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Every year, CSDF holds a tryout process to select students for the Canadian national debate team. Each province selects three official delegates to tryout, as well as a handful of students are selected from across Canada to round out the CSDF selection event.

This is an official call for applicants to apply to OSDU for one of its 3 spots. Any student can apply, but as per the OSDU By-laws, must do with support of the institutional member. Therefore your application must either be sent by your school coach, or at least copied to them so that we know they are aware the application. Two important things to note:
• you must be a student at a member school, who has paid their OSDU membership fee for this year. Other applicants will not be accepted.
• for this process there is a limit of THREE per school – OSDU is only picking 3 delegates and so schools must limit to 3 even if there is more interest. This is a long standing clause in the by-laws.

In order to apply, you must send the attached application form to Nicole Ratti, OSDU President, Email: osdupresident@gmail.com. The deadline is 4:00 p.m. on Friday, February 24th, the effective start time of OSDU Provincials. The students will be selected in time to notify CSDF by their March 1 deadline, and successful applicants will be provided with the CSDF form to complete. You must of course be available to attend the tryouts in Calgary, from Tues. April 25 to Thurs. April 27 in the days leading into senior national championships.

In addition, students who apply to OSDU and are not successful, are invited to apply to the CSDF Alternate Application process, which has a very limited number of additional spots. The information is attached. That deadline is March 5. In a new rule for this year, all applicants must be “endorsed by the provincial member”, which effectively means again that you must attend an OSDU member school. We ask you to send your application to CSDF and copy OSDU, but if you don’t we will be asked anyway to verify your eligibility to apply.

OSDU Application Form ( due Feb. 24 at 4:00 pm )
CSDF Alternate Application Letter
CSDF Alternate Application Form

The Canadian Student Debating Federation will be hosting a debate camp, which will be organized by Brian Casey and John Robinson, to be modeled after the very successful camp that was run at Sacred Heart in Halifax for many years. This camp will be especially of interest to those able to commute to Toronto French School each day. However, the camp is often to everyone, and accommodation can be arranged at Glendon College in the dorms. Debate Camp registration is now open!

The dates are Monday, August 14 to Friday, August 18, with the 13th and 19th being travel days if you are coming in from out of town.

As well, the event will effectively run in parallel with the annual CSDF National Seminar. Therefore, OSDU will select students to attend under the Seminar banner. Information will be provided to OSDU schools soon so that students may apply, subject to various restrictions that aim to make the Seminar have a wider representation of participants. This would be a full week programme, with a slightly different schedule, and funding model. More info will be posted later.

In the meantime, you can find information about Debate Camp, including the form invite, schedule, fees, etc. located here: https://csdf-fcde.ca/debate-camp/

The annual BP championships will again take place online via Zoom. The top teams in both the Senior and U15 divisions will be invited to take part in the National BP Championships which will be held in-person in Montreal the weekend of Nov. 18 – 20.

A reminder that teams must consist of two debaters from the same school. The school must be members of OSDU so please fill out the registration form before registering for this tournament. A reminder that only schools are allowed to enter.

Click on the calendar item for the tournament invitation.

OSDU Provincial BP Qualifier