Upper Canada College

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Upper Canada College (UCC) is an all-male elementary and secondary school in Toronto, Canada, the oldest independent school in the province of Ontario, and the third oldest school in Canada. It is widely considered to be among the leading preparatory schools in Canada. [UCC's watershed moment] [Conrad Black of Crossharbour] [CBC: Verdict expected Friday in UCC case] [Judge gives green light to UCC sexual abuse suit] [CBC: Former UCC teacher denies sexual abuse''] It has educated many of the country's elite, powerful and wealthy and declares its goals to be "trust and honesty, respect for others, respect for property, self-respect, and caring." [[UCC: Our shared ideals]

UCC is a non-denominational school administered by a Board of Governors as a public trust.

All of UCC's 1,000 day students and 110 boarders study the International Baccalaureate diploma programme during Grades 11 and 12.

The College maintains a traditional link to the Royal Family through HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who is the College's Official Visitor, and a member of the Board of Governors.

The school's current Principal is Dr. James Power. The Preparatory School and Upper School are headed by Donald Kawasoe and Steven Griffin respectively. The Upper School is in turn divided into the Middle Years Division, directed by Derek Poon, and a Senior Years Division, directed by Scott Cowie.

History

Founding

The College was founded in 1829 by then-Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Major-General Sir John Colborne (later , Lord Seaton). The school was founded in the hopes it would serve as a feeder school to the newly established King's College (later the University of Toronto), and was modelled on the great public schools of Britain, most notably Eton College. An announcement of the College's January opening appeared in the December 17, 1829, edition of the Canada Gazette, and teaching at the College began on January 4, 1830, with 57 students, the first boy enrolled being Henry Scadding. By the end of the school's first semester, the enrolment had increased to 89.

Prior to 1829, the College was called the Royal Grammar School. Its first permanent buildings stood on Russell Square, on land that is now bounded by King, Simcoe, Adelaide and John Streets in downtown Toronto. Almost immediately after the College opened, plans were implemented for newer and more permanent buildings, and the 1831 school year began in new structures at the north-west corner of King and Simcoe Streets. In Lost Toronto, William Dendy wrote:

:"All the UCC buildings were of red brick. Only the main block had much architectural pretension, with its large porch supported on stone piers and the windows ornamented with flat, ledge-like architraves supported on scrolled consoles.... The centre block measured 80 feet wide and 82 feet deep and contained offices and classrooms opening off a central hall on both floors; in the northwest corner of the second floor there was a "prayer room", with a dais for the master and box pews for each of the seven forms...."

The costs of the buildings were originally slated at £10,000, but the cost was eventually estimated to be double that amount. These costs, combined with the large staff and their high salaries led to criticism of the College and its expenses. In his publication Colonial Advocate, William Lyon Mackenzie stated: "The College here at York in Upper Canada is most extravagantly endowed... thousands of pounds are realised at will by its self-constituted managers from the sale of school lots and school lands [in fact, not true]... splendid incomes given to masters... and dwellings furnished to the professors... by the sweat of the brow of the Canadian labourer." Colonial Advocate, May 19, 1831 In 1837, UCC's student militia offered help to Sir Francis Bond Head's Family Compact government in suppressing the pro-democracy Mackenzie's Upper Canada Rebellion. In 1852, Mackenzie's sons, William and George, were enrolled at UCC.

University control

On March 4, 1837, the King's College charter was amended to take UCC in under the control of the university, with the principal to be appointed by the King, the vice-principal and masters nominated by the Chancellor of King's College (the Lieutenant Governor) at the approval of the King's College Council.

In 1842, Charles Dickens visited the College and said of it: "a sound education in every department of polite learning can be had, at a very moderate expense... It has pretty good endowments in the way of land, and is a valuable and useful institution." Charles Dickens, American Notes. Cited in The College Times, Summer 1910, pg. 30.

By the 1870s, with an enrolment of 300, the school was outgrowing the 1831 buildings. A $40,000 expenditure for expansion of the original structures was approved by the province for twelve classrooms, a public hall, a room for the principal, and beds for 60 more borders. The improvements were complete by April 1877, with the centre block expanded and its main facade altered to more of a Queen Anne style blended with a modified Elizabethan. Two story brick piers enhanced the corners and framed tall narrow windows, with the main entrance protruding forward, flanked by banded columns, more typical of Jacobean style. An octagonal cupola surmounted the main entrance volume, surrounded by narrow pinnacles topping the corner piers, which all concealed chimneys and ventilation openings. The eclectic mix of different styles was typical of the overall concept of Victorian architecture. By 1880, the College already again needed expansion of the boarding houses, and a gymnasium was necessary.

