Monday, April 12, 2021

Tuesday, April 13. 2021

Today's classes are:

9:15 - 11:50 D Block Legal Studies
12:30 - 3:05 A Block Physical Geography

D Block Legal Studies - Today we start in the class and we'll begin Family Law. We'll look at the "Essential" requirements for marriage (age, not currently married, affinity/consanguinity, mental capacity, willingness) and the "Formal" requirements for marriage (age, license, ceremony).

Here's an example: In BC sections 28 & 29 of the Marriage Act [RSBC 1996] Chapter 282 indicates consent is required to marry someone under the age of 19 and forbids marriage to someone under the age of 16. Specifically the act states:

 28 (1) Except as provided in subsections (2) to (4), a marriage of a person, not being a widower or widow, who is a minor must not be solemnized, and a licence must not be issued, unless consent in writing to the marriage is first given
 (a) by both parents of that person if both are living and are joint guardians, or by the parent having sole guardianship if they are not joint guardians or by the surviving parent if one of them is dead,
 (b) if both parents are dead, or if neither parent is a guardian, by a lawfully appointed guardian of that person, or
 (c) if both parents are dead, and there is no lawfully appointed guardian, by the Public Guardian and Trustee or the Supreme Court.

 29 (1) Except as provided in subsections (2) and (3), a marriage of any person under 16 years of age must not be solemnized, and a licence must not be issued.
 (2) If, on application to the Supreme Court, a marriage is shown to be expedient and in the interests of the parties, the court may, in its discretion, make an order authorizing the solemnization of and the issuing of a licence for the marriage of any person under 16 years of age.

In British Columbia the revised BC Family Law Act states:

3  (1) A person is a spouse for the purposes of this Act if the person

(a) is married to another person, or

(b) has lived with another person in a marriage-like relationship, and

(i) has done so for a continuous period of at least 2 years, or

(ii) except in Parts 5 [Property Division] and 6 [Pension Division], has a child with the other person.

(2) A spouse includes a former spouse.

(3) A relationship between spouses begins on the earlier of the following:

(a) the date on which they began to live together in a marriage-like relationship;

(b) the date of their marriage.

So this means that common law couples the same as married couples for purposes of property division if they split up and couples who have been living together for two years share the same legal rights as married couples. In the past, people who had been living together for decades were not entitled to share in assets accrued during the relationship. If there's time then we'll talk about annulments, divorce, property division and support obligations. We'll look at: the equal division rule and the matrimonial home; spousal support and self sufficiency; and the types of child guardianship, access, and child support.

BC Vital Statistics Agency - How to get married in BC

After we will work in the learning commons / library to work on our civil law assignment.

A Block Physical Geography - Today we continue our look at the ethics associated with resource use focusing on the four ethical views on resource use (economic/exploitation; preservationist; balanced-multiple use; and ecological or sustainable), specifically focusing on water.
  




We'll talk about over-consumption and unsustainable resource use practices through the “Tragedy of the Commons”, popularized by Garret Hardin, in terms of resource use and management, using the example of water consumption connected to both the Aral Sea and the Colorado River. From National Geographic:

Actually a freshwater lake, the Aral Sea once had a surface area of 26,000 square miles (67,300 square kilometers). It had long been ringed with prosperous towns and supported a lucrative muskrat pelt industry and thriving fishery, providing 40,000 jobs and supplying the Soviet Union with a sixth of its fish catch...The Aral Sea was fed by two of Central Asia's mightiest rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. But in the 1960s, Soviet engineers decided to make the vast steppes bloom. They built an enormous irrigation network, including 20,000 miles of canals, 45 dams, and more than 80 reservoirs, all to irrigate sprawling fields of cotton and wheat in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In the decades that followed, the Aral Sea was reduced to a handful of small lakes, with a combined volume that was one-tenth the original lake's size and that had much higher salinity, due to all the evaporation. As a result of the drying over the past decades, millions of fish died, coastlines receded miles from towns, and those few people who remained were plagued by dust storms that contained the toxic residue of industrial agriculture and weapons testing in the area.








 
  The Colorado River —The Most Endangered River in America 2013 from Pete McBride on Vimeo.

For the Aral Sea please check out the following:
Aral Sea Foundation
National Geographic News Aral Sea
NASA World of Change Aral Sea
The Aral Sea Crisis at Columbia University

I need you to continue tracking your family's water consumption for the week and you can use the water footprint calculator at the H20 Conserve website. For more on water as a resource please check out:
Ministry of Environment: Water for British Columbia
United Nations: Water Topics
Encyclopedia of Earth: Water

 

 

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