The final of the Hart House Inter-Varsity 2020 was won by the team in Opening Government Yale EQ (David Edimo, Eva-Marie Quinones). They defeated MDU FP (Naomi Panovka, Matt Farrell; McGill) in Opening Opposition, UADS BJ (Karel Brandenbarg, Emma Jones; Alberta) in Closing Government and Princeton JW (Greg Weaving, Daniel Ju) in Closing Opposition. The motion of the final read “THBT it is in the interest of countries that experienced Japanese colonial occupation (e.g., South Korea, China, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam) to boycott the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo if far-right paraphernalia (e.g., displays of the Rising Sun flag) are permitted”.  The debate was judged by a panel of Eric Zhao (chair), Chris Pang, Dhananjay Ashok, Hui Wen Zheng, Mark Wilson, Senkai Hsia and Shruti Deb.

In the novice final, Duke RW (Dilys Wang, Dan Reznichenko) emerged victorious out of Opening Opposition, defeating Opening Government Brown KX (Roza Kavak, Max Xu), Closing Government UBC CY (Angela Chen, Tina Yong; British Columbia) and Closing Opposition UWODS SZ (Daniel Svirsky, Yuki Zhao; Western Ontario). The adjudication panel consisted of Michael Warren (chair), Jason Xiao, Jeffey Ma, Saara Meghji and Simren Sharma.

Best speaker of the tournament was Eva-Marie Quinones with an average of 81.40 speaker points while Matt Farrell topped the novice speaker tab with an average of 80.60 speaker points. Best speaker in the ESL category was Nikola Michaylov who averaged 79.20 speaker points.

Open Break:
1. Yale EQ (David Edimo, Eva-Marie Quinones) – 14 pts | 811 spks
2. UADS BJ (Karel Brandenbarg, Emma Jones) – 14 pts | 803 spks
3. MDU RY (Max Rosen, Reana Yan) – 13 pts | 803 spks
4. Hybrid GS (Dennis Su, Sandy Greenberg) – 12 pts | 809 spks
5. MDU FP (Naomi Panovka, Matt Farrell) – 12 pts | 809 spks
6. Stanford CS (Bhavya Shah, Karen Cho) – 12 pts | 784 spks
7. Princeton JW (Greg Weaving, Daniel Ju) – 11 pts | 795 spks
8. MDU WZ (Joseph Wu, Hannah Zhao) – 11 pts | 787 spks
8. Sofia AM (Nikolay Angelov, Rumen Marinov) – 11 pts | 787 spks
10. HWS KK (Sreyan Kanungo, Sarim Karim) – 11 pts | 784 spks
11. Princeton AM (Jane Mentzinger, Amna Amin) – 11 pts | 778 spks
12. Hybrid LM (Enshia Li, Nikola Michaylov) – 10 pts | 791 spks
13. SFU CW (Miranda Collett, Mitch Robinson) – 10 pts | 790 spks
14. Bard OS (Gwen Stearns, Pascal O’Neill) – 10 pts | 788 spks
15. Yale IY (Shi Wen Yeo, Iman Iftikhar) – 10 pts | 787 spks
15. Yale NW (Michael Ning, Julia Wu) – 10 pts | 787 spks

Novice Break:
1. MDU RY (Max Rosen, Reana Yan) – 13 pts | 803 spks (Open Break)
2. Stanford CS (Bhavya Shah, Karen Cho) – 12 pts | 784 spks (Open Break)
3. MDU WZ (Joseph Wu, Hannah Zhao) – 11 pts | 787 spks (Open Break)
4. UBC CY (Angela Chen, Tina Yong) – 10 pts | 774 spks
5. Duke RW (Dilys Wang, Dan Reznichenko) – 9 pts | 779 spks
6. Brown KX (Roza Kavak, Max Xu) – 9 pts | 772 spks
7. UWODS SZ (Daniel Svirsky, Yuki Zhao) – 9 pts | 771 spks
8. UBC CV (Abigail Conrad, Nicholas Viegas) – 8 pts | 781 spks
9. HWS BW (Brendon Bennet, Jesse Whelan-Small) – 8 pts | 744 spks
10. EDS BK (Anais Kneppers, Ash Bhuyan) – 7 pts | 774 spks
11. USC FY (Elijah Yap, Aidan Feighery) – 7 pts | 772 spks

Adjudication Break:
Arya Rahmani, Chris Pang, Dhananjay Ashok, Eric Zhao, Francois Brits, Hui Wen Zheng, Isaac Botham, Jason Xiao, Jeffrey Ma, Kieran Kreidié-Akazaki, Klaudia Maciejewska, Mark Wilson, Matt Aydin, Michael Warren, Navin Kariyawasam, Noah Pinno, Patrick Cowley, Saara Meghji, Sarah Rana, Sebastian Dasso, Senkai Hsia, Shruti Deb, Shudipto Ahmed, Simren Sharma, Tanay Patri, Tyson Dennis-Sharma, Wan Li, Zuha Tanweer, Seyoung Jeon

