History of Upper Canada College - Ethnic and Gender Issues

Ethnic and Gender Issues

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.

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. 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?"

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." At the same time, Peter C. Newman, who came to UCC from Czechoslovakia in 1940, and who is Jewish himself, said that anti-Semitism was "virtually non-existent" at the school.

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."

In the decades after the 1970s, some saw the ethnic composition of the school's enrollment 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." William Kilbourn also said that the College had been accepting, for many years before the 1980s, a number of foreign students, notably from Latin America and Asia, and that UCC had made a concentrated effort to recruit Quebec francophones into the student body. By the 1980s the school was offering financial assistance to the less affluent, and was making serious attempts to encourage boys from visible minorities to enroll. But, few applied, save for many Chinese, East Indian, and Japanese Canadians who were accepted into the Prep; in 1983 the numbers were 42 out of a total student population of 361. However, even into the 1990s some, while acknowledging the shift to a more multi-cultural student body, claimed anti-Semitism continued in some form. In 1990, The College Times featured 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."

By the late 1990s, the college was increasingly diverse, and in 1997 the daily recitation of the Lord's Prayer was replaced by the recitation of a prayer from different global faiths each day. 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.

UCC's website states that "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."

Students from about 16 countries attend UCC. The international students typically come from among the wealthiest families in the countries of their origin.

The 1990 College Times also addressed alleged sexism at the school in the article The School On The Hill by Greg Tessaro, winner of the College Times' Ponton Prize for Journalism. The article stated:

"The school fosters sexist attitudes that impair the students.... There is undeniably sexism at the school. The '88 Times had a running joke in the Leaving Class section, "Why beer is better than women", with examples like "Fact #19: Beer doesn't demand equality" ...A careful look through past yearbooks reveals a sexist viewpoint that would not be tolerated at a co-ed school. The school itself is the direct cause of this sexism. ...The school teaches sexism by example. ...In addition, on a staff of over sixty full-time teachers, there are three women. However, in my time at the College, the French conversation teacher has always been a woman. The librarians are all women. The secretaries are all women."

UCC did, however, appoint the first woman to its Board of Governors in 1971; Pauline Mills McGibbon. The College also states:

"We value diversity and are actively engaged in building a school that reflects the various backgrounds of our community members. We recognize that embracing a mix of cultures, talents, backgrounds, experiences and socioeconomic diversity will make the College a more rewarding place in which to learn and work."