Thursday, September 15. 2016

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

D Block Criminology 12 - Today we'll look at the three perspectives of how criminologists view crime:

Consensus = the belief that the majority of citizens in society share common values and agree on what behaviours should be defined as criminal.
Conflict = the belief that criminal behaviour is defined by those in a position of power to protect and advance their own self-interest.
Interactionist = the belief that those with social power are able to impose their values on society as a whole, and these values then define criminal behaviour.

Once this is done we'll turn our focus to the history of crime and law (looking at Hammurabi, the Mosaic Code and the development of Common Law in England). We'll learn what Actus Reus, Mens Rea, Mala in Se and Mala Prohibitum mean along with taking a look at the differences between Indictable, Summary Conviction and Absolute Liability Offences. We'll see what defences you can use and what the goals of criminal law are for society.

Lastly, I'd like you to come up with a list of 10 Violent, 10 Property and 10 Social crimes in Canada and identify if you think they are on the increase, decrease or are steady.

C & B Blocks Social Studies 11 -You'll need to start with work on three questions:

1. What is "Caucus" and what does it do?
2. What is "Cabinet", what is "Cabinet Solidarity", what happens when you break "cabinet solidarity", how do you get to be a cabinet member, and identify three ministries covered in the federal cabinet?
3. What is the "Official Opposition" and what do they do?

Here are some websites to help:
Current Canadian Ministry (Cabinet)
Privy Council Office: About Cabinet
Conservative party Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet
Parliament Of Canada Members of the Cabinet and Opposition Critics

Next, we'll continue looking at the "legislative process" - creating laws in Canada.

An idea to make a new law or to change an existing law starts out as a "bill." Each bill goes through several stages to become law.

1. At first reading, the bill is considered read for the first time and is printed. There is no debate.
2. At second reading, Members debate the principle of a bill — is the idea behind it sound? Does it meet people's needs?
3. If a bill passes at second reading, it goes to a committee of the House. Committee members study the bill carefully. They hold hearings to gather information. They can ask for government officials and experts to come and answer questions. The committee can propose amendments, or changes, to the bill. When a committee has finished its study, it reports the bill back to the House. The entire House can then debate it. During report stage debate, Members can suggest other amendments to the bill.
4. Once report stage is over, the bill is called for third reading debate. Members who voted for the bill at second reading may sometimes change their minds at third reading after seeing what amendments have or have not been made to the bill.
5. After a bill has passed third reading in the House of Commons, it goes through a similar process in the Senate.
6. Once both Chambers pass the bill in the same form, it is given Royal Assent and becomes law.

You will have to draft a simplified bill that you would like to see made law, where you'll write the idea in a simple sentence or two and then use the Make It Law handout to organize your ideas. Here is the legislative agenda for the Canadian parliament. Here is the legislative agenda for the British Columbian legislature. After this, you'll create a comic strip demonstrating the process of how a Bill becomes a Law in Canada for next Wednesday.


A Block Geography 12 - Today we'll work on time zones, latitude and longitude, GPS, and the remote sensing technology of GIS (We'll watch a Brainpop video on GPS with Tim & Moby).

For more on GIS check out:
USGS GIS Poster
ESRI What can I do with GIS?
National Geographic What is GIS?
Geolounge What is GIS
GIS Geography
VIU GIS programs
UVIC Geomatics program