The Toronto Debate Academy offers debate and public speaking classes and workshops to middle and high school students and to private clients. Our instructors are highly successful competitive debaters themselves, with years of experience competing and judging across Canada and the world.
We offer weekly classes in North York and online. We also provide specialized workshops to academic and corporate clients. We adapt our curricula to suit your organization’s needs. To arrange for the Toronto Debate Academy to conduct a workshop at your school or workplace, please contact us.
Coaches
Rudi Lof
Rudi is a JD/MBA graduate who practiced law at a national firm before establishing the Toronto Debate Academy. Rudi is an accomplished competitive debater, and has spoken both at the National Championships and the World Universities Debating Championships. As a debate coach, Rudi has led students to success at the regional, provincial and national levels. His students’ recent competitive successes include winning the World Schools Debate Championships and winning the Jr. National Championships, as well as, multiple top-ten finishes and championships at regional events. In addition to coaching debate, Rudi teaches a class in Law at York University.
Brent Schmidt
Brent studied History at the University of Toronto and Western University and has been a debate coach for over a decade. As a debater, Brent has won & broken as a debater at numerous international tournaments, from the HHIV to NAUDC and even WUDC itself. Brent also served on the adjudication team for Belgrade WUDC and has judged or coached at virtually every major high school and university tournament. As a coach, Brent has long been involved with Canadian international debating and has coached numerous students who have debated on national teams around the world and become some of the best high school and university debaters in the country and even internationally.
Alexandra (“Lex”) Sundarsingh
Lex has a BA in Political Science and an MA in History from the University of Toronto. She is currently pursuing a PhD in History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She is a World University Debate Championships (WUDC) quarterfinalist, the champion of the Yale IV, a 2 time finalist at the Cambridge IV and a 2 time quarterfinalist at the Oxford IV as well as reaching elimination rounds in over a dozen other tournaments. She has also been the Chief Adjudicator at the North American Debate Championships and North American Women’s Debate Championships in addition to judging numerous elimination rounds at other events.
Anders Cairns Woodruff
Anders is a software engineering student at McGill University. He has broken and won speaker awards at multiple tournaments, including being the winner and top speaker of the Dorchester Cup 2024, the winner and 4th speaker at Chancellor’s Cup 2023, a quarterfinalist and 3rd speaker of the Canadian Parliamentary Nationals 2024, and a semifinalist and 3rd speaker at Sunway Asian Parliamentary 2024. Anders has also chaired the final of Sutherland IV 2024, panelled the final of Central Novice 2024, chaired the novice final of Canadian Parliamentary Nationals 2023, and judged the semifinals of the HWS Round Robin 2024. His interests include academic philosophy and composing music.
Andre Zhang
Andre studies International Business at the University of Toronto. As a high school debater, he has won awards at many tournaments including UWaterloo (champion), Hart House Summer (finalist), Central Canadian Open (champion), and Western (finalist). He also has a wide variety of coaching experience, working with students ages 10-17 in both online and in person environments. Additionally, he has been the Tournament Director for several large schools tournaments and has broken as an adjudicator at many more.
Ashley Pinheiro
Ashley has extensive experience working with students from ages 7 to 17 in debate, public speaking, improv, and poetry. She studied Communications & Political Science at Carleton University. As a debater, Ashley has reached elimination rounds in tournaments across Canada & the US, including as a Finalist at the North American Women’s and Gender Minorities Championship, Leger Central Canadian Championship and Hart House IV. They have been a top 10 speaker at more than half a dozen tournaments and speaking competitions. Ashley worked extensively within the Canadian debate community as an adjudicator on CA teams and as an organizer for both University and high school tournaments. She has chaired out-rounds such as the Canadian Parliamentary Nationals, Lord Dorchester Cup Final & HHIV Novice Final. They are the former President of Carleton Debate and Speech. Ashley’s teaching style focuses on helping students develop quick thinking, evidence based reasoning, and the self-confidence to express their perspective on the world.
Bethany Garry
Bethany is a successful debater with a range of experience teaching and coaching British Parliamentary debate. She won the European University Debate Championships in 2017, where she was also Best Speaker, as well as reaching the Semi-Finals of WUDC. She has been on the Adjudication team for CMUDE (Spanish-speaking WUDC) twice, chaired the Grand Final of CMUDE 2022, and has CA’d more than 20 other competitions in English and Spanish. She has a First in History and Religious Studies from the University of Glasgow.
