CUSID is pleased to ring in its new year and congratulate Giorgio Traini and George Trotter from the Hart House Debating Club at the University of Toronto for their hard-fought victory at the Central Canadian Novice Debating Championships, defeating Michael Stepner and David Rudin from Marianopolis College, Adam Hetherington and Megan Vanden Hof from Queen’s University, and Kalim Kassam and Doug Sarro, also from Hart House. The top speaker was Sean Stefanik, from McGill University, and the tournament was hosted by the Osgoode Debate Society at York University.
Attendees were treated to a show round on the topic of granting amnesty to illegal aliens, and debated on the merits of religious symbols in schools, Canada’s role in Afghanistan, the abolition of jury trials, the right of parents to genetically engineer their children, the advertisement of prescription drugs, the legitimacy of assassination as a tool of foreign policy, allowing prisoners to run for office, and the mechanics of child support payments.