UCC came close to closing its doors in 1887, when a Liberal provincial government which supported university federation, and saw the College's endowment and downtown campus as sources of funds for such an expensive venture, came to power. That year a Notice of Motion was introduced to the Legislature by a Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly named Waters: "in the opinion of this House the time has come when Upper Canada College should be abolished... as the instruction given in the College can be obtained in any well conducted high school in the province," John D. Robarts Research Library, University of Toronto, Newspaper Hansard, March 12, 1887. adding that the College's real estate should go to the province. In reaction to this a group of Old Boys met, along with letters of support from various alumni, including Lieutenant Governor John Beverley Robinson, in an effort to stop the closing of the College's doors. The meeting ended with a unanimous motion that the group's views be laid before the government. The story was covered widely in the papers of the time, with the Evening Telegram being most supportive, the Globe taking a more moderate stance, and the News criticizing the existence of the school. In the end, after much negotiation, a decision was reached to detach the school from King's College after fifty years of affiliation, and to operate it under the guidance of five trustees appointed by the Minister of Education. The College was also to be relocated to an area outside of the city, though this provision was not included in the statute.

Move

From 1887 to 1891, much effort was directed towards the moving of the College. The principal, then George Dickson, and the architect G.F. Durand, toured the private schools in the United States, and in February 1888, plans for the new buildings were presented to the government. A site at Avenue Road and St. Clair Avenue was suggested by the government, but was objected to as the 14 acres was deemed too small. A new site, slightly farther north, was chosen and purchased from a Mr. Lawrence Baldwin. The ground-breaking for the new buildings at the new campus took place on April 2, 1889.

On July 3, 1891, the bell at the Russell Square campus rang for the last time, and on August 29, a farewell cricket game was played, and, in an attempt to ensure the survival of the College, the Upper Canada College Old Boys' Association was created on the same day. UCC then moved to its current site, the Deer Park campus ([43.6933° N 79.4042° W]), 200 Lonsdale Road at Avenue Road in Forest Hill, with the doors being officially opened on October 14, 1891.

William Dendy described the buildings in his book Lost Toronto:

:"Inevitably, given the date, the style of the new buildings was Romanesque Revival. It was built on a foundation of roughly finished Credit Valley sandstone, with upper walls of red brick ornamented with terra cotta panels and string courses. The basic arrangement of the design - a projecting triple-arched entrance, a central tower, and flanking wings forming a quadrangle behind - was very common at the time, and had become firmly established in Toronto with Lennox's City Hall (1996-92).... In fact, the new tower, rising 165 feet above the ground, like a church steeple above the surrounding trees, became a symbol of the college - an ever present reminder to students, and to the city below the hill, of the importance of the college and the influence of the alumni that had been shaped by it."

The new buildings purportedly held a room for a commercial course, which contained a counter and series of wickets built to simulate a real bank; these facilities were to help teach boys the routines of banking.

In 1902, a separate Preparatory School was built at the south edge of the Deer Park campus, creating two physically separate schools.

World Wars

More than 400 graduates perished during both the First World War and the Second World War. Historian Jack Granatstein asserted that UCC graduates accounted for more than 30% of Canadian generals during the Second World War^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}, including General Harry Crerar, Commander in Chief of the Canadian Army, and Major-General Bruce Matthews, Commander of the 2nd Canadian Division and later Chairman of the College's Board of Governors.

Building crisis

The College faced another crisis at the end of the 1950s when it was discovered that the 1891 main building was decaying rapidly due to poor construction; cracks and pipes were appearing throughout, doors frames warped to the point where doors could no longer be opened or closed. Eventually there was a fear that the tower would collapse. [Principal Jim Power, Founder's Day Assembly, Feb. 2, 2006] Because of these problems, the building was condemned and evacuated by March 12, 1958. Faculty offices were moved to the Prep building, the infirmary, and any other spare spaces, including the principal's residence, Grant House. Classes were conducted in portables.

That same year, a major fundraising campaign was launched as construction of a new building on the exact site of the old was started. HRH Prince Philip visited in 1959 to assist with the fundraising. Money to reconstruct the iconic tower over the main entrance was donated by the media magnate, Ted Rogers. Even though construction began in 1958, during the modernist era, the symmetry of the original structure, as well as a clock tower, were repeated, yet instead of a Romanesque Revival style a simplified Georgian was used. In the summer of 1959, Governor General Vincent Massey laid the cornerstone, and tragedy struck that same year when an Italian construction worker fell from the tower to his death. None-the-less, Field Marshal Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein dedicated the new front doors on April 28, 1960, and the new building was officially opened by Vincent Massey and Ewdard Peacock on September 28. The $3,200,000 cost of the bulding was fully subscribed. Upper Canada College, 1829-1979: Colborne's Legacy; Howard, Richard; Macmillan Company of Canada, 1979

Late 20th century

UCC welcomed the first woman to its Board of Governors in 1971 with the appointment of Pauline Mills McGibbon, although she resigned in 1974 upon her appointment to the post of Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.

