A duo from the Carleton University Debate and Speech (CUDS) team earned the first Canadian Parliamentary (CP) National Championship victory for an Ottawa team in 19 years.
Harar Hall and Isaac Botham took home the winning title while competing in the CP championships held at Western University on March 17. Hall, who is also president of Canadian Debate, won the distinction of top debater in the North American Womxn and Gender Minorities Championships the same weekend.
Hall and Botham earned their victory using a debate scenario created by Hall. The case consisted of the debaters winning a hypothetical election campaign on a socialist platform, then being met with an extraterrestrial planetary threat, and having to decide between upholding socialist campaign promises or spending money on military defence without telling the public.
Hall said it was difficult to realize the magnitude of the win in the moment, but she was happy regardless.
“It’s really weird knowing that this is the first time in 19 years, but not really contextualizing it in that way,” she said. “It’s just more like a fun feeling and I think at the end of a tournament you’re just kind of tired so you’re just like ‘Yay! We won!’ It’s a really great feeling.”
Ali Hassan, CUDS president, said the CP tournament is especially important to Carleton because of its unique Canadian roots.
“It’s the only tournament of the season that includes representation from almost every part of the Canadian circuit,” Hassan said. “And it’s the first time in 19 years that a team from Ottawa has won it—last time, it was UOttawa—so it’s really a huge step in building the reputation of the club and promoting debate on campus.”
When asked about the significance of this win occurring at a time when CUDS is celebrating its 20th anniversary, Hassan said it shows the effort club members put in is paying off.
“In 2003, they were writing an article about the first break—about the first time a Carleton team had made it to quarterfinals at the national championships,” he said. “If you juxtapose that with what’s happening recently in the context of the club being only 20 years old, I think it shows how far we’ve come with limited institutional resources in memory and the success we’ve built from the ground up.”
Hall said the win is not only special for CUDS, but for the greater debate community at large due to the promotion of accessibility.
“This is such a huge win, I think, for Carleton and Ottawa; our university as a whole and also our debate club. We’re one of the most accessible debate clubs in Canada,” she said. “Because debate can be something that’s really hard to access if you don’t have a lot of money or if you don’t have a lot of experience, we really pride ourselves on making ourselves really accessible and like really trying to train all of the young people in our club.”
Both Hall and Botham said they will be retiring after this year’s debate season to focus on other interests and make room for upcoming debaters, but they hope to continue helping the debate community grow.
“I think debate is for the young people and it’s not good for older people who feel like they’ve gotten what they want out of it, who feel like they’ve hit their peak, to just stick around and take away opportunities from new people coming up,” Botham said.
“I would like to be available to draw people in and get them started in Carleton debate moving forward.”
Photo by Spencer Colby
