Our History

The Ethics Bowl was created in 1993 by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics as an intercollegiate competition to enable student to discuss complex ethical issues within a format offering several pedagogical advantages over traditional debate. Starting in 2012, as an initiative of the Parr Center for Ethics, our southern neighbours brought the events to more students by launching the High School Ethics Bowl. After securing the participation of Manitoban teams in the US high school ethics bowl for two years, the Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties launched the Canadian version of the High School Ethics Bowl in 2016, under the leadership of Estelle Lamoureux. In addition to securing the participation of 16 schools in their first two years, MARL also launched the first Coupe Éthique des Écoles Secondaires (the French-language Ethics Bowl) in 2018. Today, the Ethics remains anchored in Winnipeg, it being the location where the National Final of the High School Ethics Bowl is held, in both official languages. This has been possible with the continuing support of MARL, as well as the Canadian Museum for Rights and Liberties, the University of Saint-Boniface, and the Hampton Inns hotel. Since its Manitoban inception, the Canadian Ethics Bowl has undergone a rapid expansion across the country and diversification of its activities. Following Simon Fraser University’s organization of the second Canadian Bowl in the Vancouver area, a first National was held in 2019. 2020 saw an expansion to Edmonton, Kamloops, Saskatoon, and Toronto. During the covid pandemic, an online platform was developed to continue and further expand activities to new cities. There are now events in over twenty cities in eight provinces. Ethics Bowl Canada is the non-profit organization that is now in charge of supporting the promotion and organization of the Ethics Bowl in Canada. After an informal consortium was set in place by the early organizers, Nicolas Fillion and Jeffrey Senese were charged with laying the foundations for a formal cooperative organization that would become Ethics Bowl Canada. This organization was incorporated on April 3rd, 2023. It is structured around a countrywide membership, thousands of participants and volunteers, tireless volunteer committee members, general managers and coordinators generously devoting their time to the day-to-day affairs of the organization, and a volunteer Board of directors. In addition to the High School Ethics Bowl, Ethics Bowl Canada now offers a junior bowl for students in grades 7-11, as well as a college bowl for students in colleges, cégeps, and universities. It has an entire student department where our youth acquire experience and develop leadership skills, and many more exciting developments are in the works!