In 1979, UCC celebrated its 150th anniversary in the presence of the College's Official Visitor, HRH Prince Philip, at the College's first Association Day.

By 1989 the Peacock Building, the original structure of the Prep School, built in 1902, was growing outdated for the needs of the College. It still contained boarding dorms, bathrooms, and masters' quarters which were being used as storage and makeshift offices. Renovation of the building was considered, but eventually it was decided that a new structure should be built as part of a larger, overall building campaign for the campus. The new Eaton Building, named for the Eaton family, which sent many sons to UCC, was completed in 1992, with a modern design that still included references to its historical predecessor. The gothic pointed arch of the original Peacock Building main door was reconstructed as a free-standing monument in the Eaton Building's forecourt.

In 1991, UCC was visited by the Hungarian President Árpád Göncz, who would soon after enrol his grandson at the school, and in 1993, Prince Philip again visited to officially open the Foster Hewitt Athletic Centre, the Eaton Building, as well as the rebuilt College gates, the Mara Gates, at the foot of the main avenue. Two years later the College decided to greatly alter its academic course and adopted the International Baccalaureate programme.

James FitzGerald, a UCC Old Boy himself, published a book in 1994 titled Old Boys; the Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College. It stirred up some controversy in Canadian media due to its candid portrayal of life at the College, derived from excerpts of interviews that FitzGerald had conducted with former students, ranging from Conrad Black and Michael Ignatieff to unknowns who managed gas stations or worked in retail. Reactions varied; Charlotte Gray wrote in the Toronto Star: "My reaction to this book is fascinated revulsion - mainly because the school seems to have taught successive generations of boys that girls are some alien species that is both terrifying and stupid," [Charlotte Gray - Full Review] while Jill Rigby said in the Toronto Sun: "Yeah, so what if some UCC teachers were pedophiles? All that stuff has been going on in educational institutions since Socrates met Plato." [James T. FitzGerald: Reviews]

The publication of the book had an effect on the College, both in its internal structure, as well as its relationship with the broader community. Peter Dalglish, the founder of Street Kids International, criticised the school heavily in his interview for Old Boys, where he said "A prime failing of UCC is that they have no sense of being a part of a community within the city or country. The school has to change; it is still very upper middle class." Subsequently, he was hired by the College to change school culture. Under his direction, along with Nanci Goldman, the former Toronto Board co-ordinator of inner city services, UCC students have since been partnered with inner city Toronto kids in the College's Horizon program. [Ted Schmidt: Full Review]

The Eaton Building was extended in 1999 to accommodate the school's curricular expansion to include grades 1 and 2. Senior kindergarten was introduced in 2003.

Norval

By the early 20th century, the city was growing quickly around the Deer Park campus. The College trustees began to explore the possibility of once again moving the school. A property of 450 acres on the Credit River, north of the Toronto, was purchased in 1913. Plans for a new college building were even drawn up by a Toronto architectural firm. However, due to the First World War and the depression, plans to move the school were abandoned in the 1930s.

Still, the property remained in the hands of the school, and it has become a popular outdoor education centre for UCC students. In 1964, a modern bunk-house, designed by Old Boy Blake Millar, was built, and an arboretum was planted. In 1967, the bunk-house, known as Stephen House, won a Massey Medal for excellence in architecture.

Today, Norval is Canada's oldest "outdoor" school.

Cadets

There is no fixed date for the formation of the UCC Cadets, though beginnings can be traced to a willingness of students to participate in the defence against the 1837 rebellion. Later in the 1800s, in schools throughout England, Canada and the United States, involvement in a military body was thought of to inspire patriotism in young men, as well as being a good method of teaching discipline and obedience. By 1863, UCC students were paraded weekly, in an amateur fashion, under someone known as Major Goodwin, but with the beginning of Fenian troubles in Upper Canada by 1865, UCC students requested that the Cadets form into a company of the Queen's Own Rifles. By 1866, the request was fulfilled, making UCC possibly the second school in Canada to have a proper Cadet Corps (the first being Bishop's College School in Lennonville, Quebec).

