Monday, April 4, 2016

Tuesday, April 5. 2016

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

C Block Law 12 - Today with Mr. Elliott we begin our foray into violent crime with an examination of homicide. the different types of homicide are as follows: -Culpable homicide happens when a person causes the death of someone else, on purpose or because of recklessness. So, that person is to blame.

1st Degree Murder This is the most serious charge of murder. It includes acts that are: 1) planned and deliberate; -or- 2) instances involving: contracted murder, murder of a police officer (any peace officer performing his duties), hijacking, sexual assault, kidnapping, terrorism, criminal harassment, criminal organizations, intimidation. The criminal code thus automatically deems murders that occur during the commission of several other offences as automatically 1st degree, even if they are not planned and deliberate. Also, murder of a peace officer in the course of his duties is 1st degree, even if not planned and deliberate.

2nd Degree Murder Any murder (see four categories above) that does not meet the definition of 1st degree murder, is deemed to be 2nd degree murder. Manslaughter Any "culpable homicide" that does not meet the definition of murder is said to be manslaughter. Culpable homicide is defined to include when a person causes the death of another human being by: (a) by means of an unlawful act; (b) by criminal negligence; (c) by causing that human being, by threats or fear of violence or by deception, to do anything that causes his death; or (d) by willfully frightening that human being, in the case of a child or sick person.

 Manslaughter is reserved for killings where the level of intent is less than murder. Practically speaking, manslaughter is when someone is doing something wrong and someone else ends up dead as a result of it -and- the offender did not intend to kill or cause significant bodily harm that he knew may result in death.

Non-culpable homicide is not an offence. The death was the result of a complete accident, and, therefore, it lacks intent or blame. -accident -self defence

If time allows we will also examine the question of euthanasia and assisted dying and discuss if it belongs in this list and, if so, where? Finally we will begin work on the review questions on p.221 of the textbook

D Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll look at Aboriginal Reserves, the Gradual Civilization Act (which led to the Indian Act of 1876) and Residential Schools. We'll finish with a couple of questions related to Sir John Colborne and assimilation (p. 97 of Horizons).
  1. What does Colborne's comments suggest about why the government put Aboriginal youth in Residential Schools (use the comments below as well)?
  2. How would you describe the perspective of Aboriginal peoples that is expressed in this policy? Is it kind or cruel? Respectful or disrespectful? Paternalistic (like a father to a child) or liberal (respecting the freedom of others)? Controlling or consultative (listening honestly to others)? One of superiority or of equality? Helpful or exploitative?
For more

From FNESC (First Nations Education Steering Committee)

Why were Indian Residential Schools created?

The government, the churches and the Canadian public had a number of goals for the schools. Here are some comments made at the time the schools were created. Others are excerpts from They Came for the Children.

Read these comments to uncover some of the main goals. Which do you think were the most important goals for the Canadian government, for the churches, and for the Canadian people?

