Month: July 2020

As we begin to discuss how the current climate will impact debate in the coming year, we are excited to announce that the National Seminar will be moving online for Fall 2020! As a result, please find attached the application to the Seminar which will take place online from September 24 – 27, 2020.

For those who are not familiar with it, the National Seminar is a non-competitive debate seminar which includes a debate tournament, model parliament event, and debate workshops. The exact schedule and events are not yet available as the event adapts to an online platform. This is an event tailored to newer debaters, or those wishing to hone their skills – it is not an event recommended for advanced or highly competitive debaters. We encourage debaters to seize the opportunity to participate in this event tailored to improving skills at a lower cost and time commitment than it may otherwise be when taking place in person! This is a fantastic opportunity!

If a student wishes to attend, they must follow the process outlined below – please note this is an individual event, and your application does not guarantee you a spot, the OSDU Board will be selecting its delegation based on strict criteria established by the host, which may include diversifying students across multiple schools, regions, and language categories.

1. Fill out the attached application, and send it to osdupresident@gmail.com by 9:00 pm on July 10, 2020. Please select in which language category you are most interested in attending. Note that students willing to participate in French or Bilingual may be given priority.
2. The selection committee will review all applications, and will select a limited number of students divided amongst the english, french, and bilingual categories. We will inform you of our decisions by July 20th, 2020.

Students interested in applying must be in Grades 9-12 as of September, 2020, and may not have attended a National Championship event, or the National Seminar in previous years.

Please note that at this time, only up to one student per school will be selected. This may be subject to change depending on the delegate pool and available spots for Ontario.
Download Application