When the Fenians did attack Fort Erie, Ontario, on June 1, 1866 (see Fenian Raids), the UCC Cadets, along with the Bishop's College Cadets, were called to duty, but were instructed only to guard the armouries and official stores. None-the-less, this was the only time in Canadian military history where student Cadet Corps were called to duty.

By the 1890s, there was a lack of enthusiasm for the Cadets. It was an extra expense for a student's family to cover the costs of uniform, weapons, and even their drill instructor. As well, drill and practice time was beyond the commitment to scholastics and sport. Enrolment fluctuated over the next few decades, at one point the school's administration turning its eyes to the school the College had been modelled on, Eton, as well as Harrow, where Cadet participation was compulsory. No real action was taken by UCC in regards to the Cadets, however, by 1910 the population of the company had increased to 63, and in 1912 a Sergeant Carpenter was approached to act as instructor. He was not to last long, as by 1914 he was in Europe as Sergeant-Major in the 9th Battalion of the 1st Canadian Overseas Contingent. Numbers in the UCC Cadets still stayed high during the First World War.

By around 1919, the UCC Cadets finally became compulsory, and principal Grant asked the army district headquarters if the Corps could be presented with Colours, both the King's Colour and College Colour. The College Colour was given by Elanor Gooderham in 1921.

During the war, the Cadets' association with the Queen's Own Rifles had lapsed, and by 1923 two regiments, the Toronto Regiment and Queen's Own Rifles were requesting that the Corps affiliate itself with them. After some dispute between the three parties, the College settled on the Queen's Own again by 1927.

For thirty following years, the Cadets remained an integral part of College life, and by the middle of the Second World War boys were practising not only drills, but also spent time on lectures, map reading, military law, and signalling.

Still, by the 1960s, due to broader shifts in social paradigms, belief in the Cadets was faltering; religion and patriotism were not held in such high regard by youth, and rebellion was the more accepted behaviour for teenagers. Minutes of the Board of Governors meeting in 1965 recorded, for the first time in sixty years, poor discipline at the battalion parade. Principal Richard Sadlier finally disbanded the Cadet Battalion as a compulsory body in 1976. He noted: "The Battalion has been left with little beyond its ceremonial drill which is a pretty irrelevant exercise to many people today and difficult to defend when it becomes the be-all and end-all of a program."

In 1977, the voluntary Royal Canadian Army Cadets helped organize a course in military science at UCC, which also included battle drill, field craft, weapons training, and some parade-square drill. But, by the mid 1980s, interest in this programme had fallen to a bare minimum, and today UCC provides no formal military training.Upper Canada College, 1829-1979: Colborne's Legacy; Howard, Richard; Macmillan Company of Canada, 1979

Ethnic makeup of student body

UCC began admitting ethnic minority students early in its history. The first black student enrolled in 1831, the first Jewish student in 1836 and the first aboriginal student in 1840; some graduates from the Ojibway peoples of Upper Canada having gone on to study at Dartmouth College and Harvard University. [University of Manitoba: "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" The Diversification of Canadian Law Schools]

Even though there have been ethnic minority students admitted to UCC, the school continued to maintain a reputation as a "bastion of WASP privilege" through the first 150 years of its history.[Canadian Jewish News: Peter Newman looks back on a productive life] In relation to this, diplomat James George, a student between 1926 and 1936, said upon reflection about his time with other UCC graduates in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs: "If UCC really was a womb matrix for a bunch of WASP patriots, why did it produce so many internationalists?"[Excerpts from: James T. FitzGerald; Old Boys: The Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College]

Other former students took a different view, some citing experiences of anti-Semitism. Graham Fraser, The Globe and Mail's Washington Bureau Chief, who attended UCC between 1960 and 1964, recalled: "Anti-Semitism was generally an unspoken undercurrent at UCC, but a couple of times I witnessed overt anti-Semitism.... Before 1960, Toronto was a pretty narrow, close-minded, little Victorian town and Upper Canada College reflected that reality."

