Despite MIT claiming the victory for APDA, CUSID had a strong showing this year. In addition to the McGill finalists, CUSID’s team from UBC (Evan Choate & Joshua Sealy-Harrington) finished as semifinalists, teams from Queen’s University (Adam Hetherington & Christine Wadsworth) and another team from McGill University (Vinay Mysore & Sophie MacIntyre) finished as quarterfinalists, and two Hart House teams (Richard Lizius & George Trotter and John Ashbourne & Erin Fitzgerald) as well as another Queen’s team (Adrienne Lipsey & Mark Rubenstein) finished as octofinalists.

CUSID also secured the spots of top novice speaker (Tim Abdulla from McGill University), top novice team (Deirdre Casey & Sam Greene from Hart House), and 8 of the 10 top speaker positions:
#1 Richard Lizius (Hart House LT)
#2 Christine Wadsworth (Queen’s HW)
#3 Adam Hetherington (Queen’s HW)
#4 Adam Goldstein (MIT GM)
#5 Sean Stefanik (McGill SS)
#6 Saro Setrakian (McGill SS)
#7 John Ashbourne (Hart House AF)
#8 Sophie MacIntyre (McGill MM)
#9 Alex Campbell (Stanford CM)
#10 George Trotter (Hart House LT)

Overall, this was a good year for CUSID. Next, we’ll find out who Canada’s top debaters are at the National championships this March in Edmonton.

Also, the site is now running the WordPress CMS, so feel free to sign up for an account. If you have any comments, criticisms, or suggestions, send me an email at ed@cusid.ca.

Richard Lizius and Paul-Erik “Dash” Veel of Hart House took home the gold, defeating McGill University’s Sophie MacIntyre & Jake Liang. The triumphant pair also took home Top Speaker awards, placing first and second respectively.

In Novice Finals, Mary MacPhail and Robert Lees-Miller from the University of Alberta defeated David Miko and Justen Russell from the University of Calgary. The Top Novice Speaker was the Royal Military College’s David Reid.

Triumphant in the East vs West showdown were Dalhousie’s Andrew McCoomb & Krum Dochev, who defeated the University of British Columbia’s Maria Jogova and Joshua Sealy.

Dan Powell of RMC became CUSID’s Top Public Speaker with a ballad detailing the exploits of the Dalhousie team, whose success against fierce opposition earned them the honorific “Dragonslayers”.

The new CUSID executive was also elected. Vinay Kumar Mysore of McGill University will be the 2009-2010 CUSID President, and joining him will be Brent Kettles from Osgoode Hall as Treasurer. Trinity College’s Mitchell Gerskup of will serve as CUSID’s new Executive Director. Iain Ireland and Ali Cherri will be serving as regional Vice-Presidents, joining Shaughnessy Hawkins, the sitting V-P Central. Many thanks to the outgoing executive.

Next year’s National Championships will be hosted by the University of Alberta, British Parliamentary Nationals by the University of British Columbia, and Toronto’s York University will host the North American Debating Championships.

Congratulations Amy!

Amy was the second person to enter this season’s competition which began online when we asked young Canadians aged 18-25 to post a video to YouTube telling us what they would do to improve Canada politically, socially and economically. Candidates challenged one another’s platforms with additional videos and debates in our forums. They also responded to weekly video challenges asking for their opinions on current affairs. Finally, ten semifinalists were selected to come to Toronto to compete head to head at political bootcamp where our four finalists were selected to compete on the nationally televised show.

Link.

The tournament also recognized Richard Lizius as the best speaker, McGill’s Sean Husband as the best novice speaker, and Seans Stefanik and Hayward, both also from McGill, as the joint best public speaker. Finally, McGill’s Calvin Rosemond and Joe Bricker were named Novice Champions at the tournament.

Many thanks to Queen’s University, fabulous hosts once more.

Congratulations also go to the new Novice Champions, Hart House’s George Trotter and Giorgio Traini, who defeated the University of Alberta’s Ian Burch and Byron Tse in a round on Telecom Immunity. Canada’s Top Public Speaker is McGill’s Vinay Kumar Mysore, who defeated Hart House’s Alexander Levy by explaining his absence from the American presidential campaign. The Top Novice Speaker was Giorgio from Hart House.

The new CUSID Executive includes Adam Coombs from Carleton University as President and Rudi M. Lof from York University as Treasurer. Joining them are the returning Executive Director, Alex Amar, from the University of Ottawa; Guelph’s Shaughnessy Hawkins as the new Vice-President for the Central region, Alberta’s Emily Cliff as the new Vice-President for the West, Matt Edmonds from St. Francis-Xavier as Vice-President for the East, and Carleton’s Yannick Veilleux-Lepage as the Director of French Language Debates.

Other business from the Annual General Meeting included the allocation of the 2007-2008 National Championships to the University of Saskatchewan and the ratification of Saint Mary’s University as CUSID’s newest member.

The Central Region General Meeting granted the 2007-2008 Central Canadian Novice Championships to Carleton University, and the L?ger Cup to Toronto’s Trinity College.

Many thanks and congratulations to Dalhousie University for an impeccable tournament.

Congratulations to the novice champions, Andi Wilson and George Trotter, also from Hart House, and the novice finalists Jeremy Larkins and Emmett Soldati from York University.

Josh Bone from Yale University was the Top Speaker and Vinay Kumar Mysore from McGill University was the Top Public Speaker. Princeton’s Zayn Siddique was Top Novice Speaker and 2nd Speaker.

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.

Attendees debated on the merits of making mandatory the HPV vaccine, the gathering of evidence from social networking sites, the existence of beauty pageants, the response of the West to China’s investment in Africa, the role faith-based arbitration, the US support of the Musharraf regime, and fertility assistance to the poor.

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.