Wednesday, June 2. 2010

The schedule for the morning has been altered in order to accommodate a tutorial block. If you need help in a class you have from 8:55-9:25 this morning to seek help. The schedule looks like this

Tutorial 8:55-9:25
A 9:30 - 10:30
B 10:35 - 11:35

The rest of the day is a normal schedule.

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

A - Earth & Space Science 11 - Today you need to finish questions 11 & 12 on page 445 of the Earth Science and the Environment text. Afterwords we'll finish the video on cold and begin to understand the connection between the areas of surplus and deficit on the planet and how they help to drive weather patterns. Sweet!

B - Social Studies 10 - Today we'll discuss the numbered treaties on the Prairies and the Indian Act. I'll give you a few notes on the impact of the treaties and the Indian Act and then you'll have the rest of the class to work on your book on the building of the CPR. It is important to note that in 1885 John A. Macdonald said of the Metis "If they are half-breed, they are [considered by the government to be] white". This meant that the Metis were not covered under the Indian Act and were not entitled to "Indian Status" and therefore did not have the same rights until the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the rights of the Metis in 2003. For more on the Numbered treaties and the Indian Act see:
Canada in the Making
Atlas of Canada Numbered Treaties
U of C Numbered Treaties
Canadian Department of Indian and Northern Affairs
CBC Numbered Treaties Background
The Canadian Encyclopedia: The Indian Act
Henderson's Annotated Indian Act

C - Criminology 12 - Today we'll quickly look at individual exploitation of an institutional position, influence peddling & bribery, theft and employee fraud, client fraud and corporate crime. We'll end the class with a discussion about business and corporate culture. What is it that makes a successful business person and what kind of ethical behaviour is valued by corporate culture? From the Business Ethics Forum blog site:

An outstanding in-depth article on the Value of Corporate Values can be found in an article by Reggie Van Lee, Lisa Fabish, and Nancy McGaw in this month's S+B. Based on a survey at 365 companies in 30 countries, the authors claim "increasingly, companies around the world have adopted formal statements of corporate values, and senior executives now routinely identify ethical behavior, honesty, integrity, and social concerns as top issues on their companies’ agendas". The highlights of the survey and article are:

1. A large number of companies are making their values explicit. That’s a change — quite a significant change — from corporate practices 10 years ago. The ramifications of this shift are just beginning to be understood.
2. Ethical behavior is a core component of company activities.
   Most companies believe values influence two important strategic areas — relationships and reputation — but do not see the direct link to growth.
3. Most companies are not measuring their “ROV.”
4. Top performers consciously connect values and operations.
5. Values practices vary significantly by (continental) region.
6. The CEO’s tone really matters.

The article provides quantitative data about these 7 findings and concludes with "A commitment to corporate values may be in vogue, but the public will remain suspicious until corporations both understand and can demonstrate that they are committed to using values to create value". What we are looking at is what makes people abuse the public trust in corporations. We will look at stings, swindles, and chiselling and discuss ImClone (Martha Stewart) and Bre-X. For more on Corporations look at the website for the documentary The Corporation

Watch the documentary on You Tube here!