CUSID was well-represented at home and abroad this holiday season: at the World Universities Peace Invitational Debate, the Queen’s University teams of Sarah Sahagian and Robert Embree, and Christine Wadsworth and Sheldon McCormick, both finished as quarter-finalists. Invitations to WUPID were only extended to the Top 30 Debating Institutions in the world.
At the World University Debating Championships, hosted this year by Bangkok’s Assumption University, the Hart House teams of Nick Shkordoff and Jeremy Opolsky, and Gordon Shotwell and Richard Lizius, finished as octo-finalists. Gordon was 13th speaker at the competition; Richard was 9th. The McGill team of Padraic Scanlan and Catherine Evans found themselves 33rd in the competition, joined in missing the break on speaker points by Leon Grek and Vinay Kumar Mysore, also from McGill; Christine Wadsworth and Sheldon McCormick from Queen’s University, Alan Cliff and Julia Lisztwan from the University of Alberta, and Amir Mohareb and Rudi M. Lof from York University. The University of Toronto’s Jason Rogers won the public speaking competition, with the University of Alberta’s Sharon Ohayon as 1st runner-up, and Hart House’s Monica Ferris placed third at Comedy Night. Finally, University of Toronto Alum Joanna Nairn served as a Deputy Chief Adjudicator and judged the Grand Final, won by Oxford.
Finally, CUSID alumni are faring well in the CBC’s Next Great Prime Minister challenge – Rahim Moloo (Queen’s, UBC) and Meg Wilcox (University of Ottawa) have advanced to the Top 10.