Michael Ignatieff, who was a student at the College from 1959 to 1965 stated: "The UCC culture in my time was basically Tory, Anglican and fantastically patrician... The Canadian elite must be an open, permeable elite which is colour blind, religion blind and gender blind. There has to be an elite based not even on intelligence but character. They will mostly come from schools that bear no resemblance to Upper Canada College."[Excerpts from: James T. FitzGerald; Old Boys: The Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College]

In the decades after the 1970s, some saw the ethnic composition of the school's enrolment as changing. In 1979, former Prep School Headmaster Richard Howard said in his book Upper Canada College, 1929-1979: Colborne's Legacy: "The growth of the enrolment has increased the number of boys from a wide variety of backgrounds and decreased the ratio of those from old Toronto families. The address list now reflects Toronto's ethnic variety and resembles a small United Nations."Upper Canada College, 1829-1979: Colborne's Legacy; Howard, Richard; Macmillan Company of Canada; 1979; pg. 264 However, even into the 1990s some, while acknowledging the shift to a more multi-cultural student body, claimed anti-Semitism continued in some form. Motek Sherman, the editor of the school's yearbook The College Times in 1990, wrote an editorial stating that while UCC was no longer "a white-bread, right-wing fortress: it has become much more multi-cultural and (dare I say it?) liberal.... In my years at UCC I have faced anti-Semitism, ugliness, stupidity and bureaucracy."Motek Sherman; Editorial; College Times; 1990

In 2002, student Adam Sheikh created the Diversity Council to celebrate the cultural diversity of the school's student population. This council, a body of students independent from the school administration, organizes celebrations of Chinese, Jewish, and Ukrainian cultural events and traditions, as well as Canadian cultural events.[Harmony Scholarship]

UCC's website states that currently "the College's boarding program welcomes Upper School students from all faiths and cultural backgrounds. Each year, more than 100 students from Year 1 to IB2 come together in this cross-cultural hub, where students benefit from each other's unique experiences."

Today, students from over 16 different countries attend UCC.[Upper Canada College] The international students typically come from among the wealthiest families in the countries of their origin.

Today

UCC is Canada's wealthiest independent school ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}, having an endowment of more than $30 million (CAD). [Thomson Peterson's: Upper Canada College] The school has devoted this endowment to physical expansion, financial aid, scholarships, and advanced computer and laboratory equipment.

There are 72 faculty members in total, 64 of which teach at the Upper School. Within the Upper School faculty there are 52 men and 12 women, 26 of which have advanced university degrees. 10 faculty members reside on the campus. [Thomson Peterson's: Upper Canada College]

Tuition fees range from $21,725 to $23,474 for all day-boy students, and $38,675 to $40,425 for boarding. Today, 6% of the school population receives financial aid. The school plans to increase financial assistance over the next decade, and to help a more diverse range of students attend UCC. The institution is well-known for its challenging admissions standards, accepting less than 22% of all applicants. The current student-to-teacher ratio is 18:1 in the lower grades and 19:1 in the upper grades.

The College has a notable collection of artwork and war medals. This collection includes Canada's first Victoria Cross, awarded in 1854 to Old Boy Alexander Roberts Dunn, and a Victoria Cross awarded to Hampden Zane Churchill Cockburn. UCC also holds a collection of original paintings from the Group of Seven, though several were auctioned by the College in an effort to pay for the lawsuits it faced in 2004.[CTV: UCC selling assets to fund assault settlement] Aside from UCC's main campus in the Deer Park area of midtown Toronto, the College owns the Norval Outdoor School near Georgetown, Ontario.

Each year, UCC runs and organizes a local Terry Fox Run station, part of which involves the school's avenue, and oval. UCC's Terry Fox Run site is the most participated one in the world, and raises the most money for the Terry Fox Foundation.

Facilities

The College has 15 buildings on its Deer Park campus. The main building (the Upper School) houses classrooms, computer and science laboritories, two art studios, music classrooms and practice rooms, three theatres, a library, a creativity centre, locker rooms, a chapel, two dining halls, kitchens, as well as faculty and staff offices and lounges. Laidlaw Hall, the principle assembly hall attached to the west end of the main building, holds a pipe organ as well as a large proscenium stage. At the other end of the building is the Memorial Wing, the school's main infirmary has a nurse's exam room, and rooms with hospital beds for ill students. Forming the north end of the main quadrangle is the building containing the two boarding houses. Satellite to the main complex are townhouse-style residences for masters and their families, and Grant House, the residence of the College's principal. There are also two structures north of the boarding houses: one that was once stables, but now serves as a covered garage, and the other, a small, two-storey cricket pavillion.

The Preparatory School at the south-west corner of the campus holds classrooms, computer and science laboratories, a library, theatre, and staff offices and lounges. Near this building is a home for the Prep Headmaster, and a small gatehouse.

The athletic facilities include, in the Upper School: an indoor pool, two gymnasiums, and a weight room; and in the Prep School: a gymnasium. Around the campus there is an indoor arena (the Patrick Johnson Arena), a sports activity bubble, tennis courts, a sports court, a running track, and nine sports fields for football, soccer, lacrosse, cricket, and baseball. The two major fields of the Upper School are called "Commons" and "Lords", after the British House of Commons and House of Lords.

