The last tournament of the academic year, the 2006 CUSID National Championship, was held at Carleton University in Ottawa this past weekend. The final round, held in the Senate Chamber on Parliament Hill, was between Jess Prince and Gordon Shotwell from McGill University and Ian Freeman and Gaurav Toshniwal from Hart House, University of Toronto, with the latter team becoming the new National Champions. Laura Kusisto from Queen’s University took home the Top Speaker cup and Jason Rogers from McGill University won public speaking.

The last tournament of the year also brought the last CUSID General Meeting of the year to discuss new membership bids, issues from the past year, constitutional amendments, and elections. The University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, who were previously provisional members, had their membership bids approved and are now the latest additions to the CUSID community.

For the Executive elections, the membership elected Padraic Ryan from Carleton University as President, Chris Rivers from Acadia University as Executive Director, and Chris Somerville from Hart House as Treasurer. CUSID wishes to thank all the candidates who threw their hat into the ring and good luck to the incoming Executive when they take office in a month. Big thanks also to the outgoing members – Jess Prince, Julieta Chan, and Joanna Langille – for their work this year.

Over the weekend of March 11-12, the Championnat national de débat SUCDI was held at the Université de Québec à Montréal. The French National Champions were Philippe Boisvert and Paul-Erik “Dash” Veel from McGill University. Also from McGill University were the finalists, Jon Laxer and Guy-Philippe Allen Bouchard, who also bagged the Top Speaker award. The top public speaker was Meaghan Beattie from the University of British Columbia.

A meeting was held during the championships to discuss French debating in SUCDI and what can be done to improve it. Suggestions included a French tournament in CUSID West and perhaps a French novice championships separate from the English one. The 2007 Championnat National host has not been decided and one will be decided in a future meeting. Finally, the vote for the 2006-2007 Director of French Language Debate saw the election of Jonathan Lesage from la Polytechnique de Montr?al to the CUSID Executive. Congratulations to Jonathan and many thanks to the outgoing director, Brittany Piovesan, for her work this past year.

The CUSIDWest regional meeting was held at the McGoun Cup hosted by the University of Saskatchewan this past weekend on February 24-26. The Memorandum of Agreement for the Western Region was unanimously abolished. As for next year’s Western title tournaments, McGoun will be held at the University of Alberta and the Pro-Am Championships will be held at the University of Calgary. Finally, Erin Reddekopp was elected as the new Vice-President, Western Region. Erin, who hails from the University of Alberta, will replace the outgoing VP Western, Monica Ferris, in a month’s time. CUSID would like to thank Monica for all the leadership she has shown in the region this year.

The minutes from the Winter General Meeting at the North American Championships are posted. You can read it here: http://www.cusid.ca/documents.php?cat=minutes

The North American University Debating Championships were held on January 27-29, 2006 at Hart House, University of Toronto. Congratulations go out to the new North American Champions, Ben Eidelson and Matt Wansley from Yale University, as well as the finalists, Laura Kusisto and Adam Lazier from Queen’s University, who represented Canada in the final round. Rory Gillis from Yale University was the Top Speaker and Jason Rogers from McGill University was the Top Public Speaker.

The Winter General Meeting was also held on the Sunday of that weekend to discuss certain constitutional amendments and the allocation of the British Parliamentary Championships and the French National Championships. First and foremost, CUSID welcomes l’Universit? de Qu?bec ? Montr?al and la Polytechnique de Montr?al as its newest members. As a result of its successful membership bid, l’UQAM will play host to this year’s French National Championships and Hart House will host next year’s British Parliamentary Championships. Both amendments to restrict members’ participation in other debate organizations failed to pass, but amendments requiring the CUSID Executive to write formal year-end reports were all approved.

The next CUSID General Meeting will be held at the North American Championships at Hart House, University of Toronto on January 28, 2006 (and January 29, if necessary). The meeting will consist of certain constitutional amendments and the bidding of the British Parliamentary Championships and the French National Championships. The agenda can be found here.

CUSID member schools who will not be participating in the North American Championships but would like to vote at the meeting should send their directed proxies to the Executive Director, Julieta Chan, at ed@cusid.ca or appoint a proxy nominee to vote on their behalf. Proper proxy instructions can be found in the CUSID By-Laws.