Wednesday, February 24. 2016

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

B Block Social Studies 10 - Today with Mr. Elliott...Today we are exploring the idea of Indigenous world view. We will view and discuss an section of "Canada's First Founding Peoples"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA-bsDC8nxg  and start thinking about what
happens when very different world views come into contact.

A Block Introduction to Law 9/10 - Today we'll continue with Geographic Profiling completing our  Comox Valley Crime Map with data from the Comox Valley CrimeStoppers website. The "B&E Heat map" to the left was completed by the VPD (Vancouver Police Department) for February 10th through 16th this year and should help you in terms of what your map should look like. For our map we will need to use colours that show areas of high, moderate, minimal and low risk for B&E (if one street has 5 incidents out of 61 in a year that's 8% of all Courtenay's B&E incidents...is that a lot? What if it's Crown Isle or Mission Hill or Valley View or Punteledge or the Old Orchard neighbourhood rather than just a street? How many incidents took place in a neighbourhood?) I want you to figure out where you think the Comox Valley RCMP should focus their attention to aid in community-based crime prevention for the city of Courtenay. Where would be a good place to start a Block Watch? Why?

D Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll finish our overview/look at the cultural landscape of Canada along with the First Nations peoples that existed on the land before the European settlers arrived. We'll focus on how the land shaped Aboriginal society in Canada and see the influences of the land on the way people lived. There are six major cultural regions of First Nations in Canada. From east to west, these are the Woodland First Nations, the Iroquois First Nations of southeastern Ontario, the Plains First Nations, the Plateau First Nations, the First Nations of the Pacific Coast and the First Nations of the Mackenzie and Yukon River basins.

Remember, each  nation possesses its own unique culture, language and history and the practice of identifying all First Nations as a homogeneous group obscures the unique and rich traditions that each First Nation has developed and nurtured. Having said that, although there are many differences between First Nations, there are commonalities as well. For example, all First Nations were dependent on the land for survival and prosperity. All First Nations were hunters and gatherers. Some were also farmers. Without the skills and knowledge to hunt and fish and to gather food and

medicines, First Nations would not exist today. Another commonality is that all First Nations lived in organized societies with their own governments, religions and social and economic institutions. Individuals, families and larger groups of people, such as clans, tribes and Nations, behaved according to a broad range of agreed-upon social, political and economic values. A third commonality was trade. All First Nations in Canada and North America as a whole traded extensively throughout the continent. Expansive trading practices contributed to the growth and development of First Nations cultures. These practices also enabled many First Nations to respond to the fur trade as competitive, efficient trading partners with Europeans.

C Block Law 12 - Today we have a guest speaker, Mr. Ken Lees. Mr Lees used to teach at Vanier, but now works with SD71 Aboriginal Education Services. He's going to talk with us about Aboriginal principles of justice and how they are being adapted into the Canadian legal system. From the Justice Education Society:

If you have been charged with a crime and are an Aboriginal person, there are special cultural considerations that the court must take into account in assessing your case. This applies to all Aboriginal peoples of Canada, including status and non-status Indian, Inuit, and Métis and whether living on or off reserve. What this means is that, as an Aboriginal offender, a restorative justice process may be more appropriate for you. Such processes focus on healing those affected by the criminal act, including the offender, and so are more in line with traditional Aboriginal justice. Also, a restorative justice approach will often allow for a solution with no jail time, which helps reduce the drastic over-representation of Aboriginals in Canadian jails.