Blake Shapiro
Blake is an MA Prose Fiction graduate from the University of East Anglia, and two-time graduate from the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he studied English & Law. He has been involved in debate in many capacities since joining his local schools league in 2013. He worked as a provincial coach in South Africa, winning two national championships, and seeing many of his students selected for the national team. Competing himself, he has broken at various tournaments, including Stellenbosch Preworlds (semi-finals), the Edinburgh Cup (semi-finals), and Cape Town Open (finals). He also won Lockdown.exe and the September Open, and ranked 2nd at Jozi Rumble, the largest debate tournament in Africa.
Caitlin Mah
Caitlin is a Political Science student at the University of Toronto. She has broken at tournaments such as Princeton IV, Yale IV, and Canadian Parliamentary Nationals. In high school, she broke at Cambridge Finals Day and the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships. She has judged the outrounds of tournaments like Hart House Inter-Varsity, Hart House Womxn and Gender Minorities, and British Parliamentary Championships.
Calvin Xu
Calvin is an undergraduate student at Northwestern University, currently studying Political Science and Philosophy. Throughout high school, he has broken at Queens High School Debate Championships (Finalist), Harvard World Schools Invitational (Semifinalist), Saskatoon WSDC (Gold Semifinalist), and Stanford Invitational (Semifinalist). Calvin also has extensive experience organizing many high school tournaments, acting as Chief Adjudicator in many of them, and has judged elimination rounds in both BP and WSDC tournaments.
Chansol Park
Chansol is a BA (History) graduate from the University of Oxford and has been a debate coach for more than five years. As a specialist in World Schools Debating, he co-coached the Sri Lankan National Team in 2024, judged the finals of the official 2023 World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC), and was part of the Chief Adjudication Team of the 2022 and 2025 WSDC, where he was also involved in creating WSDC’s first ever debating and judging manual. Chansol also has extensive speaking experience, most notably representing Oxford at the 2022 European Universities Debating Championship, and being the best speaker and champion of the 2022 Strait Debate Open.
Chris Leonardi
Chris Leonardi (BS, Psychology) has been a successful debater and coach at both the high school and college level. Chris won the US Cross-Examination Debate Association National Championship in 2012, and in 2013 made the semi-finals of both CEDA and NDT nationals. Chris has been top speaker at countless tournaments and has coached multiple teams to achieve the same. Chris has achieved national success with small and large programs and believes all students are capable of success through dedication and cooperative research practices. He has demonstrated his techniques at the University of Texas, Binghamton University, and the University of West Georgia. Chris has extensive experience with both office and educational software, and advocates for forward-thinking teaching methods that best enable the accessibility of new concepts and platforms for students of all backgrounds.
Christopher Hojem
Christopher is a BPolSci (International Relations), BA (Law) and BA (Honours – International Politics) graduate and is pursuing further research in the Data Science space. Chris has 8 Worlds’ Breaks across various capacities as a judge, coach, and speaker and is a former co-Head Coach for Team South Africa, and for Team Wales. He has recently been appointed as part of CAP and the Motions Committee for the World Schools Debating Championships, having previously served as Equity and an Executive Committee Member.
Diego Castillo
Diego is a student of Africana Studies and History at Brown University. As a debater, he graduated 5th rank by the NSDA in World Schools Debate and championed tournaments such as the NSDA National Tournament and Greenhill Fall Classic. He also reached quarterfinals and earned a top speaker award at Europen 2021 and EUDC 2022. As a coach, Diego has spent recent summers at the Space City Camp and the Houston Urban Debate League’s Summer camp.
Eli Ramraj
Eli has won top speaker awards at the regional, provincial, and national level. Eli was a National Scholar at the University of Toronto, studying Philosophy, Creativity & Society, and Cinema Studies. After graduating with a Fellowship, he moved to Berlin to complete his Master’s in Directing. Eli has guest-lectured for university classes, spoken at symposiums, and in 2023 delivered a talk at UofT on meta-cinema, meditation, and the philosophy of consciousness.
Emma Sun
Emma is a student at Western University studying Health Sciences and business. She also has a robust DECA background, breaking multiple Canadian tournaments and placing second provincially in her Marketing DECA event. Emma began coaching debate in her junior year, writing a training curriculum as president of her high school debate club. Emma is also a former TDA student.
