The Hart House Debating Club

The Hart House Debating Club (HHDC) was founded in 1986 to provide a debating union open to students from all of the University of Toronto’s Colleges and faculties. Since then the club has expanded to a membership of over 250, with a $40,000 budget. The HHDC attends tournaments across North America, amassing an impressive record of competitive success.

Hart House also host several large tournaments each year. Our IV is one of the most prestigious and well attended BP tournaments in North America. Additionally, we run large tournaments for High School students and internal tournaments for our members.

The HHDC has massive human resources to call upon, with all of our members working together to bring this tournament to fruition.

The Bid Committee

John Ashbourne, Bid Director

John Ashbourne is the current president of the Hart House Debating Club. He oversees the running of Canada’s largest debating union, and works extensively in forming partnerships with the Hart House administration. John has attended debating tournaments on three continents and has been a champion at the Central Canadian Championships and at Queen’s University’s Chancellor’s Cup, a semi-finalist at the Oxford Union IV and Asian University Debating Championships, and an adjudicator at Assumption Worlds.

Erin Fitzgerald, Fundraising Director

Erin Fitzgerald is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in International Relations at the University of Toronto. A past President of the Hart House Debating Club, Erin reached the finals of the Central Canadian Championships and broke as an adjudicator at Cork Worlds. She also has extensive fundraising experience, having developed long-term corporate fundraising strategies for the Hart House Debating Club and the University of Toronto’s G8 Research Group. Next year, she will pursue graduate studies at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Steven Penner, Treasurer

Steven Penner is a student at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He is currently the teasurer of the Hart House Debating Club, in which capacity he has budgetary control over the club’s extensive budget and has gained experience working with Hart House and University financial systems.

Michael Portner Gartke, Logistics

Michael Portner Gartke will begin his law degree at the University of Toronto in September 2010. He is an accomplished member of the Queen’s University Debating Union, with a long record of service to that club. This past year he was the Tournament Director of Queen’s University’s Chancellor’s Cup, a BP tournament that ran under budget and ahead of schedule.

Monica Ferris, External Relations

Monica Ferris has been an active member of the Hart House Debating team for all of her time at the University of Toronto. She has held many positions, including as tournament director of the Hart House IV in 2008 and 2009. Monica is a Canadian National Champion and a world’s breaking judge.

Mitchell Gerskup, Web and Registration Director

Mitchell Gerskup is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, studying Economics & Philosophy. He has been involved with competitive debating through the Hart House Debating Club and the Trinity College Literary Institute since 2005. He is currently the Executive Director for the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate (CUSID).

Adjudication

Chief Adjudicator

Our Chief Adjudicator will be Jason Rogers. Jason is a former President of the McGill Debating Union, of which he was a member for five years before his two years of involvement with Hart House. He has attended every WUDC since Singapore in 2004, making quarterfinals in Dublin in 2006 and adjudicating the Grand Finals of Cork in 2009. Jason is a former North American Champion, National finalist, Yale IV top speaker and Canadian French National Champion, but, despite all this, is perhaps best known as the mastermind behind Statebook in the Assumption Worlds public speaking finals. He has served on the adjudication teams of numerous tournaments, including DCA positions at Canadian Nationals in 2008 and the North American Championships in 2009, and two years as the CA of McGill’s prestigious Winter Carnival tournament. He will serve as Chief Adjudicator of Canadian Nationals in 2010.

Deputy Chief Adjudicators

Hart House will solicit applications from interested parties at a later date. Utmost care will be taken to ensure regional representation.

Internal Judges

In addition to the 250 person strong (per year) Hart House Debating Club membership, there are a myriad of high-calibre judges in the Toronto area, including (but not limited to):

Rahool Agarwal – Worlds Quarterfinalist, National Champion
Daniel Bach – Worlds Octofinalist, National Finalist
Bryan Badali – Former President of the McGill Debating Union
Eric Barnes – HWS Coach, HH IV Break Judge
Susan Connolly – Worlds Octofinalist, Oxford IV Finalist, Euros Grand Final Judge
Alex Deane – World Champion, Worlds DCA
Erik Eastaugh – World Champion, Former Worlds DCA
Monica Ferris – National Champion
Ian Freeman – Worlds Quarterfinalist, North American Top Speaker, National Champion
Mike Jancik – Worlds Octofinalist, National Top Speaker
Lisa Jorgensen – Yale IV Finalist
Michael Kotrly – World Champion, National Champion
Laura Kusisto – National Top Speaker, North American Champion
Jon Laxer – North American Champion, National Champion
Adam Lazier – North American Finalist
Richard Lizius – Worlds Quartfinalist, National Champion & Top Speaker
Grant May – Oxford IV Champion, Worlds Octofinalist
Jonathan Leader Maynard – Worlds Finalist
Rory McKeown – Worlds Quarterfinalist, North American Champion, National Champion, WUDC Break Judge
R. Jesse McWaters – Worlds Quarterfinalist
Joanna Nairn – World Champion
Jeremy Opolsky – Worlds Octofinalist, Yale IV Finalist
Jessica Prince – Worlds Top Speaker
Ren – Worlds Quarterfinalist, North American Champion
Aaron Rousseau – Worlds Octofinalist, North American Champion, National Champion
Padraic Ryan – Worlds Octofinalist
Michael Saposnik – Worlds Semifinalist, National Semifinalist, Leger Semifinalist
Nick Shkordoff – Worlds Octofinalist
Gordon Shotwell – Worlds Octofinalist, North American Champion
Paul-Erik Dash Veel – Worlds Octofinalist, National Champion