WESMUN FALL 2020
LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL AND DIRECTOR-GENERAL
Dear Delegates, Staff, Executives, and WESMUN family, welcome!
Western Model United Nations is excited to welcome you to a longstanding tradition at Western University. Since the club and conference was founded in 1997, we’ve never experienced a conference like this before. It’s an honour and pleasure for us to invite you to the first ever virtual WESMUN, on November 14th, 2020.
On behalf of the entire executive team, we welcome you to a brave new world of Model UN, where we learn vital team building, mediation, speaking, and leadership skills from the comfort of our own homes, behind a screen. We are excited to provide two exciting crisis committees that are sure to keep you on your toes in ways that we might not be able to in person.
We took the utmost care in making every decision, and have created a conference that we are excited to be a part of, and can’t wait for you to be a part of as well. While we’re only having a one day long conference this year, that day will be absolutely packed with quality debate and negotiation.
Our goal is to maintain the legacy of WESMUN through the pandemic, and hope to create a new legacy of our own. Our talented secretariat and executive have been working tirelessly over the past several months to ensure that you are still able to have an unmatchable experience of intellectual debate, diplomacy, and consensus building— even if it is online this year.
We wholeheartedly believe in WESMUN, and are unbelievably excited to share it with you. We eagerly look forward to welcoming you at opening ceremonies for WESMUN 2020.
Warmest Regards,
Bella Pick and Nikesh Mehta-Spooner
COMMITTEES
COVID-19
WEXIT
COMMITTEES
WEXIT
Crisis Committee
Secession and Western alienation are no new thing to Canadians.
Since BREXIT in 2016, there has been a resurgence of the term ‘Wexit’,
a portmanteau of west and exit to describe the movement to take
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and possibly BC out of
confederation. Western alienation has been felt throughout history, it
was a risk considered as early as 1867 and has only increased in
magnitude, as the region’s relative weight in the electoral system has
decreased, a crisis was averted with difficulty in the 1970’s when
Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Policy left the West feeling attacked
and unrepresented.
Jumping forward to the 2019 election, the Federal government’s
apparent lack of support for the fossil fuel industry, a key stakeholder
in the Western Canadian economy, was reflected in significant
Conservative seat victories in the October election. Most notably, in
Saskatchewan and Alberta where the Liberal party did not win a single
seat. The election resulted in Saskatchewan going fully blue, with
Alberta having only one non-Conservative seat. On the wings of polling
wherein large fractions of the Western public asserted separatist
intentions,the Maverick party, formerly the Exit Canada party, was
founded to respond of Albertan separatism. They were officially
considered eligible for Federal party registration on January 10th,
2020, presenting their core values are to change the relationship
between Alberta and the Federal government. Similar parties have
sprung up provincially across the region, some under the direction of
known and experienced political figures.
COVID-19
Crisis Committee
The COVID-19 virus has had an unprecedented effect on the world and has crippled the
global economy. Each of our lives has changed forever and there is no certainty that we may return to the lives we once knew. The virus has affected nearly every industry and has even changed our social habits.
On November 14th 2020, with daily case numbers reaching new records across the globe,experts from the world’s most powerful countries delegated by the G8, the WHO and theWorld Bank, will meet virtually for the first time to discuss the new trajectory that our world is heading in. Delegates in this committee are expected to work together to conquer this pandemic while also ensuring that the needs of their people are fulfilled. Not all countries have fared equally, some have slowed or even stopped the spread of the virus, others have let it run rampant.
Even in the depth of the crisis, human ingenuity maintains the flame of hope kindled: the possibility of a cure, a safe and effective vaccine, is only months away. However, the production of a vaccine is one issue - distributing it is another. With organizations and companies within the USA, UK and Russia leading the race for a vaccine, will other nations be able to gain access to it?