Senior Provincial Debating Championship  (Grade 10 to 12 )

February 4, 2024 at Gray Academy

Manitoba Qualifier for the National Canadian Parliamentary Debate Championship

Time: Sunday February 4, 2024. Registration from 12-12:15, Awards at 5:35 pm

Location: In-Person at Gray Academy 123 Doncaster Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3N 2B2

(please enter on the main security entrance off of Doncaster and park in the East parking lot. Do not park in the roundabout in front of the school)


JUDGES: PLEASE SIGN UP USING THIS LINK: https://forms.gle/KAyW8PEw1sJ2DJnX9


Resolutions: Impromptu current affairs and issues


The tournament will consist of three rounds of Impromptu Canadian Parliamentary debate. Constructive speeches may be no longer than 6 minutes, followed by final refutations of no longer than 3 minutes. There will not be a 2-minute break between constructive speeches and final refutations. Neither heckling nor squirrelling are permitted.


Parliamentary Debate Guidelines


There is no novice category; all teams register as open. Schools may send 3 teams, although schools may request more (subject to space availability – REG DUE Monday Jan 29, 2024). Since this is a qualifying tournament, each school that hosts a tournament in the 2023-2024 school year will receive an additional team for every tournament they host. Early registration is encouraged.


Each school must provide one judge for every team registered in the tournament. Judges may not be high school students for this tournament.


This is a senior tournament, open to students in grades 10-12 only. Please do not register junior teams.


The top teams will represent Manitoba at the Canadian Parliamentary Debate Championship. The event will be hosted in Vancouver May 24-26, 2024. To be selected, a team must be in the top half of this qualifier tournament results. From that group, we will select the top team from each school but only if the teams are in the top half of the tournament. If there are any additional spaces available, the remaining teams will be selected based on their ranking in the tournament, again only the teams in the top half being eligible.

Schools may send a maximum of 3 two-person teams. Depending upon the numbers, it may be possible to send additional teams. If you would like to do so please indicate this in an email to me and I will let you know after registration closes at the end of Monday January 29th, 2024. Schools must bring one experienced judge per team. If this presents a problem, please contact me about it and we will see if other arrangements can be made. Judges may not be high school students.


To register, please email Andrew Kaplan akaplan@grayacademy.ca by Monday January 29th, 2024, stating your name, the number of teams that you will be sending, and if you would like to bring additional teams (beyond the 3 team limit).