Eric Kazadi
Eric is a BA graduate with a triple major in Geography, International Relations and Political Sciences from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Eric has been a WSDC Semifinalist and a WUDC ESL Quarterfinalist. He is also an experienced judge and coach, having been on the CAP of WSDC, Doxbridge Schools, Eurasian Schools Debating Championships and African Schools Debating Championships. He has also broken as a judge at numerous tournaments such as the Cambridge & Princeton IVs amongst many others.
Ethan Curry
Ethan has been involved with debate for over a decade. He is a two-time Canadian National Champion and has been in the finals of the Hart House IV and the North American Universities Debating Championships. He has won 8 tournaments and made the finals of over 25 additional tournaments. As an adjudicator Ethan has judged a Worlds Semi-Final and elimination rounds at Cambridge, Oxford, Yale, LSE, and the Asian Continental Championships. He was also the CA for the North American Debate Championships. As a coach, Ethan has worked with a wide range of students fostering a passion and care for the art of debating. He has worked with WSDC national teams and many students who have gone on to break at tournaments.
Farhan Karepilakkiyil
Farhan holds an H.B.Sc. in Financial Economics from the University of Toronto. Farhan represented Team Qatar at the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) and Asian World Schools Debating Championships. Farhan placed 2nd at the Winter Holiday Open 2018, and is a two-time champion and two-time runner-up at the Qatar Schools Debate Championship. In British Parliamentary debate, Farhan was the ESL champion at the Socialism Open 2021, an ESL finalist at the Groningen Open 2021, and an open semifinalist at the Pretoria Parley Invitational 2021. Farhan has judged at WSDC 2020 and 2021, and other major tournaments.
Heather Li
Heather is studying Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. She was the former Chair of Oxford Debating and has extensive debating in both school and university debating. She convened Oxford Schools’ 2023 and was Chief Adjudicator of the International Competition for Young Debaters in 2022. At the high school level, she has broken at Hart House High Schools, Canadian National Debating Championships, and British Parliamentary Nationals. At the university level, she has broken at competitions across Europe, including Exeter Open, Amsterdam Open, DAIC Open, and Kyiv Open.
Helen Lei
Helen is a student at the University of Toronto, currently studying Bioinformatics & Computational Biology and Math. She has broken and won speaker awards at many high school tournaments, including Western HSDC and Paris Sciences Po WSDC. She has been coaching debaters since high school and also has experience judging and running tournaments. In addition, Helen is a two time ICDC qualifier and DECA provincial champion.
Humam Aziz
Humam is studying Strategic Management at McGill University. He is the Chair of debates and training for the McGill Debating Union. He has experience organizing and judging high school and university tournaments, most recently judging the McGill IV, including Semi-Finals and Grand Finals. He has extensive university debate experience and has reached the Semi-Finals at Hart House IV and Quarters at the Guindon Cup.
Isaac Hordiyuk
Isaac has a BA in Political Science with minors in History and Geography from the University of Toronto, and is currently studying Law at the University of Oxford. He has reached elimination rounds at over a dozen university tournaments, including the Yale IV, Canadian Parliamentary Nationals, and North American Championships, and has won or received a top speaker prize from more than half a dozen other tournaments. He has extensive coaching experience, working with various private and school-run programs in Canada and internationally. As a high school debater, he won or received top speaker prizes at more than a dozen tournaments.
Jack Palmer
Jack is currently an undergraduate student at Trinity College Dublin studying Philosophy, Political Science, Economics & Sociology. He was part of the Irish World Schools team in 2020, where he reached the Semi-Finals. Since moving to college, Jack has reached the World University Debating Championships Semi-Finals, and won the European University Debating Championships, as well as having broken at numerous competitions including the Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge IVs. As a judge he has judged the Grand Final of the World Schools Debating Championships, having previously judged elimination rounds at the Trinity Open and WSDC Saskatoon. As a coach, Jack’s students have reached the final of Oxford Schools, and have achieved positions on the Irish World Schools team, who Jack also helped as an assistant coach when they reached the quarter finals in 2022.
Jason Williamson
Jason Williamson is a 12-year veteran teacher who has taught Public Speaking and related courses at several Universities in the US. He holds an MA in Theological studies from Emory University and is currently completing his PhD in Rhetorical Studies from the University of Georgia. Professor Jason’s teaching emphasizes the importance of interpersonal connections, empowering people, and helping students to find their voice. Professor Jason has received multiple teaching awards and has been celebrated for his mentorship and patience with students. Professor Jason is not only a father, he is active in his local community and truly believes in the mission of enriching our students for a brighter tomorrow.
