The Canadian Student Debating Federation (CSDF) is the national Canadian organization responsible for overseeing all nation-wide debate events, and the Canadian National High School Debate Team (Team Canada) that competes each year at the World Championships. 

The CSDF also facilitates inter-province excursions for students, including to their annually-run National Student Debating Seminar, a non-competitive event where select students from each province may attend the event for a week and engage with various forms of debate and public speaking on Canadian issues.  At this same event, students are able to meet students from around the country and also participate in fun activities each evening.  The NLSDU was proud to be able to send 3 students to the National Seminar this past August, 2023. 

Finally, the CSDF also helps support the activities of member organizations via contributing funds (such as the Willis McCleese Opportunities Fund) and provision of awards to member organizations (including the McCleese Award and the Brian Casey Award). 

The NL Speech and Debate Union is the CSDF Member organization representing Newfoundland and Labrador.  It has continued to be a member for many years, and in the past has collaborated with the CSDF to host the Senior High Canadian National Championships.  

The current President of the CSDF is Chris George, who may be reached at
cgeorge@csdf-fcde.ca.  To find out more about the CSDF and Canadian National Events, National Seminar, Team Canada, and the World Championships, visit https://csdf-fcde.ca/

The Speech and Debate Canada Foundation works to support debate organizations throughout the country.  In particular, they oversee the recruitment and subsidization of coaching efforts for schools that otherwise would not have access to one, and for coaches who would otherwise find it unfeasible to give their time.

The Foundation's efforts are responsible for making debate more accessible and they greatly support remote coaching of schools, which proved vital in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep debate and public speaking throughout Canada sustainable.

They continue to remain a pillar of debate in Canada and the NL Speech and Debate Union collaborates with them to provide coaching to some of Newfoundland's schools. 

The current Executive Director of the Speech & Debate Canada Foundation is Debra Miko, who leads their efforts.  Debaters can find more information about their resources and the work they do at www.speechanddebatecanada.com/ 

The Memorial United Nations Society has a long history of working with both University Students and High School students in Newfoundland to bring light to world issues and the legislative process of the UN.  It annually runs several conferences - a Collegiate for MUN students to participate as delegates, and MUN Squared - the High School Conference.  In all cases, students take advantage of the business casual dress code and unique ruleset to bring a certain weight to the discussions held, and work to modify a resolution to better address a major issue.

It awards Best Delegate and Best Delegation to students who demonstrate great knowledge of their country, collegiality and oratory skill.  

In the past, conferences have exceeded two-hundred student delegates and garnered widespread support from local schools.

It is currently working to form a new executive in the hopes of planning these conferences once again as speech and debate returns to the province following the pandemic.  To this end, a General Interest Meeting is being held on Wednesday, September 27th at 5:30pm in SN-2036 on MUN's Campus.

The application for Executive Members and General Volunteers for the upcoming year may be found below:
MUN United Nations Society 2023-2024 Executive and Volunteer Application Form 

The MUN World Health Organization Society (MUNWHO) formed in more recent years, and works to bring attention specifically to global healthcare issues, while giving students experience addressing these issues in a manner similar to the WHO itself.

The society has typically held an annual conference each year in March, in which students act as delegates to represent countries.  While each conference has had a singular, unifying theme across all its rooms, the countries represented in each one fall into different regional blocs, giving a unique perspective to how they approach specific issues.  Given the global scale and similar styles of debate involved, the society has often enjoyed support and enthusiasm from members of the United Nations Society and vice-versa.

It awards Best Delegate as well as Best Policy Paper, the latter going to a student that writes a particularly compelling response to a global health prompt provided prior to the conference.

The society is currently working to form a new team not only to plan for a conference in 2024, but to explore new avenues to shed light on global health issues and policy while reaching even broader audiences.
The application for Executive Members - the Secretariat - for the upcoming year may be found below:
MUNWHO Society 2023-2024 Secretariat Application Form 

The MUN Debate Society has been the site of heated discussions and fast friendships over the years at Memorial University.  It has been the cornerstone of university debate and worked to not only provide a venue for debate on campus, but also to facilitate tournaments and even send students abroad to compete.

It has enjoyed great synergy with the NL Speech and Debate Union, initially being responsible for overseeing High School Debate via the former Vice-President High School role, prior to the NLSDU's formation.  Additionally, many present and past members of the NLSDU have been members of MUN Debate in both a General and Executive capacity - including all current university-age members of the Board.  

It is currently working to resume weekly meetings, with an emphasis on providing an environment where the more competitive can hone their skills, and the more unfamiliar can grow comfortable expressing themselves with confidence.  Their first meeting for the Fall, 2023 semester will be during the week of September 24th-30th, 2023.  Additionally, they are currently recruiting a Vice-President External and Vice-President Finance to the Executive, with the deadline being September 21st at 11:59pm.

The application forms for General and Executive Members may both be found below:
MUN Debate 2023-2024 General Member Application Form
MUN Debate 2023-2024 Executive Application Form 

The Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate (CUSID) is an institution dating back to the late 70s that supports University-level competition and debate across Canada.

In particular, they support the country's debate efforts through three main branches - CUSID West, Central, and East respectively.  The NLSDU is affiliated with CUSID East owing to Newfoundland's location.  CUSID regularly runs tournaments throughout the year in both Canadian Parliamentary and British Parliamentary formats.  

Additionally, they provide funding to help financially aid the efforts of University debate organizations that are among their members.

The current President of CUSID is Daniel Svirsky, and he may be reached at President@CUSID.ca
CUSID's Vice-President East is currently Daiyam Basharat , who may be reached at VPEast@CUSID.ca

To learn more about CUSID and the work they do around the country for University debate, visit CUSID.ca