On the Norval property, Stephen House contains a bunk area, dining area, lounge area, kitchen, bathrooms, accommodation for teacher chaperones and staff, and a classroom/laboratory. There is also an older structure that was the original bunk-house, and a bungalow-style residence for the property caretaker.

UCC also maintains its own archives.

International Baccalaureate

In 1996, UCC adopted the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, administered by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) in Cardiff. The school has flourished under this program - the quantity of graduates studying abroad has increased greatly. As well, UCC offers the Ontario Standard Curriculum Diploma in addition to the IB diploma, which aids students in Canadian University acceptances greatly. UCC boys average a point total of 36 in the final examinations, and 2 bonus points. The majority of boys take Mathematical Methods, as well, UCC pioneered and wrote the syllabus of the IB's newest, and still developing course, World Cultures. As an IB World School, UCC is in charge of internally administering both CAS, Theory of Knowledge and the Extended Essay

School programs

The World Affairs Conference is Canada's oldest student run conference, and one of North America's most successful. It is held annually, attended by over 700 international students; providing a forum for students to hear opinions of leaders in the global community and discuss current and pressing world issues amongst themselves. Past speakers have included Ralph Nader, Stephen Lewis, Michael Ignatieff, Susan Faludi, Gerald Kaplan, and Gwynne Dyer, all of whom have spoken on a variety of topics including Human Rights, Gender Issues, Justice, Globalization, and Health Ethics.

The UCC Green School is an environmental organization composed of student, teachers and faculty from all over the school. Focused on protecting the future, the Green School has had much success and continues to do good in the community. The Green School has won many awards for their work, especially in the domain of water.

Horizons is a UCC run program with which local underprivledged children are tutored twice a week by current UCC students. Recently, Horizons had been expanded as to include athletic games and training for the children using UCC's rich facilities. The program also runs through the summer.

UCC's Wernam West Centre for Learning is the most comprehensive and endowed secondary school learning facility in Canada. its primary focus is to facilitate improved learning skills and abilitities, as well as accommodate for students with particular learning disabilities.

UCC is one of the original founding members in the provincial government's Ontario Model Parliament (OMP) program. Each year junior and senior delegates from Ontario schools meet to discuss provincial (and related federal) issues as to inform soon-to-be-voters of the workings of the system. OMP has received full charity status from the provincial government since the OMP has moved on from its original set-up many years ago. Upper Canada College and St. Clements School students make up a majority of the Executive Committee that organizes and runs the Model Parliament. Divided into two events, Elections Day and the Simulation, delegates from all over Ontario meet as parties (PC, Liberal or NDP) to debate and discuss proposed bills and ideas with each other. The three-day Simulation takes place in the Chamber at Queen's Park, home of the real Ontario government. The first OMP event took place in 1986 and has grown exponentially since then.

The College runs its own united program with Habitat for Humanity. Twice a year, the school administers a fund raiser with which one full housing unit can be built in the downtown Toronto area. As well, over 50 students annually commit over 60 hours to the building of this unit.

School publications

While the UCC Press no longer publishes professional novels or texts, UCC still provides a very extensive quantity of publications, all of which are written, directed and printed by students.

Founded in 2000, the school's weekly student newspaper is known as Convergence and reports solely on school issues, as opposed to international, national or municipal affairs. Since its inception, Convergence has emerged as one of the leading student-run publications in Canada, receiving awards from the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail - most notably the award for "Best Student-Run Highschool Newspaper", which it has won several times. It has also received numerous donations from the National Post.

College Times, UCC's yearbook, is Canada's oldest school publication, having been printed without fail since 1829. Past editors include Robertson Davies, and Stephen Leacock.

The Blue Page is UCC's student-run opinion paper. It is published each Friday, and contains articles written by and for both students and faculty, and pertains to both internal and external affairs.

Old Times is the school's alumni magazine, which reports on the lives of Old Boys, and highlights recent and upcoming events.

Current Times is a newsletter distributed to parents and students, written and published by the Communications department at UCC.

The Green Report is a student-run monthly publication that focuses on the environmental issues of the world and the school. Taking its roots in the renowned UCC Green School, the Green Report is making massive headway into the uncharted waters on environmentalism. Founded in 2005 by John Henderson (UCC Student), the Green Report has featured many topics of discussion including the Carbon Neutral Tournament, UCC & Bullfrog Power and the infamous Car Corner. The Green Report is printed on Cotton Kenaf Paper (http://www.visionpaper.com) and represents the start of a new environmental mindset at UCC. It is released every second Wednesday.

