It is a familiar routine for world leaders, the September opening of the United Nations General Assembly. From far and wide, they converge on New York city.

But a lesser-known general assembly also takes place every year in the spring. And on this occasion, the world's leaders descend on Ottawa.

Well, world leaders is a bit of a stretch. But they would like to be someday. They are university students who participate in the world's largest bilingual Model UN. A program that is currently in jeopardy.

The United Nations Association of Canada relies on $100,000 in funding from the department of foreign affairs to organize the event. In early March, sources told CBC News that this funding had been cut and consequently the Model UN held earlier this year in Ottawa would be the last.

On March 7th, foreign affairs spokesperson André Lemay told CBC that no final decision had been made. The funding to the Model UN was under review, he said. But documents recently obtained under the Access to Information Act reveal something else.

Take the e-mail sent by Kerry Buck, a director general, to other staff at foreign affairs. She writes, "True that the government spokesperson wouldn't confirm funding has been cut? Because it has unless someone can get some of the public diplomacy money back for us."

Another e-mail sent by Buck reveals the Prime Minister's Office was concerned about the appearances of the decision. She writes: "As per our discussion, spoke to PMO/(Keith) Fountain. Keith's take is that CBC story may try to paint the cuts as demonstrating an anti-UN bias by the new government."

We asked the department how it reconciles the response it gave us back in March with the information in the documents. We are still waiting for an explanation. So far, spokesman Neil Hrab can only offer: "This was before my time here and I need some time to get my head around it."

As university students watch events at the UN this week, they too are trying to get their head around something: whether they will ever be back in Ottawa for a gathering of their own general assembly?