The McGill Debate Union spent the last weekend of January in Toronto competing in the North American Debate Championship alongside teams from Yale, MIT, and Princeton. Bringing six teams and two judges with them, the union enjoyed immense success—with two teams in the main break, or elimination round, two teams in the novice break, and a team competing in the grand finals.

After winning the semi-finals against Princeton University, the team of Joe McGrade and Cal Rosemund reached the finals, and were pitted against debaters from Carleton University on the topic of family law with the motion ‘This house would give preference to fathers in custody battles.’ McGill finalists lost narrowly, with votes from three judges against four voting for Carleton. Rosemund said that they “could not have lost to a more deserving team.”

Other McGill teams also experienced great advances. Two novice teams participating in their very first university-level debate championship earned spots in the novice semi-finals debating against each other. Caroline Mei and Erza Cohen proceeded to the novice final, facing a team from Queen’s University.

Lewis Fainer and the union’s president, Lauren Shadley, overcame great odds and reached the tournament’s octo-finals. They ultimately lost against one of Yale University’s top teams on the topic of Iranian nuclear technology. However, this result did nothing to lower the group’s morale.

“I can honestly say hearing that they advanced got me more excited than hearing that my own team did,” Rosemund said. “It was also really nice to see the support from other members of our club.”

Having hosted the tournament in 1991-1992 and taken home the championship win in 2003, achieving success in the North American Debate Championship has come naturally to McGill participants. Canadian universities uphold a tradition of success, with an impressive record of five championship wins in the last ten years in face of fierce competition from top American universities. This is an astonishing feat considering that Canadian debaters are often grossly outnumbered by their American counterparts.  

“We were fortunate to have a fellow Canadian team in the final with us, in a tournament with as many teams from Yale alone than from all the Canadian universities combined,” Rosemund said. 

Overall, the McGill Debate Union returned to Montreal with significant additions to their long list of achievements. 

“We are all very pleased with our performance,” Shadley said.  

                              —Julia Chu