Tuesday, October 28. 2014

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

C & A Blocks Social Studies 10 - Today we'll talk about the colonial government in Upper and Lower Canada and see why they were a cause for rebellion in both colonies. We'll look at the list of grievances in Upper Canada and the unique situation in Lower Canada (Quebec) specifically we'll see how economic problems, language and nationalism were contributors to discontent. We'll take a few notes on the causes of discontent that led to traitorous talk in the colonies and finally I'll have you work on questions 1, 2 & 3 on page 72 of the Horizons textbook.

D Block Criminology 12 - Today I'll have you finish your "Roots of Violence" notes and then we'll try to make sense of mass and serial murder. I'd like you to explain the types of serial and mass murderer along with the reasons why they commit these crimes. You can find the answers to this in the work of Jack Levin and James Alan Fox "Multiple Homicide: Patterns of Serial and Mass Murder". The summary of their work is on pages 209 and 210 of the textbook in the Criminological Enterprise section. For more info look at the work of John Douglas (former FBI profiler) on mindhunter.com (look in the article section and there is a great read entitled "So, you want to become a profiler..."). You will need to use this work to help with yesterday's blog entry. To better understand the people that commit heinous acts of murder, we'll also review what a "psychopath" is. Too often people throw the term psycho around without really understanding what it means so we'll look at Dr. Robert Hare's PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist Revised). The diagnosis "Psychopath" is closely related to Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition).

In order to understand mass murder and motives we will dedicate some time this week to the murders at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado over a decade ago. We'll examine the Department of Justice (FBI) Critical Incident Response Group report "The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective" and the Columbine Review Commission report of Governor Bill Owens. In essence we'll look at the background of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as well as the types of behavior, personality traits, and circumstances in the family, school, and community environment that should be regarded as warning signs of school shooters. After we finish our look at mass murder by focusing on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (for more see school shooters) we'll look at the leader of the "People's Temple"- the Reverend James Warren "Jim" Jones and the mass suicide of over 900 people in Jonestown Guyana.

B Block Law 12 - To start the class I'll give you a bit of time to finish the "Parties to an Offence" work (questions 1-3 on page 133) and the "Criminal Court System" work (questions 1-5 on page 138) . After, please read each scenario and determine what court would address the issue.

1. A trial is taking place for a person who is charged with the summary conviction offence of pretending to practise witchcraft contrary to section 365 of the Criminal Code.
2. An issue of national importance has been dealt with by the provincial supreme court and the provincial court of appeal. The party that lost at the court of appeal wants the issue reconsidered.
3. A trial is being held about an intellectual property matter.
4. The Crown thinks that a sentence given in the provincial supreme court for a person convicted of sexual assault is too lenient and is appealing the sentence.
5. A person is charged with the indictable offence of aggravated assault and is having their preliminary hearing.
6. A person is on trial for the indictable offence of impaired driving causing death.
7. A person loses their copyright case and wants to have the decision reviewed by a higher court.
8. A person was convicted of a summary conviction offence and is appealing the decision.
9. The provincial court of appeal makes a decision. What courts are bound to follow that decision?
10.  In a split decision, the court of appeal affirms the conviction of a person charged with murder. The convicted individual wants the case considered by a higher court.

Lastly we will be looking at the Criminal Code of Canada and we will focus our attention on violent crimes - specifically the categories of homicide in Canada. We'll learn the difference between culpable and non-culpable homicide and examine the levels of murder (first and second degree) as well as manslaughter (voluntary and involuntary). We'll look at R. v. Nette (2001) and answer questions 1-4 on the case together and to end the class.