The world’s bravest and best debaters flocked to Toronto this past week to take on the globe’s most pressing and controversial questions in the World Universities Debating Championships, held at U of T’s Hart House.

Cherry Cheng, a competitor from Hong Kong, called Toronto “fantastic.” She found the tournament very challenging, noting the wide range of issues discussed.

The World Championships has grown dramatically over the last few years. U of T hosted the event in 1991, when there were 80 teams. Now there are 230.

Jenna Slotin, a member of the Hart House Debate Committee, said that schools must make an Olympic-like bid to host the event. “Two years ago Toronto competed against two other schools and won with its offer of a world-class city and classy accommodations.”

More than 600 students came to Hart House for the event. After a week of grueling competition, it was narrowed down to four teams.

The final round was held on January 3.

The octo, quarter and semi-final rounds were open to the public, but the finals had the largest crowd. Convocation Hall was almost full of rowdy fans, who cheered the points they supported and occasionally heckled the ones they didn’t.

After some introductions, the final round began.

There were four final teams, composed of two students each.

Four universities were represented: New York University Law School, Monash University, University College Dublin, and Durham University. Despite the range of schools, all the competitors were from the UK. Only one debater was female.

New York was victorious in debating the opposition to “This house would ban prisoners publishing accounts of their crimes.” The debate centered mostly on public interest and the criminal’s motives.

In the final round, the teams were cheerful and engaged. Before the event began, some teams started singing in a competition to scream their school songs the loudest, a contest the Irish decidedly won.

Hart House has supported a debating team since 1924, but this is the biggest event they have hosted.

It was sponsored by the Toronto Star, Xerox and President’s Choice.

Issues that audiences could expect to be debated in the finals included economics, business, political, cultural and medical ethics.

The contestants must be prepared to tackle all kinds of world issues.

Isaac Hikaka, a semi-finalist from New Zealand, felt the tournament was well run.

“Although discussion of September 11 was inevitable, many different topics were debated,” said Hikaka.

One audience member criticized that debating made certain issues easy to justify because one cannot see the results.

“The entire debate was just words and the reality of the issue was really disgusting,” said Nikolaos Tsarouchas, a visiting student from Hungary.

As the week came to an end, the debaters seemed both relieved and satisfied.

They could relax for a few weeks before beginning preparation for the world debate champs of 2003 in South Africa.

Photograph by Simon Turnbull