Confederation Cup
Confederation Cup Regional Invitation
Dear Coaches & Debaters,
We are pleased to invite you to celebrate Canada’s sesquicentennial with us at the Confederation Cup, which will give Canada's high school debaters the opportunity to debate the issues that have shaped our country from before Confederation to the present day. The Confederation Cup is generously supported by the Aurea Foundation.
Four regional events will determine the sixteen (four from each region) English teams that will participate in the English category of the Confederation Cup Finals in Ottawa, April 28-30, 2017. Four French teams will also be selected to compete in Ottawa in a French category, and all French language teams are encouraged to apply for selection, more details to follow.
The Confederation Cup Finals is an expenses-paid opportunity for Canada’s best young debaters to experience our nation’s capital, hear from some of Canada’s most celebrated and opinionated and voices, and engage in collegial, competitive debate with the opportunity to win cash prizes.
The event for Manitoba and Saskatchewan will take place on Dec 10th and 11th at SJR.
Registration Process
Each school should indicate all teams they would like to send in their initial registration, and these teams will be confirmed after the registration deadline. Registration will be regionally representative, allowing half of teams to come from each province, should there be sufficient demand. Priority will then go to allowing each registered school to send at least one team; after that, additional teams will be allocated.
No hybrid teams are permitted.
Registration must be done by coaches through the following form https://goo.gl/forms/H22w0WY8tc9pIzJW2. Registration information must be submitted by Friday November 18th.
Thanks to the support of the Aurea Foundation, there is no registration fee for this event. If a team or school finds the associated travel costs to the tournament prohibitive, please contact the organizing committee for this event at Confederationcup2017@gmail.com, as bursary funds are available. All bursary requests should be made by coaches, though the requests may be made on behalf of a school contingent, a particular team, or an individual debater. We ask that you kindly make bursary requests by Friday November 18th.
Tournament Format
The tournament will consist of five preliminary rounds, with two prepared rounds and two impromptu rounds. The prepared motion is This House believes that the Government should pay reparations to Aboriginal Canadians Each team will debate both sides of the prepared motion. The impromptu rounds will be bracketed.
Judges
Each school group must be accompanied by at least one adult chaperone in order to participate. One coach/adult chaperone per school group will be asked to judge. Additionally, each team from Manitoba must bring 2 judges.
Hotel and Transportation
We recommend that teams stay at the Holiday Inn Pembina South. A block booking is available until November 14th. Transportation will be arranged to and from the hotel to SJR on both Friday and Saturday.
Block:
Tentative schedule
Saturday
Sunday
Style Guide for the Confederation Cup
One of the aims of this competition is to make debate accessible and engaging to a larger audience; to that end, this style has been adapted from the Canadian National Debating Format.
Teams
Debaters will debate in school teams of two, representing either the Proposition arguing in favour of the resolution, or the Opposition arguing against the resolution.
Topics
Rounds 1 and 2 will be on a prepared motion, while rounds 3, 4, 5 will be impromptu. Topics will focus on a variety of Canadian issues. Some may require models for implementation, though some rounds will be principled in nature. Squirreling is not permitted; debaters should strive to debate the spirit of the motion offered, as fairly and reasonably as possible. Any topic clarifications should occur at the announcement of the topic directly with the tournament organizer.
Evaluation Criteria
Rounds will be tabulated based primarily on win-loss, though speaker scores will be used for individual prizes and to break ties. Debaters will be scored based on style (30%), content/argumentation (30%), rebuttal/responsiveness (30%), and POIs (10%). Speaker scores should fall between 75 (poor) and 95 (excellent) .
Style includes organization, language use, presentation skills; i.e. how persuasive the speaker sounds, and do you want to keep listening to them.
Content/Argumentation includes how well debaters make their constructive arguments. Arguments should be explained fully and use examples where possible and helpful. A good idea that is poorly explained or asserted will get a poor score for argumentation.
Rebuttal/Responsiveness includes rebuttal and rebuilding done in both the constructive speeches (if applicable) and the rebuttal/summary speeches. Both the completeness and the quality of rebuttal will be considered. Rebuilding (defending your partner’s points against attacks from opponents) is also included in this category.
Though a debater may choose not to spend time responding to points that are clearly silly or unimportant, no significant or often discussed issues in the round should go unaddressed. It is not enough to provide a counterexample or reiterate a point already made; debaters should strive to refute the best version of the argument, targeting both what is described by their opponents as well as the arguments’ principled underpinnings.
POIs must be offered and taken as described in the below section on POIs. Debaters are to be credited for their involvement in asking and taking POIs, but moreso on the quality of the points raised. Debaters who are not asked more than 1 POI during a speech will not be penalized for not taking one.
Speaker Order, Roles, and Speaking Times
Speakers may fulfill their roles in whatever order they prefer, so long as judges are able to follow. Roles of the rebuttal summary speeches may be shared between speakers how they choose.Point of Information
Points of Information (POIs) are a necessary part of engaging with debaters in this style. The expectation is that all debaters ask at least 2 per opponent’s speech, and take 1-2 points during their own speech, though it is at their discretion when and from whom they should take POIs during their speeches. POIs should be short and to the point. They may be but need not be phrased as question.
Debaters may not ask POIs during the first and last minute of their speeches, as this is protected time. No POIs may be asked during rebuttal/summary speeches.
Other points (points of personal privilege, points of order) and heckling are not permitted at any time.
Adjudication and Tabs
After the two initial rounds, the debates will be bracketed, allowing teams with a similar win-loss record to face one another. After 5 in rounds, the top 8 teams at the tournament will advance to the “Playoffs”—the winners of each Playoff will go on to represent their region at the National Confederation Cup in Ottawa. A maximum of two teams per school can qualify to Nationals.