As Canadian federal election candidates prepared for their final debate in April 2025, youth across the country were preparing for collaborative conversations around timely and potentially divisive issues for the National Ethics Bowl at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg.

Ethics Bowl Canada is a non-profit organization that hosts competitions where high school and university students explore complex ethical issues through respectful dialogue in teams.

Rather than trying to undermine their opponents’ arguments, as in traditional debates, Ethics Bowl competitors win by engaging constructively, responding positively to reasonable criticism and refining or amending their views.

The Public Policy Forum’s 2023 report Far and Widening: The Rise of Polarization in Canada documented serious issues around how young people think about their futures. It highlighted that, among young people’s concerns like pandemics, climate emergencies and a declining economy, their deepest fear for Canada’s future is growing political and ideological polarization.

The erosion of trust in institutions like government, industry and media contributes to people seeking alternative sources of information.

Alternative sources sometimes contribute to healthy social empowerment and democratic participation. But we are also living with cascading misinformation — sometimes sewn by groups seeking to destabilize society — with harmful effects. Through algorithmic filtering we’ve seen a growth of ideological echo chambers.

Philosophers like John Stuart Mill, John Rawls and Seyla Benhabib have long proposed that engaging with diverse and sometimes contrary points of view is part of what legitimizes democracy.

Conflict and disagreement are healthy parts of a democracy. But these need to be engaged with productively.

The Ethics Bowl is a........

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