Room 611: Tuesday, February 27. 2024

Today's schedule is CDAB

C Block Human Geography - Today we'll look at the Key Issue "Why Does Development Vary among Countries"? To do this we'll look at the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is a composite index measuring average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development:

a long and healthy life,
knowledge and
a decent standard of living

Earth’s nearly 200 countries can be classified according to their level of development, which is the process of improving the material conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology. This is not necessarily about what makes people happy (The World Happiness Report) The development process is continuous, involving never-ending actions to constantly improve the health and prosperity of the people. Every place lies at some point along a continuum of development.

What pattern do you recognize in the map of LDC's below?

Given what you just learned about demography...why do you think this pattern exists?

You'll have two really big thinking questions to work on for me connected to this topic:

If you were to create an index of development, what indicators would you use, and why (look at the UN HDI Indicators for Canada in the week 7 booklet)? How would you weigh each indicator? Could your index be used around the world, or would it be mostly relevant to our society?
The HDI is used to measure development at a whole-country level. Is it adequate to measure development within a country? Why or why not? (Another way of thinking about this: Are there minority groups that may be “glossed over” by the HDI?

D Block Physical Geography - Today we shift our focus (ha ha...see what I did there? Such a bad Dad Joke...turning into Arsenault now) to earthquakes.

Japan....New Year's Day 2024...Mw 7.6

We'll look at some video of the aftermath of the Gaziantep, Türkiye (February 2023) Mw 7.8 earthquake along the East Anatolian Fault zone. The Feb. 6 earthquake and aftershocks that killed over 51,000 people in Türkiye and Syria left at least 156,000 buildings either completely collapsed or damaged to the point where they require demolition. The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) says the resulting 116- 210 million tonnes of rubble are equivalent to an area of 100 square km (40 square miles), if it were stacked to a height of 1 metre. Earthquake footage shows Turkey’s buildings collapsing like pancakes. An expert explains why

I'll have you take some notes down about the three types of faults (use Geosystems Core text How Do Plate Motions Affect Earth’s Crust? Chapter 8.7 Deformation, Folding, & Faulting p.229). After, you'll have a series of questions to complete:

Differentiate between the Modified Mercalli, the Richter, and the moment magnitude scales. How are these used to describe an earthquake? Why has the Richter scale been updated and modified? (Geosystems Core text How Do Plate Motions Affect Earth’s Crust? Chapter 8.8 p.230-231)
What is the relationship between an epicenter and the focus of an earthquake? Give examples (Geosystems Core text How Do Plate Motions Affect Earth’s Crust? Chapter 8.8 p.230)
What local soil and surface conditions in San Francisco severely magnified the energy felt in earthquakes? Will this be a problem in the Lower Mainland / Southwestern B.C. in an earthquake? (Use this link - Solid Rock and Bowls of Jello)
How does science try to predict earthquake occurrences and why is it difficult to do so? (Geosystems Core text How Do Plate Motions Affect Earth’s Crust? Chapter 8.8 p.231)

You'll have tomorrow for this as well...in the meantime, check out the cool interactive activity at National Geographic Forces of Nature or the Today in Earthquake History at the USGS. For more information check out the Latest Earthquakes map from the USGS or the science of earthquakes from the USGS or Earthquakes Canada or BC Public Safety Earthquakes

A Block Criminology - First, you've got a quiz...your first in the course. You may use all the notes I gave you on the different theories of criminal behaviour and the chapter 1-3 notes (introduction, trends, victimology). You have as much time as you need to finish this and please don't leave any question blank - guess if you need to. For the written answer section (paragraph response) I've given you eight choices and you only need to respond to ONE...don't do all eight. Don't forget there's a bonus drawing question involving Mr. Young. After we'll continue with the question, "Where does violence and violent crime come from"? We'll look at personal traits, ineffective families, evolutionary factors, exposure to violence, cultural values, substance abuse, and firearm availability to see if they are factors that lead to violent crime in Canada.

B Block Legal Studies - Today, you may work on finishing yesterday's questions 1, 2 and 4 on page 64 and the Review Your Understanding questions 1, 2 and 5 on page 83 of the AAL text along with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms Scavenger Hunt.

Next, we'll take a closer look at the concepts of bias, prejudice, and discrimination. After a quick brainstorming and discussion session, we'll look at Human Rights and how they are enforced in Canada. We'll talk about the methods of enforcing rights guaranteed under the Charter (section 52 of the Constitution Act and Section 24 of the Charter). Remedies affecting unconstitutional legislation are usually dealt with under s. 52(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, which holds that:

The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of Canada, and any law that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect.

So what can the courts do?

Striking Down – A court may declare that a law that infringes the Charter is nullified and is of no force of effect (as in Canada v. Bedford where the SCC ruled that three provisions of Canada’s Criminal Code, s. 210 keeping or being found in a bawdy house, s. 212(1)(j) living on the avails of prostitution, and s. 213(1)(c) communicating in public for the purpose of prostitution violate the s. 7 right to security of the person protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms).
Partial Invalidity – A common alternative to striking down an entire law is to declare only the unconstitutional portion(s) of the law invalid. The specific provision will be declared invalid rather than striking down the entire Criminal Code. If the court has ordered the law, in whole or in part, to be struck down, Parliament or a provincial legislature may choose to redraft that law so that it complies with the Charter.
Reading Down – Reading down is where the court interprets the legislation in a sufficiently narrow way to bring it in line with the Charter (as in R v Butler, where the SCC read down the extremely broad terms of the obscenity laws in the Criminal Code in order to avoid an infringement of freedom of expression. The court held that the provision should be interpreted narrowly to catch only certain forms of pornography.
Reading In – This technique is used when a statute is under-inclusive and fails to extend to those who have a legitimate constitutional claim to its protection. In such cases, the court may “read in” those categories of individuals rather than strike down the law entirely. (NOTE: Reading in is a controversial remedy as the court appears to be taking on a legislative role and adding to the legislation itself)
Constitutional Exemption – A court may order that a particular law is valid but a certain individual is exempt from its application. This remedy is rarely applied and used only in exceptional circumstances (as in Carter v Canada (AG) where the SCC suspended its decision on physician assisted suicide for one year, but also granted Taylor an immediate exemption that allowed her to seek doctor-assisted suicide under certain conditions).