Overview

It was in the hopes of allowing enthusiastic students to demonstrate their talents as well as to strengthen the relationship between private schools across Canada that the IISPSC was created under the direction of John Aimers. In 1982 he and John Messenger organized the first tournament of this sort. Held at St. John's Ravenscourt School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, it proved to be a great success. Encouraged by this result, the organizers decided to make the competition an annual event. As its popularity grew, American students were seen more and more often. By now, the IISPSC has prospered to such an extent that in recent years, even schools from as far away as the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Cyprus have begun to send competitors regularly. Consequently, the tournament is also recognized for its ability to help create new friendships among students from different geographical regions, thus bringing together the international community from the level of today's youth.

The annual tournament of the IISPSC extends over a 5 day period, routinely hosted on the 3rd weekend in October by a member school in North America. In recent years the event has attracted 165 competitors representing 45 Independent Schools from Canada, the United States, England, Bermuda, Argentina, Scotland and Cyprus. After 2 rounds of competition, high-scoring speakers in each event proceed to the final round which determines the winner in each event.  From the scores in the regular round, the overall ranking is determined.  This overall ranking is used to select one-half of the Canadian and American teams which will attend the Individual World Debating and Public Speaking Championships.