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Kootenay Columbia students debate for Law Foundation Cup

The provincial event went virtually again this year
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The annual debate finals for secondary students across British Columbia were held virtually at the end of February. Photo: Unsplash

The annual debate finals for secondary students across British Columbia were held virtually at the end of February.

The “LFC 2022,” or Law Foundation Cup Debate provincials 2022, were attended via Zoom with two local junior teams represented by: Liam Skeoch (JL Crowe) and Finn Adamson (Rossland Summit School) for Team 1; Emma Ford and Madison Murchie, both from JL Crowe, as Team 2.

Liam Skeoch placed sixth out of 68 students in his category and as a result he and his partner Finn Adamson will attend the Canadian Junior National Seminar in early May via Zoom.

Liam Skeoch
Liam Skeoch

This was Skeoch’s second provincial and he moved up six places from his previous standing. This team just missed the medals with an 11th place finish.

Emma Ford improved her speaker scores from last year and Maddy Murchie was introduced to a whole new level of debate.

“All participants from JL Crowe were working with new partners and we congratulate them in their involvement in this spirited, challenging and demanding event,” JL Crowe teacher sponsor Marilyn Lunde said. “Many thanks goes out to Sasha Leithead who judged at this esteemed event and Oliver Ridge who volunteered to moderate. Lastly, thank you to Leigh Harrison, Queen’s Counsel, who continues to inspire and educate our students on the important aspects of the law,” she adds.

“His ongoing support of this team is highly valued.”

Finn Adamson
Finn Adamson

In the provincial competition, juniors debated “Be it resolved that attempted and committed crimes be punished equally.”

Students developed their prepared arguments over a two-week period researching and meeting with a local lawyer in anticipation of the tournament. This topic was debated on Friday evening (Feb. 25) in the cross examination style.

Debate events on Saturday, Feb. 26, included three impromptu rounds.

Students in this style of debate have 30 minutes to generate their case-line for either the proposition or opposition side in the Canadian National Debate Format.

Emma Ford
Emma Ford

There were a range of subjects for this event. Junior students debated the following topics: “This house prefers a world where political discourse does not include discussions of any candidate’s personal qualities or character”; and “This house opposes the humanisation of villains in popular media,”; and info slide, “Performative activism is publicly supporting a cause or issue to gain attention or support from others, without necessarily caring about making a difference in the cause,” such as “Blackout Tuesday” where black squares were posted on social media for Black Lives Matter. So the actual proposition was: “This house regrets the rise of performative activism within social movements.”

Maddy Murchie
Maddy Murchie

“Grand final topics in both the junior and senior rounds were tough but the top two teams in each category were up for the challenge,” Lunde said. “Students were given an info slide which helped to explain the topic. Then, depending upon which category the students were in, they spoke for their allotted time; for the juniors that meant six minutes each and for the seniors, eight minutes each.”

Motion for the junior grand final: “This house believes that democratic states should subsidize candidates that score highly on bipartisan metrics.”

Info slide: Bipartisan metrics are scores derived from instances of voting with the other party, co-sponsoring bills, calculated by independent bodies.

Motion for the senior grand final: “This house prefers a world with no belief in destiny and fate.”

Read more: Kootenay Columbia students debate virtually for provincial cup

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Sheri Regnier

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