The tournament was convened by the Hart House Debating Club with Saara Meghji and Matt Aydin acting as main conveners. 114 teams, 32 of them categorized as novice teams, competed in 5 inrounds with a break to Open quarterfinals as well as Novice semifinals. The Chief Adjudication panel featured Jason Xiao, Seyoung Jeon, Navin Kariyawasam and Sebastian Dasso while Gautier Boyrie, Dhananjay Ashok, Katelyn Wang, Cindy Li and Nadia Gericke were responsible for the tab.

Motions:

R1: Infoslide: OnlyFans is an online platform where content creators can disseminate media content to subscribers who pay to be able to view their content. Subscribers pay a monthly fee to the content creator, 20% of which is retained by OnlyFans. The platform also includes other sources of revenue, such as pay-per-view and tips. It has recently become very popular in the sex work/pornogrpahy market, where many sex workers and erotic entertainers use the platform to sell their content. There has also been a corresponding rise in popularity of celebrities using the platform to sell sexual content.

THR the rise of OnlyFans in the pornography market.

R2: Infoslide: Textualist models of interpretation require judges to look at the plain meaning of the words used in constitutional documents to assess what the legally correct answer is. The standard is based on how people in the present day would perceive the meaning of the words. For instance, a textualist approach includes extending Title VII protections to trans people on the basis of sex as a person of either gender cannot be restricted from wearing clothing associated with the opposite gender without discrimination.

THBT Supreme Courts should abide by a textualist model of interpretation.

R3: Infoslide: A green card marriage is a marriage of convenience between a legal resident of the United States and a citizen of another, often less developed, country. These arrangements are frequently initiated over social media sites like Facebook.

THS the phenomenon of green card marriages.

R4: Infoslide: The New Testament Apocrypha are additional religious texts which depict the life of Jesus Christ and were by religious scholars and apostles at the time. Within the Apocrypha, there are a set of contradicting stories about Jesus, including ideas that salvation came from hearing Jesus’s teachings rather than him dying on the cross or depictions of Jesus as using his powers aggressively or violently. Christians and Catholics do not recognize these texts officially due to these contradictions.

THBT organized religious groups should formally recognize scripture that contradicts primary religious texts.

R5: Infoslide: In 2018, dozens of US cities bid to host Amazon’s second headquarters by offering a slew of taxpayer-funded incentives. These included grants, tax credits for the company, and relocation reimbursement for Amazon employees.

THW prohibit cities from offering tax credits and other incentives to attract large companies.

Novice-SF: Infoslide: Ability-based segregation in sports involves athletes competing in classes based off of biological characteristics that correlate with performance in that sport. Indicators include a wide variety of metrics, such as weight, height, muscle mass, etc. They are often seen as akin to the weight classes seen in competitive sports. Ability-based segregation would likely use different metrics for different sports.

THW abolish sex-based segregation in sports in favour of ability-based segregation.

Novice-F: Infoslide: Authoritarian parenting conceives of family relationships as centred on strict rules: they are enforced through parental authority and are not negotiated with children. Egalitarian parenting gives great importance to treating children as equals and giving them an important role in family decision making

THP a world in which parents follow an authoritarian parenting model rather than an egalitarian parenting model.

QF: THBT the Argentinian government should have rejected the 2018 IMF bailout and sought to negotiate further concessions, even at the risk of not receiving a bailout.

SF: Infoslide: Biomedical research often involves the use of very costly equipment, which have high acquisition and maintenance costs. Examples include MRI (for imaging of the body) and mass spectrometry (for chemical analysis). In the status quo, the vast majority of biomedical research is conducted through “labs” which involve one or two head researchers (often professors), and a team of post-doctoral fellows, masters students, independent researchers, etc. beneath them, all of whom may be working on separate projects. Those labs are housed within institutions (such as universities, hospitals, etc.) which will independently purchase and maintain research equipment. These labs will then work within their institutions to access the necessary equipment (sometimes applying for grants and other funding to support this or to acquire new technology).

Assuming feasibility, THW nationalize all high-cost research equipment and create a national pool of this equipment where all researchers must apply to a centralized agency for access.

F: THBT it is in the interest of countries that experienced Japanese colonial occupation (e.g., South Korea, China, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam) to boycott the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo if far-right paraphernalia (e.g., displays of the Rising Sun flag) are permitted.

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