The Blazer was the college humour newspaper, it ceased publication in 2003. It coined many terms and "inside jokes" used by old boys around the school. The number of issues per year began to decline after 2000. In 2003, the paper was only published twice during the year, despite its popularity with the students. Since the 2003 edition, the Blazer has been met with steady censorship from the school's administration. This resulted in the subsequent unofficial editions being completely student run and printed.

Athletics

UCC maintains teams for the following sports:

• Badminton
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cricket
• Cross country running
• Cross country skiing
• Downhill Skiing
• Football
• Field Hockey
• Golf
• Ice hockey
• Inline hockey
• Lacrosse
• Mountain biking
• Rowing
• Rugby
• Sailing
• Soccer
• Softball
• Skiing - Downhill and cross-country
• Squash
• Swimming
• Track and Field
• Tennis
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Volleyball [Thomson Peterson's: Upper Canada College]

UCC teams compete in the CISAA and OFSAA.

The arts

The college has one of the best-endowed and broadest arts programs in the country, which emphasises the development of acting talent as well as technical effects. Notable productions have included The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, The Alchemist, several variations of Hamlet, as well as musicals such as The Boy Friend and West Side Story. The school awards the Robertson Davies Award for outstanding achievement onstage.

UCC also supports a music programme, with education taking place both within classrooms as well as through numerous bands and music groups which practice extra-curricularly; including a wind ensemble, concert band, stage band, string ensemble, jazz ensemble, and singers. These groups, as well as individual students, have won various prizes, including gold at [MusicFest Canada], and numerous levels of award from the Kiwanis Music Festival.[Current Times: Jazz Ensemble captures double gold] UCC hosts the fundraising Youth 4 Youth concert, which also features bands and performers from underprivileged areas of Toronto.

College ensembles have toured various parts of the world, including Hungary, Hong Kong, and parts of Ghuanzao, China.

For more notable graduates in the fields of the arts see: UCC Alumni - Film, theatre, media and the arts

Houses

UCC, like several other Commonwealth schools, divides its students into ten houses, each led by a Senior House Adviser and a student-elected Head of House. Heads of Houses are among the sixteen "stewards" who form the student government of the College. The house system was first adopted in 1923, previous to which members of the residence community were referred to as living in "the House" while day students were part of "the Town". There were only four houses until the late 1930s. There are now ten houses in all. Two of these, Seaton's and Wedd's, are boarding houses while the remaining eight are for day students. The houses are:

• Bremner's
• Howard's
• Jackson's
• Martland's
• McHugh's
• Mowbray's
• Orr's
• Scadding's
• Seaton's
• Wedd's

Each year, the houses compete for the Prefect's Cup, through inter-house sports events and other kinds of competition.

Recent events

Scandals

In 2003, UCC was embroiled in a very public class action lawsuit brought by eighteen students who sued the school over sexual abuse by Doug Brown, a member of the faculty who taught history, geography and English at the Prep School from 1975 until 1993. In October 2004, Doug Brown was found guilty of nine counts of indecent assault, while a housemaster and teacher at UCC. In January 2005, he was sentenced to three years in jail. An appeal is currently in the works.

A resolution process was agreed upon to resolve the lawsuit. In a media release, UCC has announced that they "continue to offer [their] support to those who were victims of abuse at the College, and [they] are committed to a fair process for determining the school's responsibility to compensate those who were victimized by Doug Brown."

In 2003, UCC graduate, and later teaching assistant, Ashley Chivers, then 28, who had been working at the school since 1996, was arrested on child-pornography charges after police (acting on a tip from California law enforcement) found evidence of criminal images on his home computers. Chivers' duties at UCC included taking pictures at school events, though after a search of the 6,000 illegal images in his possession, Toronto Police confirmed no UCC students, past or present, were evident. Chivers was convicted of one count of possessing child pornography, but not creating it, and was given an 18-month conditional sentence in October 2004.

