Hart House Debates Committee

The Hart House Debates Committee provides University of Toronto students opportunities to find and develop their capacity for self-knowledge and self-expression. It does so in two principal ways.

First, it organises events in which important topics of the day are discussed and explored. These can be panel discussions, guest lectures, or more formal debating events. Whatever the format, students participate with invited speakers and panellists, both in the event itself and in the question and discussion periods which are a part of each event. These events not only provide the student population at large with opportunities for public discussion, they also give committee members and volunteers the chance to learn how to organise and promote such public discussions.

Second, the Debates Committee co-operates with the Debating Club in enriching the opportunities for student debating. The Committee organises several tournaments in House and liases with the Debating Club over the selection of, and fundraising for, students to represent Hart House in the World Debating Championship.

Although these two principal activities are different, they are bound together as ways to enable students to enhance their skills at participating, in the broadest sense, in the wider world of dialogue and expression that sustains our political life and allows for a multiplicity of voices in civil society in general.

RECENTLY ADDED VIDEOlink

Noam Chomsky on the State-Corporate Complex