Who We Are
The University of Toronto Outing Club (UTOC) is a not-for-profit, non university-affiliated organization founded in 1957 by U of T students. Since our incorporation, we have expanded our membership and mandate to be as accessible and welcoming as possible to all outdoor enthusiasts from the Greater Toronto Area and Grey-Bruce County community, in addition to U of T students, alumni, and staff.
“One of our core principles is to run trips and activities for people with any level of outdoor experience in an effort to make them enjoyable and accessible to everyone. ”
We pride ourselves in being a friendly, welcoming community offering frequent, inexpensive weekend and day trips to many parts of Ontario (and sometimes beyond), with longer trips involving camping and hiking in provincial/national parks. Our most popular weekend trips are the group excursions to the cabin (located near the Georgian Bay - learn more in the next section), with trip sizes varying from 5-6 people to our occasional large trips of 30-35. The club also organizes regular social events within the city of Toronto for members and non-members alike, such as our monthly pub social.
UTOC mandates to protect the ecological and historical significance of the natural areas surrounding our cabin of Grey-Bruce County by promoting conservation, maintaining the ski and hiking trails surrounding our property, as well as having founded the Kolapore Wilderness Trails Association.
Everyone and anyone that is a club member can organize an event or run a trip (See our Q&A section below for more information). We look forward to seeing you on one of our trips soon!
Equity Statement
At the University of Toronto Outing Club (UTOC), we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience and enjoy the outdoors. That's why we offer trips for all levels of outdoor experience, from beginner to advanced. Our trips range from short hikes and movie screenings about the outdoors to week-long camping trips and weekend cabin trips.
We strive to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all, and are always working on improving our cabin to make it as accessible as possible. While this has its own challenges, we welcome ideas from our members on how to make this a reality.
We are committed to promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in all our outdoor activities. We celebrate and welcome differences in identities, backgrounds, and perspectives. We work to remove physical and cultural barriers to accessibility and provide accommodations to support the diverse needs of our community. We welcome everyone to join us in this mission - and if you’d like to be a more active member in this work, we welcome you to join our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee by emailing equity@utoc.ca.
Land Acknowledgement
The University of Toronto Outing Club (UTOC) was founded in 1957 by U of T students. Since our incorporation, our mandate has been to make outdoor recreation as accessible as possible, especially to enthusiasts from the Greater Toronto Area and Grey-Bruce County communities, in addition to U of T students, staff, and alumni.
We wish to acknowledge the land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. We would also like to acknowledge the land near Metcalfe Rock on which our cabin resides. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Haudenosaunee, Iroquois, Ojibway, Chippewa, and Anishinabek. Today, these lands are still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island. As an organization of largely settlers, we are grateful for the opportunity to operate on these lands and thank the people who have been the stewards of these lands for generations.
We acknowledge the central role that land plays in Indigenous peoples’ ways of being, creating, knowing, and living. Settler colonialism continues to disrupt and devalue these diverse knowledge systems and ways of life. Land acknowledgements like this one often serve only to allow settler culture to continue existing as it has for generations, without encouraging us to take the material actions required to support Indigenous peoples.
If anyone has any questions or suggestions for how UTOC’s might take more action to honour this acknowledgement, please reach out to us at equity@utoc.ca.