Thirty teams from across Canada and the U.S. participated in the Diefenbaker Cup 2024, hosted by the University of Saskatchewan Debate Society on February 17th to 18th.

The University of Saskatchewan Debate Society (USDS) successfully hosted their first tournament since 2019 in February of 2024. The Diefenbaker Cup, held on February 17th and 18th this year, was a British Parliamentary-style debate tournament held in the Arts and Education buildings right here on the USask campus. 

“This is the first time in five years [that we’ve hosted a tournament] — that’s a huge thing,’’ explained Areej Baig, the social media coordinator for the USDS. “We’re the only club on campus that has hosted such a big tournament.” 

There were four rounds of debate, semi-finals and then finals. The tournament was even complete with cash prizes. This is notable as USDS VP Internal Rhea Martin explained no other tournaments offered by campus clubs have offered such incentives. Also included a catering service and a social on Saturday, Feb. 17th.

Baig explained that they could “easily host such a good event” with the help of the sponsorships they received from the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union (USSU), the Saskatchewan Elocution and Debate Association, the Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan, the USask Department of History and Little Spice Saskatoon. “Without the sponsors, we wouldn’t have been able to host the tournament,” said Baig. 

Close to 100 people, including debate teams from the University of Alberta, University of Calgary and University of Manitoba, as well as from Carroll College in the United States, attended the two-day event. Baig said that the tournament took “meeting every Sunday” to organize. Martin explained that other debate clubs gave “a lot of positive feedback [and] were really happy to come out to the Diefenbaker Cup.” 

“Having other debate clubs that we go to on a regular basis [shows] that we can host a tournament is going to bring people to USask, hopefully,” says Martin. Martin and Baig hope that successfully hosting such a big tournament will increase the likelihood of the USDS hosting more and even bigger events in the future. 

Members of the USDS made it to the semi-finals and finals (Selim Bytyqi and Nathan Groat), and one member placed 6th in the open-top speaker category (Hamza Saghir). The USDS attends tournaments almost monthly. The last debate tournaments of the year will be held at the University of Alberta (McGoun Cup) and at the University of British Columbia (PAC Cup), and teams from the USDS will participate in both. 

The success of the Diefenbaker Cup 2024 is reflective of the growth of the USDS over the past year. Martin explained that at the end of the last academic year, only eight people were coming to the weekly practices. This academic year, that number rose to 20 to 30 people every practice. “We’ve seen numbers grow exponentially this year,” she said. Baig thinks that “[The USDS has] done so much recruiting, all on social media — people know what the Debate Club is and what we do.” 

The USDS meets every Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Arts Building. Martin and Baig encourage everyone to join the club and attend practices. “Debate club will teach you skills that will help you along your life,” said Baig. 

At first Martin thought it “was such a nerdy thing to do,” but eventually “fell in love with debate when [she] went to [her] first tournament.” She has been debating for a year, and thinks debate is a “huge resource” that helped her speech improve. “Everyone needs good speaking skills!” she said, encouraging people to join the club.

Both Martin and Baig think that you do not need to be the best debater to join the USDS. They believe you will learn from the club and have the opportunity to meet new people and network across Canada at tournaments and events. “The people that you meet and the skills that you learn — it’s just so different from any other club,” said Baig, who started debating this year. 

The registration fee to join the USDS is a one-time payment of $15 for the full academic year. The University of Saskatchewan Debate Society encourages people to attend their weekly practices to learn more about debating and participate in practice rounds. For more information or to join their email list, you can visit their instagram page (@usaskdebate).