The University of Toronto Mississauga is home to the Ontario Ethics Bowl Championship, an annual event that brings together teams of bright and dedicated high school students from across Ontario to compete in a contest of reasoning and persuasion. Ethics Bowl matches are different from other debate formats in that teams are encouraged to develop their own position on contemporary ethical dilemmas, and to revise and refine their ideas in light of the other side’s criticisms. Ethics Bowls promote the value of informed civil discourse and encourage deep engagement with political, social, and moral viewpoints different from our own.
Ontario Championship 2025
The 2025 winners, Kingston Secondary’s Tzu Kant Confucius, conferring during the final match
In March, 24 teams from across Ontario travelled to UTM to compete in the Ontario Ethics Bowl Provincial Championship. The two-day event included over 50 matches with over 100 high school students and dozens of volunteer judges, as well as special presentations by U of T’s Working Group on Civil Discourse and UTM philosophy’s Lu-Vada Dunford.
The top teams from the competition earned a trip to Winnipeg for the Ethics Bowl Canada National Championship in April. The winners of the Ontario Championship were Kingston Secondary’s Tzu Kant Confucius (pictured right). Congratulations to them and to all the teams who came to compete this year!
Links
- Ethics Bowl Ontario’s Website
- Ethics Bowl Canada’s Website
- The cases discussed at this year’s events
- Information for new teams
- Website for the College Bowl, the Ethics Bowl for teams of university students
Questions about Ontario Ethics Bowl? Email Elliot Carter, Marketing and Outreach Officer in the UTM Philosophy Department: elliot.carter@utoronto.ca.
Student volunteers setting up for the Ontario Championship
Panel by the Civil Discourse Working Group: (left to right) Professor Gurpreet Rattan, Valentina Bravo, Hugh Considine, and Lydia Dillenbeck