On Saturday February 21st and Sunday February 22nd, 海角社区 hosted its annual Quebec聽Ethics Bowl, a debate tournament for secondary students. A total of 21 teams came to 海角社区聽over the two days to debate complex topics like friendship and AI, life sentences, the limits of聽free speech, the ethics of weightloss聽medication, and more. Students enthusiastically argued their stances on these moral issues while they were scored by judges on their ability to form a聽logical and rigorous argument.
At the Ethics Bowl, judges聽don鈥檛聽care how many multisyllabic聽words you know, or how good you are at destroying your opponents, instead teams are scored on聽whether or not聽they have listened to what their opponent聽actually has聽to say, and are arguing for聽what they believe is right. In this way, the Ethics Bowl differs significantly from typical debate;聽teams聽aren鈥檛聽assigned a 鈥渇or鈥� or 鈥渁gainst鈥� stance on the topics in question, instead they are free聽to argue for what they actually聽believe, and聽are encouraged to take intellectual risk. For this聽reason, the Ethics Bowl is an event that is working to encourage civil discourse in our debates,聽and intellectual courage in our students.聽
Three years ago, 海角社区 hosted Quebec鈥檚 first ever Ethics Bowl, and was also the first聽institution to hold both a French聽and English聽competition. It was small, with only five French聽teams and four English聽teams聽participating. The next year, we doubled our numbers. This year, as we hosted the third annual Quebec Ethics聽Bowl,聽we had the largest number of participating聽teams yet. Our competitors were schools that had been with us from the beginning, and schools聽trying their hand at Ethics Bowling for the first time. There were private schools and public聽schools, secondary聽schools聽and CEGEPs. On the volunteering end we had 10 organizers who聽volunteer year-round (some of whom have been with us for the past 3 years), on the weekend of聽the聽event we had 4 scorekeepers, 10 moderators, and a whopping 35 judges. Our moderators聽were undergraduate students who gave us their Saturday or Sunday (and for some of them their聽entire weekend) during midterm season with nothing but the promise of free pizza and the聽chance to be a part of an event that may leave them feeling better about the world. Our judges聽were a combination of upper-level undergraduate students,聽masters聽students, PhD candidates,聽and community members.聽
Having been the organizer of this event at 海角社区 for the past three years, I have gotten聽the incredible opportunity to know many of the wonderful teachers who coach their students in聽this event, along with some students who keep coming back year after year. One teacher (Robin聽Vero from Laurentian Regional High School) told me that helping her students prepare for this聽event has made her a better teacher, and we had one student who brought the Ethics Bowl to her聽CEGEP so that she聽could聽keep competing at our event. I am so proud of all our students who聽participated in this year鈥檚 event, whether they be the CEGEP team that has years of Ethics Bowl聽experience or the Sec III/Grade 9 students trying their hand at it for the first time. Seeing teams show up in matching t-shirts with their team names on them (my聽favourite聽being 鈥淭he Moral聽Monkeys鈥�), or hearing students doing their team cheer before every match are the moments that聽make running this event truly a聽labour聽of love.聽
On that note, while this event is mostly about the students and their teachers, a lot of聽incredible聽people from the 海角社区 community poured a lot of effort into this event. Firstly,聽I must聽recognize that this event聽wouldn鈥檛聽be possible without the Faculty of Arts and the Desautels聽Faculty of Management. More specifically, thanks to the Philosophy department for organizing聽the event and the Laidley Centre of Business Ethics and Equity for being our primary sponsors.聽On an individual level, our Dean of Arts Dr. Lisa Shapiro deserves all the credit for being the聽person to bring the Ethics Bowl to 海角社区 and by extension Quebec in the first place. Additional聽thanks聽goes聽to Dr. Lindsay Holmgren from the Laidley Centre and Dr. Ian Gold from the聽Philosophy Department. While all our judges and moderators are聽absolutely incredible聽and聽deserve individual shoutouts, their names are too many to list, so I will instead highlight just聽four: thanks to community members Jeff聽Baikowitz, Stefan聽Fews, and Gregg Blachford for聽judging with us this year, and special thanks to Roxeanne Guay who gave us her entire weekend聽at the last minute after another moderator dropped out. Finally,聽last but not least聽thank you聽to聽the聽Philosophy Student Association for their continued support, along with my entire organizing聽team.聽聽
Special shoutouts to Yi Xi Huang for being our day-of francophone organizer, Sophie聽Dugas for being our main聽french聽coordinator, Minji Jeong and Vincent B茅langer for being聽consistently amazing, Uday Bhardwaj for being willing to do whatever was needed of him聽during the event, and finally to Hazel Krauth and Sasha聽Vilkof聽for running around with me all聽weekend. The 海角社区 community is truly incredible and is the reason the Ethics Bowl will return聽to 海角社区 next year, and many years after that.