History

The Southern Ontario Model United Nations Assembly (SOMA) was established in 1973 as a corporation in the Province of Ontario. Originally a partnership between students at Port Credit Secondary School and their counterparts at the University of Toronto Schools (UTS), the organization was intended to be a dynamic replacement for the Toronto Assembly, an older Model UN that had suffered from a lack of leadership.

SOMA’s first years were extremely—and perhaps unexpectedly—successful. Involving students from schools across the city in the planning process, SOMA held its very first meeting in the auditorium at OISE (the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and was featured in the Toronto Star.

The next decades saw SOMA blossom into the largest MUN assembly in the Toronto area. Though UTS students eventually took over the leadership of the assembly, the goal of including a diversity of perspectives by involving students from as many schools and backgrounds as possible remained important. Traditions such as an annual reception with the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and annual guest speakers inspired delegates to imbibe the conference’s proceedings with a realism and seriousness unseen in other milieus.

Today, SOMA carries on the spirit that has been present since its founding. A fully autonomous, federally registered charity, SOMA continues to be led entirely by high school students. Having expanded from its original focus on the Greater Toronto Area, SOMA welcomes delegates from across the Americas and cooperates with other Model United Nations assemblies throughout the country. Most importantly, its delegates continue to create one of the most stimulating and realistic Model United Nations assemblies in Canada!