Jeffrey Ma
Jeffrey is a J.D. student at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. He recently earned an MPhil in International Development from the University of Oxford and also holds a B.A. (Hons.) in History and Anthropology from the University of Toronto. As a member of the Hart House Debating Club, Jeffrey has advanced as a speaker at regional, national, and international tournaments, including reaching the Novice Grand Finals of NAUDC and the Grand Finals of USC IV, Western IV, and the Guindon Cup. He also has competitive mooting experience, having been ranked 4th nationally as part of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s team for the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the world’s largest and most prestigious international law moot.
Jessica Yu
Jessica is a student at Yale University studying Cognitive Science. Throughout her four years of high school debate, she broke and won speaker awards at several tournaments including Stanford WSDC (Quarterfinalist), Saskatoon WSDC (Semifinalist), WSDA Slovenia (Quarterfinalist). She has also organized and judged at several high school BP tournaments and taught public speaking to elementary and middle-school students.
Judah Purwanto
Judah has over 4 years of debate coaching experience internationally, including being Team Indonesia’s coach from 2020-2021. Judah has reached the elimination rounds of WUDC, Cambridge IV, Yale IV, and Hart House IV. He was also part of Team Indonesia for the World Schools Debating Championships, where he ranked as the 10th best speaker. As a judge, he’s been the Chief Adjudicator of the Indonesian National Championships, Asian Schools Championships, and Cambridge ICYD tournament.
Jumanah Ahmed
Jumanah is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and has been debating since early years of high school. In university, she has won awards at HHIV (Quarter Finalist), Chancellor’s Cup (Champion), Cornell IV (Semi Finalist), NAUDC (Novice Semi Finalist) and more. She also has extensive experience in coaching and teaching in both debate and public speaking.
Kathryn Pozios
Kathryn is currently a student at the University of Toronto studying political science and criminology. Kathryn has a robust debate background in both English and French. She has years of CP and CNDF experience as throughout High School, she was a finalist at Senior Nationals in French, 2 time Provincial Finalist, once in English and French and Top speaker of Junior Nationals. She has also finaled at the Western, Hart House and York University tournament and was the Top Speaker at McGill, and a Canadian BP Championship Finalist in her first year at Hart House. She formerly debated for Team Canada development team during which she was a EurOpen semi-finalist and Harvard WSDC octo-finalist.
Marcus Cordeiro
Marcus is currently studying Aeronautical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Having debated throughout high school, he has spoken for the South African National Debating team for two consecutive years at numerous tournaments like the World Schools Debating Championships and Doxbridge Worlds. In his second year, he was appointed Captain of the national team. Locally, he has also won the national tournament,
ranked in the top 10 speakers and ranked best reply speaker multiple times. Marcus has also debated in Asian Parliamentary style and British Parliamentary debates, He now coaches a number of school teams.
Maria Xu
Maria is a student at Harvard College, currently studying Neuroscience and Global Health & Health Policy. She has debated in Worlds Schools, BP, and CP: her successes include being a Hart House High Schools champion, a Winter Holidays Open finalist, a UPenn WS finalist, and an Oldham Cup semifinalist. She was a member of Team Canada for two years and the runner-up of the Vietnam WSDC 2023. Maria has also had extensive experience as a coach and high school tournament adjudicator.
Maya Savielev
Maya is a World Universities Debate Championship (WUDC) ESL winner and best speaker of the ESL final. As a high school debater, Maya won the Israeli High School Debate Championship, was captain of the Israeli World Schools Debate Championship (WSDC) team for two years, and ranked as 5th best EFL speaker in WSDC 2017. As a coach, Maya has led high school debaters for over eight years, coaching the Israeli team for WSDC and the EurOpen winning team. As a judge, she chaired and broke in numerous prestigious tournaments, including WSDC, SIDO, AWSDC, and the Israeli High School Debate Championship.
Monica Ferris
Monica has over 15 years of teaching public speaking and debating experience to both English and French students. A Canadian National Debating Champion (’08), 3-time Canadian BP Champs & 3-time US BP Nats Finalist, Monica has a long list of debating accomplishments. She’s also a four-time break judge at the World Debating Championships (including judging the EFL Grand Final) and a WSDC break judge.
Naomi Gillis
Naomi has taught debate at various middle and high school ages, as well as coached the debate society at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a judge, she has broken at many BP competitions including Glasgow WUDC and has served as CA at national and international competitions. As a speaker, she has breaks at Madrid WUDC, Vienna IV, Trinity IV, LSE open and more, and was the top breaking team at Black Sea EUDC and Israeli national champion and top speaker for 2023.
