The Seawolf Debaters traveled to Toronto, Ontario this past weekend to compete in the Hart House Invitational. This tournament drew over 60 teams from Canada’s most competitive schools such as McGill University and Queens University as well as some highly competitive American schools such as Yale University.

The four Seawolf Debate teams debated issues such as limiting resources for palliative care, not requiring parole applicants to confess guilt, and the right of a state to preemptively strike. At the end of the tournament Michael Rose, a junior majoring in Political Science, and Rose Helens-Hart, a senior majoring in Journalism and Public Communications, both earned recognition for their excellence as individual speakers. Rose placed 16th and Helens-Hart placed 18th in individual comparative rankings of the 128 students in the tournament.

In addition to debating at Hart House, the Seawolves competed in Public Speech, a speaking event that involves impromptu presentations using humor and creativity. Race Brunton, a first year student who is majoring in Languages and is a member of the 49th State Scholars program, advanced to the final round. Brunton was the only novice speaker to advance to the elimination round in the Public Speech division, beating out many varsity-level speakers.