From Mcgill Debate

Revision as of 20:24, 14 September 2007

The McGill Debating Union (commonly referred to simply as "the Union") is an organization dedicated to providing McGill students the opportunity to explore and improve their debating and public speaking skills. The Union does this by sending its debaters to competitive tournaments, by hosting tournaments of its own, and by providing biweekly meetings where debate is demonstrated, taught, and practiced. The Union also organizes or assists with debate-related events on campus, such as exhibition debates.

The Union is lead by an elected Executive Committee, consisting of a President, Vice-President, Chair of Debates, Treasurer, Secretary, Chair of Exhibition Debates, Chair of Publicity, Chair of French Debates, as well as Tournament Directors for both the McGill High School Tournament and Winter Carnival Tournament. The executive meets once a week after monday showrounds

History

The McGill Debating Union was founded in 1927 as an amalgamation of the McGill Literary and Debating Society and the McGill Canadian Club. The McGill Literary Society was founded in 1873, becoming the McGill Literary and Debate society in 1880, thus marking the beginning of organized debating at McGill University.

The formal creation of the McGill Debating Union in 1927 was largely authored by John Peters Humphrey, who later went on to write the first draft of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as serving as the first director of the Human Rights division in the U.N. Secretariat. He served as the first President of the McGill Debating Union.

The McGill Debating Union has been an integral and contributing member of the university community ever since its founding. It helped found both the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) and the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debating (CUSID).

In 1986 McGill hosted the World Debating Championships, a privilege which has been awarded to only two other Canadian University. The Union subsequently founded the North American Debating Championships in 1991, which it hosted again in 1998 and 2002. On an annual basis the Union also hosts two tournaments: in November, high school students from across the country travel to our well-respected High School Debating Tournament , while in January, university students from around the world attend the extremely popular McGill Winter Carnival.

For its contribution to the greater McGill Community, the Debating Union was honoured in 1998 by the Student's Society of McGill University (SSMU) as Club of the Year.