2008 Calgary Churchill Senior Debate Competition

November 29, 2008

Nancy Pon and Sir Winston Churchill School hosted this Sr. Debate Tournament. Both Beginner and Open categories debated in the Canadian National Parliamentary style. The topic for debate was: TH believes that Churchill’s Gallipoli strategy was sound.

There were 8 Beginner and 25 Open teams participating from the following Schools:

After the Preliminary Rounds, the results were:

In the Final, the 1st Place and the 2nd Place Open Teams competed to determine the team that would represent Calgary at the Billington Cup Competition. Cameron and Sam defeated Alex and Krista.

Previous Calgary Churchill winners:

Cameron Griffiths & Sam Hossack will compete against the Edmonton Sr. High winners (Eliza Pan & Mengya Zhou) for the Billington Cup. This competition will take place later in the year and will take place in Calgary

2008 Edmonton Churchill Sr. Debate & Speech Competition

Nov. 8, 2008

Ian Burch, Nathan Pinkoski, Emily Cliff, John Warnke & Willis Kachuk and The University of Alberta Debating Society hosted this tournament at the U of A Humanities Building. There were 19 debate teams and 20 Speech participants.

The Speech topic was: “Express your views on the decision made by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer on April 13, 1919 in Amritsar.”.

The Debate topic was: “TH supports the actions of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer on April 13, 1919 in Amritsar ”.

There were 3 rounds of debate and speech run congruently, followed by a semi-final debate round and speech round. The semi finalist teams (top 4) were chosen first based on win-loss record and second on speaker points. Advancement to the semi-final round in speech (top 6) was based on speaker ordinals.
Speech - Advancing to the Semi - finals:                        

Fraser Genuis                            Salisbury
Catherine Fan                            Old Scona
Wenhao Sha                             Old Scona
Ashley Dallinger Williams           Salisbury
Sheldon Chow                           Old Scona
Scott Reith                                Harry Ainlay
Zak Turchansky                         Old Scona
Blue Knox                                    Salisbury       

In the Speech SEMI-FINALS, the following students placed in the top 3 and advanced to the Finals at McKay Avenue :

Fraser Genuis and Catherine Fan and Blue Knox

Debate - Advancing to the Semi - Finals:

OSA     Roger Smith                  Ryan Yeh
OSA     Arjun Gupta                   Marjun Parasco
OSA     Stephen Smith               Shaheer Meenai
OSA     Eliza Pan                       Mengya Zhou
In the SEMI-fINALS, the following teams won and will advance to the Finals at McKay Avenue:

• OSA Shaheer Meenai and Stephen Smith

The top 2 teams and the top 3 public speakers advanced to the Finals @ McKay Avenue . The Senior Open Debate team winner at McKay Avenue will compete against the Calgary Senior Open winner for the Billington Cup. The Billington Cup Competition will take place in Calgary this year.
The semi-finalist debate teams and the top three public speakers, as well as one coach from each school receiving an award, will receive complimentary tickets to the Churchill Society banquet in Spring 2008, where students will be presented with medals, a book prize, and a cash award.

2008 Edmonton Journal / Churchill Sr. Debate & Speech Finals

Dec.8, 2008

The Churchill Society and the U of A Debate Society hosted the Churchill Finals at McKay Avenue School. The finalists from the Nov. 8 tournament were invited to participate.

The Speaker was David Burns.

The Timekeeper was John Warnke.

The Judges were: David Evans, Valerie Cload and Dr. Roger Hodkinson.

The competitors in Debate were: Shaheer Meenai & Stephen Smith - Old Scona vs Eliza Pan & Mengya Zhou – Old Scona

And the winners were: Eliza Pan & Mengya Zhou

Previous Edmonton Churchill Debate winners (Basil Dean Memorial Trophy):

The winners of the Edmonton Debate competition (Eliza Pan & Mengya Zhou) will compete against the Calgary winners (Cameron Griffiths & Sam Hossack from Notre Dame) for the Billington Cup, which will take place in Calgary this year (Probably in May)

In Speech the competitors were: Fraser Genuis - Salisbury, Blue Knox - Salisbury and Catherine Fan – Old Scona.

And the winner was: Fraser Genuis

Previous Edmonton Churchill Speech winners (Arthur O. Cload MBE Trophy):

The semi-finalist debate teams and the top three public speakers, as well as one coach from each school receiving an award, will recieve complimentary tickets to the Churchill Society banquet on May 1, 2009 at the Crown Plaza Chateau Lacombe, where students will be presented with medals, a book prize, and a cash award. Guest Speaker at this year's banquet will be: Prof. Deborah W. Nutter, who will speak on "Winston & Clementine".

The Senior Open Debate team winner at McKay Avenue ( Eliza Pan & Mengya Zhou) will compete against the Calgary Senior Open winner (Cameron Griffiths & Sam Hossack) for the Billington Cup. The Billington Cup Competition will take place in Calgary this year.

2009 Billington Cup

This competition is between the winners of the Edmonton Open Senior Churchill Debaters and the Calgary Open Senior Churchill Debaters. The competition alternates between Edmonton and Calgary. In 2008 it was to be held in Edmonton. This year it will take place in Calgary, usually in May.

Edmonton Winners: Eliza Pan & Mengya Zhou from Old Scona Academic

Calgary Winners: Cameron Griffiths & Sam Hossack from Notre Dame School.

The Sir Winston S. Churchill Debate Challenge has been discontinued.

Previous Billington Cup Winners