WPGA Debate and Model UN Update

The month of November was a busy time for WPGA debate and Model UN teams. Coming on the heels of the UBC tournament victory, the Model UN team travelled to Montreal for this year’s SSUNS conference. Led by senior captains, Liam Carson, Robbie Legge and Liam Pedersen, our team of 23 students represented the countries of Australia, Turkey and Angola on diverse committees such as the UN Human Rights Council, the GA special session on HIV/AIDs and the Joint Crisis in Somalia. The weekend also provided us with an opportunity to meet up with our alumni currently studying at McGill University. The highlights of the trip included hearing the inspirational guest speaker, Hoops of Hope founder Austin Gutwein, team dinner at MBurger and laser tag.

At the closing ceremonies, we were very pleased to have the following students recognized for their strong diplomatic skills and overall performance in committee sessions:

Congratulations to the following team members for their hard work and outstanding performance in committee sessions: Samantha Starkey, Raheesa Jina, Lloyd Lyall, Ben MacVicar, Robbie Tulip, Tommy Legge, Michael Stresing, Jake Reedijk, Nicolas Howard, Maddy Jones, Heather McCauley, Hayaat Stuart Khafaji, Amir Sharif, Dax Aquilini, Daniel Cohen, Angela Martinovic.

Many thanks to Mrs. Jones and Mr. Morden for chaperoning and for all their assistance with the team.

 
ESU Public Speaking and OXFORD CUP, Toronto ON (November 24-27, 2011)

The senior debaters travelled to Toronto this past weekend to compete at two separate speech and debate events hosted by Toronto area schools. The ESU Public Speaking competition and the Oxford Cup both determine the top Canadian speakers and teams for the prestigious Oxford Finals (March) and the Oxford International Speech Competition (May). Congratulations to Liam Carson for his fine performance at the ESU Speech event and to the senior debating teams of Jessica Dorfmann and Liam Pedersen and Liam Carson and Robbie Legge who competed at the Oxford Cup. After six rounds of debate, we were excited to learn that Jessica and Liam had topped the tabs as the first place team in preliminary rounds of debate. They advanced easily through the semi-final rounds until being defeated in the finals by the Halifax Grammar team of Ogunrinde and Bjornsson. Jessica was the top overall speaker of the tournament, narrowly defeating her Team Canada teammate Debi Ogunrinde.

At the conclusion of the Oxford Cup, the eligible candidates for the Canadian National team tryouts met at the University of Toronto for a two-day selection tournament that would determine the members of the 2013 Canadian National Debate team. West Point Grey Academy had one student, Alessandra Harkness, trying out for a place on this national team. Congratulations to Alessandra for her fine performance at this event; although the selected team members have yet to be announced, we are very proud of Alessandra as she continues the tradition of her WPGA teammates who have participated in the selection process for the Canadian National Debate team.