Our Final Project: Communities, Character and Challenge

ICE's final project brings together a year's work where we combine our understanding of how communities, character and challenge shape the Canadian identity.

In the fall, we looked at how we can build healthy sustainable communities. We looked at neighbourhoods in transition like Regent Park and Alexandra Park as well as our local neighbourhoods. We also concentrated on building our own strong learning communities. In the winter, we examined character -- the character of our country's governance and the communities in the North; the character of our citizens who have prevailed in difficult circumstances; and the character we possess and build in ourselves as we confront uncomfortable history.

Our winter camping trip allowed us an opportunity to explore the depth of our own character. Through this experience we realized our character strengths and where there is opportunity for growth.

Finally, in this spring term when we were set to examine challenge, specifically the challenge of our great, vast nation as it seeks to integrate diverse regional communities, we were struck with our newest and one of our greatest challenges -- COVID-19.

We asked our students to explore how the Canadian character and communities across the country have been impacted by this recent challenge. They interviewed over twenty experts ranging from top Canadian business executives, community leaders, humanitarians and activists to political leaders at every level of government, including Councillor Josh Matlow, Minister Bennett and Senator Moodie. They have used these conversations and their research to develop media pieces, which you are invited to explore on their personal pages on this site.