The Debate Team, accompanied by Mr. Luchak and Ms. Dos Santos, attended the Regional Debate Competition held on February 4, 2025. The team, who were up against several schools from Brampton, demonstrated their ability to think quickly and create persuasive arguments.
Upon arrival, teams were gathered in the cafeteria, where they would debate on controversial current events. Prior to the competition, Mr. Luchak provided an overview of what to expect, along with the rules and expectations for the debates. Once expectations were laid out and teams were assigned their matchups for the day, the debating began.
The competition required each team to present two pre-prepared motions and participate in two improvs. Throughout the day, teams alternated between the opposition and proposition, challenging them to create effective arguments for both sides.
Navjot Kaur, who is a member of the Debate Team, explained that she had to debate on the opposition side for “Should the US leave NATO?” and the proposition side for “Canada should be the 51st state of the United States.” Those arguments were challenging and needed lots of thought, and it made debaters consider both sides to an argument.
Each participating school contributed two judges to judge the debating motions. However, this created a few issues. Many debaters shared their experiences, one even saying that “The judges were being unfair! One of the speakers was given an award for best speaker but read off a script.”
At the end of the day, the awards were announced, and one of our school’s debates placed in the top three and will be advancing to provincials held in Ottawa.
Despite the ups and downs, the Debate Team walked away with valuable experience and memories. This experience will allow them to create stronger arguments for the future and perhaps allow more debaters to debate at the provincial level. Congratulations to all the debaters who participated in this year’s competition.
Photo Credits: Bal D.
THE NORTH STAR 