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.