Wednesday, Febuary 1. 2012

Today's schedule is B-A-D-C

B Block Law 12 - Today we will continue our Introduction to Law unit by taking down a few notes on the five functions of law and the divisions of Public (criminal, constitutional, and administrative) and Private law (tort, family, contract, property, and labour law). Lastly we'll take a look at the differences between Substantive and Procedural Law. Your assignment will be to look up the penalties for a law (in the Canadian Criminal Code) that you disagree with and explain why we should have stronger or lighter penalties for this law. Consider "Mischief"

C.C. 430. (1) Every one commits mischief who wilfully
(a) destroys or damages property;
(b) renders property dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective;
(c) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property; or
(d) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property.

Punishment

(2) Every one who commits mischief that causes actual danger to life is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.

So if you are protesting the removal of old growth trees in a location and hammer spikes into trees then you are endangering the life of fallers (who would use chainsaws and chainsaws don't mix well with metal spikes)...that means you're eligible for life in prison much the same as if you tampered with someone's break lines in their car. Is that sentence too harsh or too light? Why? that's an example of what I'd like you to consider. You may use the pocket criminal codes in class or may use the computer to check the statutes on line.

A Block Social Studies 11 - Today with Ms. Krahn you'll get your textbooks and then you’ll be looking at the three levels of government in Canada (Federal, Provincial and Municipal), their roles and responsibilities, and how they interact with each other. You’ll also discuss Aboriginal self-governance. You’ll do a quick review of yesterday and today’s discussions, and then Ms. Krahn will ask you to work on definitions for the following terms: democracy (direct and representative), constitutional monarchy, Canadian Constitution, federalism, residual powers and regionalism. There will also be a question to answer about the your feelings on municipal autonomy from Counterpoints, p. 247, #9: Should municipal governments be given autonomy from the provinces, including the power to set their own taxes?

And yes, Ms. Krahn will be collecting this for marks.

If you’re interested in knowing more about the struggle with federalism vs. regionalism in Canada, check out this great episode from The Agenda called ‘Is Canada Governable?

C Block Geography 12 - Today you'll take your Observing as a Geographer assignment and share it with a partner. They'll add comments and ask questions and then it will be your responsibility to write two paragraphs on your photo. It is important to remember that when you ask questions (like "I wonder why there are no trees in this picture?") that you try to answer them as best as you can (make inferences and leaps in logic if necessary). If there's time, we'll work on the foundations of Geography starting with the Five Themes. In order to understand the increasingly complex and interconnected world we live in we need to find a way to make sense of information in a way that doesn't overwhelm us. The Five Themes (Location, Place, Human-Environment Interactions, Movement, and Regions) are a framework for making sense of geographic data. Today, hopefully, we'll cover the first three to four themes and then tomorrow we'll finish our look at them and move on to systems and spheres.