Upper Canada College (UCC) students are “disheartened” after Ontario New Democrat Cheri DiNovo remarked that the school should end its tradition of using the legislative chamber at Queen’s Park for its Ontario model parliament, said the student-run program’s faculty advisor Matt Griem.
“The students thought she was degrading all the work that they have been doing. She called them elites,” he said.
DiNovo said she was surprised to learn over the Easter break that UCC has always had private use of the Ontario legislature for two days.
“It’s an incredible privilege,” she said. “Yes, UCC invites other schools, but it’s still them that gets the space. If all Ontario high schools knew this was available to them, they would step up.”
But Coun. Josh Matlow doesn’t share her view, tweeting: “I think @UCC_Community is being treated unfairly by an ill-informed MPP.”
The legislature’s protocol office has confirmed that any school can make a request to hold a model parliament via an online application. York University and University of Toronto (U of T) have used the space before.
Since the program’s inception in 1986, UCC has never refused any school but tried to limit each delegation to about 20 students so others can get a taste of provincial politics, Griem said. The not-for-profit program charges students a $70 registration fee, which goes toward renting U of T’s Hart House as a secondary site for a mock debate during the three-day simulation.
This year, 25 schools participated — among them Leaside High School, Central Technical School and Senator O’Connor College School — and only 18 of the 214 students, ranging from Grades 8 to 12, were from UCC. Thirty students received financial assistance.
DiNovo’s comments came just weeks after UCC had already announced to other schools that this year would mark the end of the program, citing logistics as one of many challenges.
