Last year, Canada won Worlds after a 13-year drought. This year, Canada did it again, this time by Michael Kotrly and Joanna Nairn from Hart House, University of Toronto who defeated teams from Yale University, University of Chicago, and The Inner Temple in the Grand Final round to capture the title. CUSID congratulates them with pride for their outstanding performance.

Six other teams also represented Canada admirably. Rory McKeown and Gaurav Toshniwal (Hart House), R. Jesse McWaters III and Jason Rogers (McGill University), Rahool Agarwal and Ren (Hart House) made it to the Quarter-Finals; Jess Prince and Gordon Shotwell (McGill), Ian Freeman and Melanie Tharamangalam (Hart House), and Garnett Genuis and Padraic Ryan (Carleton University) were Octo-Finalists.

In speaker rankings, the top speaker in the competition was a tie between Rory Gillis and Beth O’Connor, both from Yale University. The top Canadian speaker and 9th in the world was Jess Prince, while Joanna Nairn and Ren tied for 10th place.

Canada was also well represented in the Public Speaking competition with Michael Kotrly, Jason Rogers, and Ren reaching the final round. Gordon Shotwell and Brent Kettles (University of Calgary) were semi-finalists. Public Speaking was won by O’Neill Simpson from the University of West Indies, Cave Hill.

At the Worlds Council meeting, the 2008 World Championships hosting right was given to Assumption University in Thailand, whose bid included Joanna Nairn as one of the North American Deputy Chief Adjudicators. Also, University of British Columbia’s bid defence was ratified for Worlds 2007.

CUSID wishes the debaters a safe trip home and once again, congratulates all the Canadian debaters at Dublin for what is undoubtedly Canada’s most impressive showing ever. Next year will be even more exciting as the World Championships returns to Canadian soil in Vancouver.

On New Year’s Eve in Dublin, the 32 breaking teams in this year’s World University Debating Championships were announced. Canada broke 7 teams — more teams than any other country in the competition and more teams than Canada has ever broken in one year since Worlds officially changed to the British Parliamentary format ten years ago.

The Canadian teams who will debate in the Octofinal rounds on January 2 are Michael Kotrly and Joanna Nairn (Hart House A), Jess Prince and Gordon Shotwell (McGill B), Rory McKeown and Gaurav Toshniwal (Hart House D), R. Jesse McWaters III and Jason Rogers (McGill A), Rahool Agarwal and Ren (Hart House B), Ian Freeman and Melanie Tharamangalam (Hart House C), and Garnett Genuis and Padraic Ryan (Carleton).

Full Break:
1 Yale A
2 Chicago A
3 Sydney A
4 Cork Philosoph A
5 Oxford B
6 Hart House A
7 McGill B
8 Melbourne A
9 Cape Town A
10 Hart House D
11 Yale C
12 Yale E
13 McGill A
14 Sydney C
15 Glasgow A
16 Sydney E
17 Cambridge A
18 Ateneo B
19 Leeds A
20 UNSW A
21 Middle Temple B
22 Hart House B
23 Cambridge B
24 Oxford D
25 Inner Temple A
26 Cork Philosoph B
27 Bristol A
28 Hart House C
29 Carleton
30 Monash C
31 Ateneo A
32 Oregon A

Good luck to our teams and have a happy new year!!

At the CUSID Central meeting, held during the CUSID Central Canadian Championships (L?g?r Cup) this weekend, Paul-Erik “Dash” Veel was successfully re-elected as VP Central. In addition, the University of Guelph was chosen to host next year’s Leger Cup.

Unfortunately, there were no bids to host the Central Canadian Novice Championships, however, it is aimed to have a host selected by McGill’s Winter Carnival in January.

Over the weekend of November 4-6, 2005, the Atlantic Canadian Championships were held at St. Francis Xavier University.

CUSID congratulates Myles McNutt, from Acadia University, for being elected as the new VP Atlantic for 2005-2006, and thanks the outgoing VP Atlantic, Alexa Smith from Dalhousie University, for her work this past year.

In addition to the Executive election, the Atlantic region granted hosting privileges of the next Atlantic Novice Championships to Acadia University and the next Atlantic Championship to Dalhousie University.

Turning to upcoming tournaments this year, the Chief Adjudicator for this year’s National Championships, Ren, is calling for applications for Eastern and Western Deputy Chief Adjudicators to join him on the adjudication team. For more information, click here or e-mail Ren at james.renihan@utoronto.ca. Applications are due on November 15.

The 2005 British Parliamentary Championship was held on October 14-16 at the University of British Columbia with 40 teams from across North America and a very distinguished international judging team. After an exciting final round and an hour of deliberation, Rory McKeown and Gaurav Toshniwal from Hart House (University of Toronto) won the tournament on a 3-2 decision over Monica Ferris and Brent Kettles from the University of Calgary. The other two finalist teams were Ren and Rahool Agarwal from Hart House, and Joanna Nairn and Michael Kotrly also from Hart House. Ren also won the Top Speaker award at the tournament.

The Fall General Meeting was also held on October 15 at the BP Championships. CUSID welcomes its newest full members – the University of Alaska, Brandon University, and the John Molson School of Business – and congratulates them on their successful bids. Julieta Chan, who served as the interim Executive Director over the summer, was elected as the permanent 2005-2006 Executive Director. There were no bids for the French National Championships, so the tournament host will be decided at a future General Meeting.