Thursday, May 9. 2019

Today's schedule is DCBA

D Block Law - I would like you to read the Thomas v Hamilton Board of Education (1994) case and we'll talk about it together. Here are the questions for the case that you and a partner should discuss:

1. Why do you think Thomas and his family brought a suit against the school board and the coaches? 
2. What would you have decided if you were the judge in this case?

Next, I'd like to look at the Thornton et al. v. Board of School Trustees of School District No. 57 (Prince George) et al. (1978) case together (kind of an important case for non-pecuniary loss in Canada). Here are the questions for the case that you and a partner should discuss:

1. Why did Gary’s parents bring this action to court on their son’s behalf? 
2. Why was the action brought against the Prince George School District? 
3. Did the teacher do what was expected or required of him as a physical education teacher? Why or why not? 
4. Do you think that Gary was in any way responsible for his injuries? Why or why not? 
5. In this case, the original trial and appellate court judgments awarded Gary $200 000 for pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. The Supreme Court of Canada reduced this amount to $100 000. Do you think this was a fair and reasonable upper limit? Discuss.

And lastly, you'll get three handouts:

• Waddah Mustapha v. Culligan Of Canada Ltd., 2006 CanLII 41807 (ON C.A.)
• The Paisley Snail - Donoghue vs. Stevenson
• Principles in Donoghue vs. Stevenson

You should become familiar with Donoghue v. Stevenson  Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] A.C. 562, [1932] UKHL 100, 1932 S.C. so to help

The Donoghue v. Stevenson case relates to the Mustapha v. Culligan of Canada Ltd. case. So, I'd like you and a partner to discuss the following and then we'll talk about it as a class:

1. What factors influenced the trial judge’s decision? The Court of Appeal’s decision?
2. Do you agree with the decision of the trial judge or the Court of Appeal? Why?
3. What is meant by “reasonable foreseeablility” and what elements does the court look at when deciding what is “reasonably foreseeable”?
4. Should the test of what is “reasonably foreseeable” be an objective or subjective test? Why?
5. Should the test be different in cases where psychological as opposed to physical harm is involved?
6. Some would say that the Mustapha family reacted to the fly in the water in an unusual and unexpected way. Should a manufacturer or seller be responsible for any extreme or serious harm caused by defective goods (such as those experienced by the Mustapha family), or only what is expected that most people would experience in a similar situation? Where should the courts draw the line of liability for harm suffered by others?

C Block Criminology - Today we'll start by watching the 48 Hours Mystery episode on the Highway of Tears. From CBS:

Since 1969, at least 18 women have gone missing or have been murdered along Canada's infamous Highway 16. Locals call it "The Highway of Tears." The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Highway of Tears task force, Project E-PANA, consists of 13 homicide investigations and five missing peoples investigations. 

So we'll watch the episode and then and compare it to other forms of coverage (On the blog below...Vice, Al Jazeera, or How Stuff Works or the CBC's Missing and Murdered website). You have some questions you need to work on:

1. What main story do you think Investigative Reporters Bob Friel and Peter Van Zant wanted to tell? How can you infer that? How much of the episode focused on the actual missing women from the Highway of Tears?
2. Why did the show focus on Madison Scott first, Loren Leslie next and then the victims along the Highway of Tears afterwards? 
3. What audience do reality crime shows appeal to & why do you think so (think demographics - age or gender or social class or occupation - and Psychographics - personal attitudes and values like security or status or caring or exploration/growth) What can Uses and Gratification Theory do to help explain the audience for True Crime stories? What techniques did the editors and storytellers of the 48 Hours Mystery show use to get you invested in the story of the episode?
4. What "values" does the 48 Hours Mystery on the Highway of Tears communicate to its audience? Why do you think the producers and editors framed the story the way that they did?

Should this have been the documentary?

For some more recent coverage check out the CBC Virtual Reality documentary on Ramona Wilson and the Highway of Tears...
 

or Vice TV's Searchers: The Highway of Tears


or Al Jazeera...


or How Stuff Works on the Highway of Tears


or if you get VICELAND as a television channel there is a great show called WOMAN and there is an episode on murdered and missing Aboriginal women; here's a preview:

Highway of Tears from Natanael Johansson on Vimeo.

And of course don't forget the REDress project

Some websites to help with your questions:

Time Magazine (article) "Murder Shows—The New Soap Operas for Women?" and "Why We Are Drawn to True Crime Shows?"

Washington Post (article) "My Favorite Murder’ and the growing acceptance of true-crime entertainment" and the My Favorite Murder Instagram site
Entertainment Weekly (article) "Confessions of a Court TV Addict"
New York Times (article) "Is True Crime as Entertainment Morally Defensible?"
Globe and Mail (article) "Our addiction to true crime has a human cost"
CBS News This morning (article) "Why women are fueling the popularity of true crime podcasts"
The Guardian (article) "Serial thrillers: why true crime is popular culture's most wanted"
Quartz (article) How “true crime” went from guilty pleasure to high culture
The Atlantic (article) The New True Crime
Vulture (article) "The Ethical Dilemma of Highbrow True Crime"...from the article

Network news magazine shows like Dateline and 48 Hours are somber and melodramatic, often literally starting voice-overs on their true-crime episodes with variations of “it was a dark and stormy night.” They trade in archetypes — the perfect father, the sweet girl with big dreams, the divorcee looking for a second chance — and stick to a predetermined narrative of the case they’re focusing on, unconcerned about accusations of bias. They are sentimental and yet utterly graphic, clinical in their depiction of brutal crimes.

Consuming Television Crime Drama: A Uses and Gratifications Approach

B Block Human Geography - Today is your Culture (Language, Religion, and Ethnicity) test. Your first order of business is to relax and then dazzle me with what you know. Answer every question and if you're confused about anything ask for clarification. Make sure you understand what each question is asking of you. Breathe. You have the entire block if you need it (you won't) and then you may finish up your food questions from week 13.

A Block Physical Geography - Today, we'll look at Thunderstorms. We will look at how thunderstorms develop and what damage they can do. I'll show you a few quick videos of hail and lightning to see how they form and then we'll watch the Lightning episode of Raging Planet. While this is on, you'll need to work on questions 13 and 14 from page 248 of your Geosystems textbook.
UCAR: How Thunderstorms Work
FEMA: Thunderstorms
physicalgeography.net: Thunderstorms
National Severe Storm Laboratory: Thunderstorms