Team Canada 2022: Online, Netherlands-Canada finishes in 5th!

As WSDC 2022 was online, the competition was divided once again into 2 divisions for preliminary rounds. After the 8 preliminary rounds, Team Canada finished first in their division, the only team to win at least 7 rounds. As individual speakers, every student finished in the Top 50 overall, with 3 students placing in the Top 20: Annushka (20), Max (18), and Vincent (10). After a successful Octofinal win over India, the Team bowed out against Sri Lanka on a 4-1decision, finishing the tournament as the 5th place overall team. Congratulations to the students and coaches and thank you to the countless CSDF members and other members of the Canadian debate community who volunteered their time and effort to aid this year’s team.

 Team Canada 2021: Online, Macau – Canada Wins Again!

A note from Joshua Judah, Worlds Committee Chair, and Debra Miko, CSDF President:   

“Despite the sudden unexpected departure of Tracey Lee our team worked really hard under the guidance of coaches Jason Xiao and Brent Schmidt to win Worlds for the second year in a row.  Tracey Lee had been the driving force behind our National Team for many years. Our successes over the past decade, including three World Titles, is largely due to her excellent work. We owe her a huge debt. On behalf of the CSDF and thousands of debaters from across Canada, we wish her all the very best of good health and happiness.”

The 2020-21 season began with an online training camp. The first international event was the online EurOpen Championships hosted by Germany where Canada sent three teams. All three broke in their division and the final was two Canadian Teams with of course one emerging the winner of EurOpens 2020. Team Canada then competed at the Harvard World Schools tournament where they placed second after two years of championships.

After learning from the 2020 online WSDC the world debate community was ready to host another online event organized by Macau, Qatar and Germany. After facing off against Team Hong Kong in the Grand Finals, the team emerged victoriously on an 8 – 1 decision.

The Grand Final Motion was: In the instance where a revolution has overturned a previous system,

   “This House Prefers Technocratic Governments to Democratic Governments.”

Team Canada did very well individually, our 5 speakers were:
• Mathew A – 2nd speaker
• Vincent – 9th speaker
• Gaby – 18th speaker
• Isaac – 20th speaker
• Angie

Our alternates were:
• Sarenna
• Emily
• Randy

Jason Xiao retired this year after completing his three years as coach. It is easy to see that he did an amazing job. The team finished 2nd in 2019 and won the World Title in both 2020 and 2021. That is simply astounding!

The 2022 team is now in the very capable hands of Brent Schmidt and Arsalan Ghaemi.

Team Canada 2020: Online, Mexico

With coach Jason Xiao and many of the five members returning, the team had a dominant year before the global pandemic. Then many debate tournaments, including the World’s Schools Debate Championships (WSDC) were suspended, and it was unclear what might happen for the team. Online WSDC 2020 was Team Canada’s chance to respond to all those high expectations once the Mexico hosting team agreed to host online at the end of July 2020.

In the weeks before WSDC, the team won the Vancouver WSDC prep tournament, and had a good opportunity to practice debating in conditions like the ones they would face. They all debated in separate places, grouped as a team by time zone into a specific category.

Canada had a very successful tournament, breaking as the top team in their division, with very few dropped ballots. They defeated Slovenia, Malaysia, and Singapore in order to make it to the final. View their break rounds:

• Semi-Finals: Canada (Prop) vs Singapore
• Quarter-Finals : Malaysia vs Canada (Opp)
• Octo-Finals: Slovenia vs Canada (Opp)

The grand final included the proposition of Team Sri Lanka and the opposition of Team Canada. The motion was “This house would choose the job they are passionate about.” The five debaters included: Angela Li, Max Rosen, Matt Anzarouth, Matt Farrell, and Reana Yan, with Angela, Max, and Matt A representing Canada in the final. The team’s decisive 8-1 victory felt particularly sweet after all the delays and confusion. Jason writes: “The success of Team Canada comes from the fact that they worked together as a team and viewed a debate from the perspective of a team rather than as individual speeches. I’m immensely happy to see their success as it represents the culmination of a great deal of work from a number of past Canadian coaches who have passed down their knowledge over time.” The team was lucky this year to have the support of three wonderful alternates: Issac Cape, Alison Lee, and Angie Lei.

Team Canada did very well individually, with 4 of its 5 speakers in the top 10 of the Aztec division:

3rd – Mathew A
5th – Angela
6th – Max
8th – Reana

Mixing tabs overall, Max would’ve come 6th, Angela 5th, and Anzarouth 3rd.

Josh Judah, Team Canada Committee Chairperson noted the significance of Jason’s role in coaching the winning team: “Jason has a tremendous ability to see debaters as special individuals, and he recognizes how each one can make a unique contribution to the team. His mentorship and support enabled him to build a fantastic team and was a key to their success.It was truly fitting that the Tournament Organizer’s closing comment was that it was great to see the victory go to such a wonderful person.”