The Canadian Student Debating Federation (CSDF) was honoured to host the 2021 National Seminar online from September 30th to October 3rd, 2021. 

Once again our theme was Reconciliation: Making the Calls to Action a Reality.

CSDF firmly believes young people play a critical role in transforming how Canadian society views FNMI issues and in advancing the process of Canadian reconciliation. Our practice and teaching of the skills of speech and debate need to be anchored into using these skills to meaningfully participate and contribute to the current issues facing us as a society and to having those courageous and hard conversations around social issues that have remained unaddressed. In the same spirit of debate preparation – recognizing there is a problem, recognizing the various people (“actors”) affected by the problem and their point of view and finding the best solutions from the various perspectives and then hopefully help us personally decide where we want to position ourselves. We look to the opportunity to engage young people across the country AND all FNMI youth to meet virtually and have those crucial conversations.

The prepared resolution was: This House Believes Canada has an obligation to provide its FNMI peoples with a standard of living equal to the Canadian average.

The following links were once again recommended for research purposes:

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has published 94 ‘calls to action’ for indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians to come together in a concerted effort to help repair the harm caused by residential schools and move forward with reconciliation. Dec 15, 2015 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/truth-and-reconciliation-94-calls-to-action-1.3362258

Next150 Challenge “94 Calls to Action” – Indian Horse https://next150.indianhorse.ca › challenges › 94-calls-to-action One major aspect of the TRC’s final report is the “94 Calls to Action. … them before, read them again; Reconciliation is not a spectator sport!

Canada has made ‘dreadful progress’ in fulfilling TRC’s calls …
https://aptnnews.ca › 2019/12/17 › canada-has-made-dreadful-progress-in-…
Dec 17, 2019 – A new analysis reveals “dreadful progress” has been made on the 94 Calls to Action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

2021 SEMINAR AWARD WINNERS

Tom Lawson Awards: Awarded to the students who best embodied the spirit of the seminar.

• Noor Ansarian (MB)
• Krish Kodali (NS) 

Richard Picotin Award: Awarded to the student who best embodied the spirit of bilingualism.

• Austin Thomas (BC)

Speaker’s Citation: Awarded to the top Parliamentarians in English, French and Bilingual:

• Nicholas Hume (En)
• Maël Bacon (Fr)
• Charlotte Di Paolo (Bi)

Top Speakers for each Linguistic Category:

• Weadon Trophy (English) – Sky Williams (ON)
• Governor General Award (French) –  David-Alexandre Bergeron (QC-ADDEQ)
• Chief Justice Award (Bilingual) – Melanie Chapman (AB)

Founder’s Cup: Awarded to the top speaker from each Provincial/Territory Member present.

• British Columbia – Zeanne Madda
• Manitoba – Anika Enna
• New Brunswick – Richard Su
• Newfoundland & Labrador – Chloe Murray
• Nova Scotia – Abbie MacEachern
• Northwest Territory – Teresa Martin
• Ontario – Sky Williams
• Prince Edward – Katie Gaudet
• Quebec – ADDEQ – David-Alexandre Bergeron
• Quebec – QSDA – Adolfo de Motta Molina
• Saskatchewan – Simrah Iqbal & Stephen Daniels-White

The CSDF and our Host Province could not provide such a unique experience for students and chaperones without the generous support of our sponsors.

ANNUAL MAJOR SPONSORS TO OUR NATIONAL SEMINARS

The McLeese Family is our partner in growing Debate Programs across Canada. We gratefully acknowledge their continued support!

As with previous Seminars, the CSDF applied for a grant from the Government of Canada’s Exchanges Canada program. We are happy to share with you that it was approved. Funds from the grant covered costs for an updated website, shipping awards, amongst other administrative costs and outreach to FNMI communities. This generous contribution allowed us to continue our tradition of an annual seminar despite COVID-19.