, Legal Operations. He was active on PPSC national committees dealing with current legal topics. He also met regularly with the Legal Services Board of Nunavut, the Nunavut Court of Justice, and other Nunavut stakeholders to discuss administration of justice issues and potential improvements.
During his 12 years working and living in Nunavut, both as defence counsel and as a prosecutor, Justice Lyons has learned much about Inuit culture and traditional values. In his life outside the legal profession, Justice Lyons enjoys community life in Iqaluit, being on the land, camping, hiking, kite-skiing, and kite-surfing.
Justice Lyons was appointed a judge of the Nunavut Court of Justice in June 2018.
The Honourable Madam Justice Mia Manocchio
Justice Mia Manocchio obtained a Bachelor of Laws from the Université de Sherbrooke in 2002 and was admitted to the Quebec bar in 2003.
Judge Manocchio began her legal career at the Centre communautaire de l’Estrie as a lawyer specializing in criminal law and youth law. In 2005, she went into private practice with Rancourt Fréchette Robitaille (now Fréchette Dingman Tardif) in Sherbrooke, where she continued to represent clients before the courts in several regions of Quebec. Since 2012, in addition to joining the team of Yves Ménard Avocats in Montréal, she had been practising criminal law in Nunavut and decided to move there in 2019. During her first years in the Far North, she worked as a lawyer at the legal aid office in Iqaluit (Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik Legal Services) before being appointed Justice of the Peace in Nunavut in August 2022.
Alongside her practice, Judge Manocchio taught criminal law at the École du Barreau du Québec (2008-2019), as well as a semester in the law program in Iqaluit, Nunavut, in collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan (2020). She has been involved in the legal community for several years with the Association québécois des avocats et avocates de la défense, where she served as president from 2016 to 2019. She was the recipient of the AQAAD Award recognizing excellence in her career path in 2020 and was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Law Society of Nunavut (2020-2022).
Justice Manocchio was appointed a judge of the Nunavut Court of Justice in August 2023.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Faiyaz Alibhai
Justice Faiyaz Alibhai was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, lived in India for two years, and came to Canada in 1975 at the age of 6. He completed his undergraduate degree in 1991 from the University of Toronto and his law degree from the University of Calgary in 1994. He was called to the Ontario bar in February 1996 and the Nunavut bar in September 2003, and became a member of the Law Societies of Yukon and the Northwest Territories in February 2023.
Justice Alibhai started his legal career in private practice and spent 7 years, amongst other matters, defending individuals charged with criminal code offences. In 2003, he joined the Iqaluit office of the Federal Prosecution Service and lived there with his family for two years. As a result of his work with Justice Committees throughout Nunavut and Crown Witness Co-ordinators, he became familiar with the north and Nunavummiut. Notwithstanding his departure after two years, he continued to return to Nunavut to assist the Nunavut Regional Office with various prosecutions.
Justice Alibhai joined the International Assistance Group in Ottawa in 2005 and acted as counsel for the Minister of Justice. He liaised with and advised regional prosecutors, police services, and central authorities from other countries, with respect to incoming and outgoing requests under the Extradition Act. He returned to Toronto in 2006 and for the next 17 years prosecuted cases involving criminal organizations, wiretaps, international investigations and significant amounts of illegal drugs.
Justice Alibhai was appointed a judge of the Nunavut Court of Justice in February 2024.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Mark T. Mossey
Justice Mark T. Mossey received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta in 2000 (with Distinction), his LLB from the Faculty of Law at Queens University in 2003, and his Masters of Law degree (with Merit), with a concentration on Constitutional and Human Rights Law, from the London School of Economics in 2018. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 2004 and to the Nunavut Bar in 2010.
Justice Mossey has been the Executive Legal Officer in the Office of the Chief Justice of the Nunavut Court of Justice for the past several years. Prior to taking on this role, he was a poverty and civil law counsel at Maliganik Tukisiniarvik Legal Services in Iqaluit from 2010 through 2015. During the 2019 and 2020 academic years, he taught civil procedure, trial advocacy, and a course on poverty, equality, and the law at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law’s Nunavut Law Program in Iqaluit.
Justice Mossey was an active volunteer with the Law Society of Nunavut and the Federation of Law Societies. He was nominated by the Law Society of Nunavut to serve on Federation Council in November 2022. He previously served on Council as Nunavut’s representative during the 2013-2014 term prior to becoming the President of the Law Society of Nunavut in 2014. In the fall of 2024, he was elected to serve on the Executive of the Federation as second vice president.
Justice Mossey and his spouse Amber live in Iqaluit with their four hockey playing children.
Justice Mossey was appointed a judge of the Nunavut Court of Justice in February 2025.