With a long history of participation in the Fulford Debate Tournament, TCS debaters were pleased to return to the competition this year after the 18-month hiatus that resulted from the pandemic. Instead of travelling to the fall tournament this year, the event was hosted on Saturday, November 20th on an online format.

The Fulford League debates were created in 1948 by Mrs. George Fulford, a TCS parent, as a way to honour her late husband’s memory and encourage the art of debate in independent schools. Typically, these debates take place three times each academic year with students from 19 schools participating. The Fulford Debates are unique in that each student can only participate once per year, thus providing the opportunity for as many young people to experience debating as possible.

TCS had two teams compete in this year’s Fulford fall debates. Our senior team of Grade 12 student, Isolde Ardies and Grade 11 student, TianTian Dong, performed admirably on Saturday, debating three impromptu resolutions.

For the two members of our junior team – Serar Omar (Gr. 9) and Haron Wang (Gr. 10) – this would be the first time they had ever participated in a debate tournament. For two rounds they debated the prepared resolution: "Be it resolved that Canada would make the administration and delivery of healthcare a federal rather than a provincial responsibility." The third debate was an impromptu round. And despite their lack of previous experience at such a competition, Serar and Haron scored incredibly well. In the individual rankings they were tied for 8th place and as a team they placed 4th overall.

Debate coach, Greg MacPherson shared that "all debaters should be congratulated for a fine tournament" and noted that the team is looking forward to the upcoming Winter Fulford Debates to be held in February.