Monday, February 14. 2022

Happy Valentines Day Family. Today's schedule is ABCD

A Block Legal Studies - Today to start the class, we'll finish the Law and Order episode from Friday and then we'll go through sections 7 - 14 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (legal rights section). We'll look at two cases: Rodriguez v British Columbia (Attorney General), 1993 - which deals with Section 7 of the Charter (life, liberty and security of the person) and R. v. Tessling, 2004 - which deals with Section 8 of the Charter (search and seizure). For more information on the fight in Canada for the right to die on one's own terms look at the CBC In Depth site on the Sue Rodriguez case. In 2011, Gloria Taylor from Kelowna filed a case in B.C. Supreme Court to grant her the right to a doctor-assisted suicide. More info on this case can be found here.

In February 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Carter v. Canada that parts of the Criminal Code would need to change to satisfy the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The parts that prohibited medical assistance in dying would no longer be valid. So in June 2016, the Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation that allows eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying. HOWEVER a Quebec court ruling struck down the existing legislation on medically assisted death on the grounds that it was too restrictive. The court gave the government until Dec. 18 (2020) to implement a new regime. Bill C-7, (the proposed new MAID law which is currently "in committee" in the Senate, as of Dec. 17, 2020) expands the categories of those eligible for the procedure, opening it up to people whose deaths aren't reasonably foreseeable, but imposes strict guidelines for people seeking assisted death as part of that category, including a 90-day waiting period. 

From the government of Canada's site on the proposed MAID law...

Section 7 protects the rights to life, liberty and security of the person and prohibits government interference with these interests unless done in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. These include the principles against arbitrariness, overbreadth and gross disproportionality. An arbitrary law is one that impacts section 7 rights in a way that is not rationally connected to the law’s purpose. An overbroad law is one that impacts section 7 rights in a way that, while generally rational, goes too far by capturing some conduct that bears no relation to the law’s purpose. A grossly disproportionate law is one whose effects on section 7 rights are so severe as to be “completely out of sync” with the law’s purpose.

Section 15(1) of the Charter protects equality rights. It provides that every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination, including on the basis of mental or physical disability.

In Carter v. Canada (2015), the Supreme Court of Canada held that a competent adult’s response to a grievous and irremediable medical condition is a matter critical to their dignity and autonomy. A criminal prohibition on MAID for a person in this situation – whom the law would permit to request palliative sedation, refuse artificial nutrition and hydration or request the removal of life-sustaining medical equipment – impacts liberty and security of the person. This is because the criminal prohibition interferes with the ability to make decisions concerning bodily integrity and leads to serious suffering. Broadening the law to permit MAID for persons whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable would promote the liberty and security of the person interests of individuals who seek MAID as a response to a grievous and irremediable illness.

B Block Criminology - Bloggin' time! We're in the Learning Commons/Library today working on our online activities. Last week I asked you to come up with your own theory about why crime happens and today I'll ask you to create another entry on crime trends, specifically youth crime and school. Now that you know about trends in crime and what violence is in relation to age, gender and class, try to answer the following:

Do you think that school is one of the most dangerous places for young people in society today?

Broaden your scope a little and do not necessarily focus on Vanier for this question. Think about other Canadian, British Columbian or Comox Valley high schools and generalize your response a bit. Don't forget that you'll need to find a story to back up your point of view here (either one about how little crime exists in schools or one that demonstrates that schools are somewhat dangerous places). More info to help:


RCMP: School Violence
Stats Can Youth Offending in Canada

More than 1 in 7 girls say they were sexually assaulted by another student 

'They're not taking it seriously': Under-reporting of student violence persists

'I thought he was dead': CBC survey reveals 4 in 10 boys are physically assaulted at school

Youth Crime In Canada which states:

• In 2006, 1 in 10 youth crimes were committed on school property
• Crimes at school include bullying and violence
• Assaults are particularly common representing about 30% of all violations committed by youth on school property. Uttering threats constituted another 8%
• Nearly 20% of crimes committed at school were drug offences, whereas 5% of youth crimes committed elsewhere were drug-related. Youth drug offences taking place on school grounds usually involved the possession (78%) or trafficking of cannabis (10%)

C Block Human Geography - Today we'll look at the Key Question: Where Is the World’s Population Distributed? Human beings are not distributed uniformly across Earth’s surface. We can understand how population is distributed by examining two basic properties - concentration and density. Today we'll examine where populations are concentrated looking at the concept of ecumene. Lastly we'll look at density in terms of arithmetic, physiological and agricultural forms. You've got three questions to answer for me today:

1.  Why isn’t North America one of the four major population clusters?
2. On the map in the week 2 package...use the maps on page 47 to prepare a sketch map that shows non-ecumene and very sparsely inhabited lands (remember map basics!)
3.  In terms of food supply, which combination of measures of density is most important when considering whether a country’s population is too large? Why?

The national agricultural ecumene includes all dissemination areas with 'significant' agricultural activity. 

BTW...B.C.'s population has surpassed five million people for the first time in its history, growing at a rate of 7.6 per cent between 2016 (population: 4.6 million) and 2021 (population: 5 million), the latest census data from Statistics Canada shows. We have four of Canada's five fastest-growing metropolitan areas — all of which are outside the Metro Vancouver region and the Kelowna, Chilliwack, Kamloops and Nanaimo census metropolitan areas all saw growth of 10 per cent or more in between 2016 and 2021. Here, Courtenay’s census agglomeration reported almost 63,300 in 2021, a 9.2% increase from 2016.

This map from National Geographic Everglades Threatened by City to the East, Salt Water From the West can help with yesterday's question on sustainability

D Block Physical Geography - You'll start with time to work on your Prince Rupert Topographic map activity...after a bit we start our look at the Earth being built up through tectonics. Okay...Lets get this out of the way right now....No,  the horribly bad 2003 movie "The Core" is not possible! No, not just bad but impossibly so.

We do not have the technology to burrow our way to the core of the earth and detonate a nuclear device in order to start the liquid outer core rotating. Sigh...so horrible 😩😆 Today we start with tectonics and the internal structure/composition of the earth. We'll take some notes down in the week 2 package on core, mantle, and crust and then, you may use the Earth Interior web page or the Dynamic Earth webpage or the Lumen Understanding Earth’s Interior page or the National Geographic Earth Interior page or the Live Science Earth Interior page to help with questions 7 & 8 from page 366 of your Geosystems text (answers can be found between pages 334 and 336 of the text).

Use this diagram for your notes in the week

Aaaaaaaannnnnnnnd...the Last Fall the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on La Palma, Canary Islands. Check out the sweet drone footage of the AA "clinker" lava