In 2004, former teacher Herbert Sommerfeld surrendered himself to police in Toronto after a former student alleged that Sommerfeld had sexually abused him when he was a student at the Prep School. After Mr. Justice Charles Vaillancourt of the Ontario Court rejected "vague and inconsistent" testimony by the plaintiff, Sommerfeld was acquitted. However, Sommerfeld's accuser still has a civil suit pending against UCC in which Sommerfeld is named.[CBC: Retired UCC instructor acquitted of sexual abuse charges][Canada Sex News: Teacher acquitted in UCC sex case]

In 2005, the Toronto Sun published an article describing the extradition to the United States of a former UCC student, Douglas John Mackenzie. The son of a Canadian envoy, Mackenzie was arrested in Toronto in 2001 and charged with sexual offences, with bail set at $1.2 million. The bail was later withdrawn after Mackenzie was charged again with similar offences and one count of threatening death. Those charges were later dropped when Mackenzie pleaded guilty to failing to comply with his bail conditions. At that time, Mackenzie was ordered to remain in custody to await surrender to the US, where he faced seven counts of committing lewd acts on a child, and six counts of manufacturing child pornography in Orange County, California. He is also facing charges in the United Kingdom.[Canada Sex News: 'The worst case'; T.O. man sent to U.S. to face charges in horrific abuse allegations while British police wait their turn]

In 1998, Clark Winton Noble ("Knobby") was convicted of sexual assault stemming from an incident that occurred in 1971 when he was a teacher at the school. The incident occurred off-campus with a UCC student. Noble also pled guilty to a 1988 sexual assault against a student at Appleby College.[James T. FitzGerald: Reviews Globe and Mail, August 25, 2001]

Capital building project

UCC has launched a decade-long $90 million capital building campaign - the largest and most ambitious fundraising campaign of any pre-university school in Canada. The plans call for the creation of two new arena complexes, an Olympic-standard 50-metre swimming pool, a new racquet centre (squash, badminton and tennis), a rowing centre, expansion of both the Prep and Upper School academic buildings, a new state-of-the-art turf football field, and an expansion of the Archives.

Affiliations

It is a common misconception that the Bishop Strachan School (BSS), located three blocks from UCC, is UCC's sister school. It is not. In fact, BSS's historical brother school is Trinity College School in Port Hope, owing to their shared Anglican High Church origins.

UCC students also work on joint projects with students of other nearby girls schools, including St. Clement's School (SCS), Havergal College, The Bishop Strachan School, and Branksome Hall.

Lower Canada College, a co-educational private school in Montreal, Quebec, is not affiliated with UCC.

The College is a member of the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario (CIS), the Canadian Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), the Secondary School Admission Test (SAT) Board, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) and an associate member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), and the Principal is a member of the Headmasters Conference (HMC) in the UK. Furthermore, UCC plays a leading role in International Boys' School Coalition (IBSC) and the Toronto Boys' School Coalition (TBSC).

Alumni

The College states that 100% of all graduates go on to post-secondary schooling. Though the career paths of the College's alumni are varied, UCC has a reputation for educating many of Canada's powerful, elite and wealthy.

The school has produced five Lieutenant-Governors, one Governor General, no less than nineteen graduates have been appointed to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, twenty four have been named Rhodes Scholars[The Canadian Encyclopedia: Upper Canada College] and at least twenty four have received the Order of Canada since the award's inception in 1967.

As is common in single-sex male schools, UCC's alumni are known as "Old Boys". Examples include:

• Lord Kenneth Thomson - Canada's wealthiest man and Chairman of Thomson Corporation
• Hal Jackman - Canada's second wealthiest man and former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
• Bill Graham - Federal Minister of Defence, and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
• John Godfrey - Former Minister of State for Infrastructure and Communities, and Liberal Leadership contender
• Robertson Davies - notable author (also a faculty member). Fictionalised UCC as "Colborne College" in his novels.
• Andrew Hutchison - Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
• Michael Ignatieff - noted academic, Harvard University professor, Member of Parliament, and Liberal Party leadership candidate
• Stephen Leacock - writer and economist
• Ernest McCulloch - accredited with the discovery of the Stem Cell
• Peter C. Newman - journalist, author and biographer
• Stephen Lewis - Noted politician, broadcaster and United Nations diplomat
• Avi Lewis - broadcaster and filmmaker

Renowned faculty

Many leading intellectuals and notable personalities have taught at UCC. They include:

• Sir George Parkin - Principal, leader of the British Imperial League and First Secertary of the Rhodes Scholarship
• Robertson Davies - Old Boy and English Master
• Stephen Leacock - Head Boy and English Master
• Henry Scadding - Canadian intellectual
• Mary Gauthier - Boys education expert
• Dr. Premek Hamr - Global expert on Giant Freshwater Crayfish
• Sir Edward Peacock - Head of Prep. School, Receiver General to the Duchy of Cornwall and the Director of the Bank of England
• Dr. Michael Eben - Canadian Football League footballer and Governor of Victoria College at University of Toronto

External links

• [Upper Canada College]
• [Ontario Plaques - Upper Canada College]

Footnotes

 

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From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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