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sbating Socltig Attends 2 Tournaments

B Nola MacDonald ‘On the weekend of October 4-6, eight members of the

U.P.E.1. Debating society took off for Halifax to

1 participate in the Dalhousie Invitational Novice De- bating tournament. We sent three and a half teams of o debaters and one judge.

The debaters did fairly well, placing as follows:

l .P.E.1. B-10th, U.P.E.I. A - 21, University of*

Florida at Orlando (the hybrid, or leftover debater, Dal likes to call them that because of the initials UF. O.) - 22, and U.P.E.I. C - 27 out of 28 teams. This is very respectable considering most of our debaters had only one practice round here before heading off to Dalhousie.

The highest individual score from U.P.E.I. went to Grayson Miniley from our B team. He placed 21 out of 56 debaters. The second highest placement was Peter Trueman of the A team, who came in 24. Todd King of U.P.E.1. B placed 28, Nola MacDonald of the hybrid team came 33, David Griffin of U.P.E.1.A came in 41. Michael and David Bertrand of U.P.E.I. C placed 43 and 55 respectively. Michael Woodman went as a judge.

he resolutions we debated were all impromptu, i.e. re had no idea what the resolutions would be until 0. 5 minutes before the debate. The resolutions vere: ‘If you take big paces you leave big spaces.’ i esring doesn’t pay.’ ‘‘Governments can seri- isly harm your health.’’ ‘*There is no such thing as ust war.’’ ‘‘A little rebellion now and then isa jod thing.’’ *‘ This house would pave the jungle.”’ § you can probably tell, the resolutions presented to were rather vague and left a lot of room for inter- : ation. Forexample, U.P.E.I. B took ‘‘A little bellion now and then isa good thing.*’ to mean F 'ree-form jazz should replace elevator music every- ere.”’ On the other hand, U.F.O, (the hybrid team) ner preted the same resolution as ‘We should lower edrinking age to 16.’’ Of course there were some ¢ literal interpretations as well, especially for lere is no such thing as a just war,’* One interpre- yn that really surprised me ‘though was for ‘This use would pave the jungle.’’ The government roposed that we should tear down the building we rc fe in, grind it up, and use it for pavement. It was a ally interesting case,

peel round of debate, after the closed quarter mi finals, Dalhousie F took on Dalhousie A at

the Nova Scotia Provincial Legislature Building. Dalhousie F won the tournament as the government, proposing that since ‘*Notall plumbers have clear drains.’’, ‘‘Canada needs standardized testing.’’ Of course, this was only the debating, we also at- tended several parties, mostly at the ‘‘Dome’’, the Dalhousie Law Society Building. On Saturday evening, there was a ‘‘Pub Round’”’ atthe Dome. This meant, of course, that 4 drunk people debated about alcohol.

Basically, every one had a great time, and all looked forward to our next tournament, the Atlantic Regionals at U.N.B.- Fredericton on October 18-20.

The Atlantics went really well. We sent 4 teams and all did well. Our A, B, and C teams made up of: Michael Woodman, Edward Lank (A Team); Todd King, Grayson Miniely (B Team); Bob Smith, and Peter Trueman (C Team); all had win-loss records of 4-2. The D Team, made up of David Griffin and Nola MacDonald went 2-4.

There was a prepared round this time, the resolution being ‘‘A bonchat, bon rat’’ (To a good cat, a good rat). There were also four impromptu rounds with resolutions like: ‘‘Abuse does not take away from use.’’ ‘‘Inthe country of the blind, one-eyed ducks are king.’’ ‘‘Itis true art to conceal art.’* “‘Toknow your neighbour’s language is to possess the keys to his house.’’

There were also 3 rounds of public speaking which added to the fun. Public speaking is similar to debat- ing in that you are given a nonsense topic and have a very short time to begin speaking. Most topics re- semble debating resolutions, but we had a “‘duck round’’. All ofthe topics had something to do with ducks. It was an interesting round.

We have not yet received the final scores or place- ments, but at least one team from U.P.E.1. placed in the top ten.

Next month, on November 23, there will be a small tournament here at U.P.E.1. It willbe a one day tournament only, with about 7 rounds of debating.

We will be looking for judges and possibly billets, so if you are interested in debating, but don'treally know what itis all about, this could be your chance to find out, There will be people here from all across the Atlantic region, It should be a great time.

October 31, 1991

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