The Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate (CUSID) is the national organization which governs all English language competitive university debating and public speaking in Canada. It sanctions several official annual tournaments and represents Canadian debating domestically and abroad. Its membership consists of student debating unions, sanctioned by their respective universities, from across Canada. CUSID has been described as "a student-run, parliamentary debate league with close ties to the American Parliamentary Debate Association". CUSID debaters have gone on to notable careers in law, business, government, and academia, and the presidency of the organization is a highly sought-after position.
CUSID was officially founded in 1978, although it held its first annual tournament in 1977. The regular tournaments held under its auspices, such as those at the University of Toronto, McGill University, the University of Western Ontario, Queen's University, and the University of Ottawa predate CUSID's formation by many decades.
The inaugural British Parliamentary National Championship (now known as the Canadian Universities Debating Championship) was hosted in 2004 at the University of Toronto. Unlike other CUSID title tournaments, participants did not need to be a member of a CUSID institution in order to take part.
In 2020, the society was forced to cancel its annual national championship due to the risk presented by COVID-19. However, the National Championship was rescheduled into an online iteration organized by the year's original host institution, the University of Calgary Debate Society. Due to continued pandemic restrictions, the entirety of the 2020âÂÂ2021 season was also held online.
In 2020 CUSID voted to end the long-standing tradition to not allow hybrid teams (teams representing two different institutions) at several of its events. This aligned with the society's British Parliamentary Championship, which has always allowed such teams.
In 2024, the British Parliamentary National Championship was renamed to the Canadian Universities Debating Championship (CUDC). The inaugural CUDC, organized by the University of Waterloo, brought together 61 teams from 16 universities across 7 provinces, exceeding pre-pandemic participation levels.
CUSID is subdivided into three regional bodies, representing each region of Canada:
CUSID nationally and internationally sanctions several official championship tournaments, including:
The president of CUSID is the head of the organization and leads an elected executive team of six national and regional officers. They also represents CUSID and Canadian debating interests inside and outside of Canada, and is the Canadian representative on the World Universities Debating Council. They are elected annually by the member institutions at the National Championships.
There have been seven CUSID Presidents who have won either of the National Championships during their term as President: Jason Brent (1992), Gerald Butts (1993), Robert Silver (2000), Vinay Mysore (2010), Louis Tsilivis (2013), Harar Hall (2019), and Daniel Svirsky (2023, 2024).
Many CUSID tournaments are held in the Canadian Parliamentary Style of debate. This style emphasizes argumentation and rhetoric, rather than research and detailed factual knowledge. Each round consists of two teams â the government team and the opposition team â each of which consists of two debaters. Teams alternate between government and opposition at tournaments. The speaking times in CUSID Central and East are:
There are also alternative timings that may be used in other competitions. For example, the Canadian Student Debating Federation's (CSDF) 2011 Rules for Debate outlined 8 minutes each for the MO, MC and LO, as well as 5 minutes for PMC and 3 minutes for PMR. Additionally, a new modification to the prior CUSID Central and East times was introduced at the 2003 McGill University Winter Carnival Invitational called the Prime Minister's Rebuttal Extension (PMRE). The PMRE allows the government team the option to take a 6-minute PMC and 4-minute PMR and was designed to help compensate for the alleged inherent advantage to the opposition side. In most rounds, the resolution is "squirrelable", meaning that the government team can propose any topic it wants for debate. The PMC lays out the topic for debate and presents arguments in favor of its position. The opposition team must then immediately present opposing arguments. New arguments can be presented in the first four speeches; they are prohibited in the rebuttal speeches. In the early 2010s the "opposition choice" option was introduced. Rather than presenting the motion as it stands, the Prime Minister lays out the topic and the opposite bench has the option of choosing which side of the motion they would prefer.
"Points of information" are generally permitted and expected in the standard Canadian Parliamentary style. With POIs, debaters may rise and attempt to ask a question of an opposing debater, who can choose whether to accept or refuse the question. It is generally considered good form to accept at least a few questions during a speech.
Tournaments are otherwise held in British Parliamentary, sometimes known as WUDC style. Presently, all tournaments for the first semester of the academic year, SeptemberâÂÂDecember, use British Parliamentary as the format. This is for teams to prepare for the World University Debating Championship which occurs over New Year's each year. Since its introduction, British Parliamentary has become the more competitive of the two formats, largely because it is the format used for international competition.
<big>Canadian Parliamentary National Debating Championship By Institution</big>