The participants at the Alfred Tuna Snider WSD Tournaments 2017 – © Cornell University Speech & Debate Society

The team USA Blue (Leila Saklou, Ranen Miao, Shreyoshi Das) managed to win as proposition over USA Red (Nikhil Ramaswamy, Emily Rantham, Piper Doyle) in opposition at the Alfred Tuna Snider World Schools Debate Tournament in New York. The tournament is named as a tribute to the 2015 deceased Alfred C. “Tuna” Snider due to his efforts in promoting debate. The motion for the final was: THW hold multinational companies liable for actions committed by corporations in their supply chain. Adjudicating the final were Syed Reefat Aziz (chair), Maja Cimerman, Nelson Kezoh, Warish Zaman and Emerson Braithwaite. Ranen Miao also got the top speaker award.

Participating in the tournament were 18 teams from Canada, the USA and Bangladesh. Chief Adjudicators were Syed Reefat Aziz, Nelson Kezoh and Bojana Skrt. As usual for tournaments in the WSD format, the participants debated prepared and impromptu motions.

Motions:

R1: THBT adults who are willing and financially able to have children are morally obligated to adopt rather than have biological children.

R2 (prepared): THS the establishment of an independent country Kurdistan.

R3: THW require any product that was tested on animals to display pictures of the animals’ suffering on its packaging.

R4 (prepared): THW ban religious organizations from offering services to individuals suffering from drug and alcohol addiction.

R5: THBT media should not report on the private lives of politicans.

R6 (prepared): THW combat the gender wage gap by levying significant fines to those companies that do not show they are making progress in narrowing the gap in their workforce.

QF: THR the narrative that college education is the primary path to success.

SF: THW allow prisoners to voluntarily participate in dangerous military missions in exchange for reduced sentences.

F: THW hold multinational companies liable for actions committed by corporations in their supply chain.