Natalie Ganzhorn
Natalie is a former World Speech and Debate Champion, two-time International Speech and Debate Champion, and two-time Junior National Speech and Debate Champion. She is one of few students in history to represent Canada at four consecutive World Championships. Following a series of international tournaments held in South Africa, Lithuania, Dubai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Canada, and the United States, Natalie received a personalized letter of congratulations from the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau in recognition of winning the World Championships and for exceptional Canadian youth leadership. As a coach, Natalie has developed students from beginners to globally ranked speakers. She currently splits her time between Toronto and Los Angeles, where she works as an executive speaking coach for the C-suite team at a large multinational company.
Natallie Chow
Natallie is a J.D. student at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. She holds a BMSc (Hons.) in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences from Western University. She has broken as a speaker at tournaments such as Canadian British Parliamentary Championships, Chancellor’s Cup, and McMaster ProAms. She was the Deputy Chief Adjudicator at Canadian Parliamentary Nationals (2021) and has broken as a judge at CP Nationals and Western IV. In addition, she is a three time ICDC qualifier for DECA and is a 2nd place ICDC winner in the category of Franchise Business Plan.
Pat Cowley
Patrick holds a BA and MA in Philosophy from Queen’s University and is currently completing his JD at the University of Toronto. Patrick was ranked 2nd Speaker at Canadian Parliamentary Nationals in 2024, where he was also part of the top breaking team and a Grand Finalist. He was ranked 4th Speaker at Canadian British Parliamentary Nationals in 2019 and has broken at every major debate tournament in Canada. He has broken as a judge at WUDC, NAUDC, Hart House IV, and countless other tournaments throughout North America and Europe.
Paula Djakovic
Paula studies Political Science at the University of Zagreb and has been a debate coach for the Croatian national team. As a speaker, Paula has broken at numerous competitions including the World Universities Debating Championship and European Universities Debating Championship, reaching the semifinals of each. She is also the champion of the Oxford IV where she was second best speaker. During her high school years, Paula made the grand finals of Prague Debate Spring. She is also an accomplished adjudicator, having chaired elimination rounds at the LSE Open, the Trinity IV, and Western WSDC. Outside of speaking and judging, she has also served on the organization teams of tournaments including Zagreb Open and Zagreb Pre-WUDC.
Dr. Steven Murray
Dr. Murray holds a BA in economics from Trinity University, an MA in communication from Baylor University and a PhD in Rhetoric from the University of Georgia. Steven was a highly competitive and nationally successful debater in high school and college, including multiple tournament wins, high place finishes in several national championship formats, and too many top speaker awards to count. Dr. Murray has coached high school debate since 2010 and college debate since 2013. His students have shown success at the local, state, and national level, including multiple national championships. Dr. Murray was an early pioneer of digital learning, with over a decade of experience teaching debate online. Dr. Murray privileges argumentative flexibility, on-the-fly thinking, and creative navigation of the debate space. He currently serves as a professor of communication studies at the University of Georgia and SUNY New Paltz.
Dr. Svilen Trifonov
Dr. Svilen has a PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Minnesota. He is currently an instructor of rhetoric and communication studies at the University of Georgia. Svilen has been teaching public speaking for ten years at several colleges and universities across the United States. He has helped students prepare for public speaking competitions and other public events. As a scholar and a teacher, Svilen writes and teaches about citizenship and belonging. His teaching centres around the concept of engaged citizenship in the classroom, helping students overcome speech anxiety, gain confidence and experience in speaking situations, and advocate for socially and politically relevant topics.
Victor Tong
Victor is studying Sustainable Development at Columbia University . He has been heavily involved in speech and debate at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. His most recent successes include placing in the Octofinals at the World University Debate Championship and Semifinals in the US National Speech and Debate Tournament. As a former member of Team USA debate, he has experience in international debating from a debater perspective. As a coach, he looks forward to assisting students find competitive success and intellectual engagement through debate.
Zuha Tanweer
Zuha is double majoring in Political Science and Contemporary Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. They have been debating since high school and were selected to be on Pakistan’s national debate team for two years, breaking as the 8th ranked team in the world. As a member of the Hart House Debating Club, they were a finalist at the Pan American Queer Open 2020, Europe Queer Open 2020 and USC IV 2021, ranking among top 10 speakers at each of these tournaments. Moreover, they broke as a judge at Worlds Schools Debating Championships 2019 as well as multiple university-level tournaments.