  1. In 1887, Lawrence Vankoughnet, the deputy minister of Indian Affairs, justified the investment in residential schools by claiming that Aboriginal children who went to day schools “followed the terrible example set them by their parents.” (They Came for the Children, p. 10)
  2. When the system was expanded in northern Canada in 1954, the federal government’s Subcommittee on Eskimo Education concluded: “The residential school is perhaps the most effective way of giving children from primitive environments, experience in education along the lines of civilization leading to vocational training to fit them for occupations in the white man’s economy.” (They Came for the Children, p. 12)
  3.  The importance of denominational schools at the outset for the Indians must be obvious. One of the earliest things an attempt to civilize them does, is to take away their simple mythology, the central idea of which, to wit, a perfect spirit, can hardly be improved on. ... To disturb the faith, without supplying a better [one], would be a curious process. (Davin Report 1879 p. 14)
    The type of education Davin was advocating would undermine existing spiritual and cultural beliefs, and it would be wrong, he said, to destroy their faith “without supplying a better” one; namely, Christianity. (They Came for the Children p. 10)
  4. We are glad to see that the education to be extended to the Indians is to be of the right sort. It is to be a practical education. The position which the pupil is to occupy after he leaves school is to be kept continually in sight. He is to be taught to work with his hands so that when he is sent into the world he will be able to earn his bread by engaging in some useful and steady occupation. We see, too, that while he is serving his apprenticeship to civilization the Indian educationalists think that the pupil should be separated as much as possible form old and degrading associations. They prefer boarding schools to day schools. They want to have the child all to themselves for a few years. (Editorial in the British Colonist, February 22, 1889)
  5. [In the United States] the industrial school is the principal feature of the policy known as that of “aggressive civilization.”  ... The experience of the United Sates is the same as our own... The child who goes to a day school learns little, and what little he learns is soon forgotten, while his tastes are fashioned at home, and his inherited aversion to toil is in no way combated. (Davin report, 1879, page 1-2.)
  6. One year after the 1885 Northwest Rebellion, Indian Affairs school inspector J.A. Macrae noted, “It is unlikely that any Tribe or tribes would give trouble of a serious nature to the Government whose members had children completely under Government control.” (They Came for the Children, p. 13)
  7. Duncan Campbell Scott worried in 1910 that “without education and with neglect the Indians would produce an undesirable and often dangerous element in society.” (They Came for the Children, p. 13)
  8. Nineteenth century missionaries believed their efforts to convert Aboriginal people to Christianity were part of a worldwide struggle for the salvation of souls. This belief provided justification for undermining traditional spiritual leaders (who were treated as agents of the devil), banning sacred cultural practices, and attempting to impose a new moral code on Aboriginal people by requiring them to abandon their traditional family structures. (They Came for the Children, p. 15)
  9.  Kamloops Industrial School This excellent institution, established by a paternal Government to elevate the Indian races, is situated on a lovely spot on the South Thompson River, the buildings themselves being of modern design and admirably suited for the education, both social and intellectual, of the aborigines who are wards of the nation. ...   We look far into the future and see the little girls – now clustering about the Christian ladies who are teaching them the lessons of life – becoming wives and mothers, and inculcating those truths which are the blessed inheritance of the white man, uplifting and broadening their character and aims; while one need not be a prophet to predict that the day is not far distant when some of the boys who are now climbing the rough road to learning will emulate their fellows in the Northwest who have made names for themselves in the history of their native land. (Editorial in Vancouver Daily World, July 22, 1890, p. 2.)
  10. As the years have gone by the purpose of Indian education has become clearer, and the best means to be employed to reach the desired end are becoming apparent. It is now recognized that the provision of education for the Indian means an attempt to develop the great natural intelligence of the race and to fit the Indian for civilized life in his own environment. It includes not only a school education, but also instruction in the means of gaining a livelihood from the soil or as a member of an industrial or mercantile community, and the substitution of Christian ideals of conduct and morals for aboriginal conceptions of both. To this end the curriculum in residential schools has been simplified, and the practical instruction given is such as may be immediately of use to the pupil when he returns to the reserve after leaving school. (Duncan Campbell Scott, in Canada and Its Provinces, Doughty and Shortt, 1914, p. 616)
  11.  To both Protestant and Catholic missionaries, Aboriginal spiritual beliefs were little more than superstition and witchcraft. In British Columbia, William Duncan of the Church Missionary Society reported: “I cannot describe the conditions of this people better than by saying that it is just what might be expected in savage heathen life.” Missionaries led the campaign to outlaw Aboriginal sacred ceremonies such as the Potlatch on the west coast and the Sun Dance on the Prairies. (They Came for the Children, p. 15)
  12. While church and government officials would have their differences, their overall commitment to civilizing and Christianizing Aboriginal children gave rise to an education system that emphasized the need to separate children from their culture, impose a new set of values and beliefs, provide a basic elementary education, and implant Europe’s emerging industrial work discipline. (They Came for the Children, p. 16)

AND...From the BCTF book "Hidden History" consider the following:


They also take away your name —you get a number instead. They separate you from your brothers and sisters, and forbid you to speak to one another in your native language. Imagine being silenced with shouts.

Imagine toiling in field and kitchen yet going hungry all the time. Imagine being hit or strapped for breaking rules you don’t know or understand. Imagine learning that your family traditions and culture are evil and barbaric, while the Christian God is the only true Creator, the God of love. Imagine a heavy hand on your shoulder pulling you away from the dormitory in the night.

Imagine you’re sick, feverish, and alone. Other children also coughing, gasping. Some are dying and you know it, even though they try to cover it up.

Imagine running away from it all, desperate to be safe and loved back home. Imagine being hunted and caught, then returned to even harsher punishments.

Now imagine you are a parent, your child stolen from your embrace and taken to the same cruel place you knew as a child. You could face a jail sentence if you don’t obey their laws that say your child must go and learn the European ways. If you resist, your child will be taken anyway.

You worry that your child will reject your teachings and your traditional way of life. But most of all you fear that your child will endure the same abuse you did. The fact you are powerless to prevent that abuse torments you even more.

Imagine the unthinkable—your child died, far away, without you there for comfort. Imagine your child is buried in an unmarked grave, in an unknown place. Imagine they don’t even tell you that your beloved child won’t ever be coming home, let alone where their final resting place is.

Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Dr. Marie Wilson has challenged Canadians to try to feel the anguish of the 150,000 Aboriginal children taken from their parents, sometimes forever.

“Think of that. Bear that. Imagine that.”

A Block Introduction to Law 9/10 - Today I'll give you time to finish your work on questions 1-7 on page 74 from the All About Law textbook.  Next, you will be responsible for working on the case questions from R. v. Thornton (1990) q 1-4 p.70 ( Main Question: Did Thornton have a legal duty arising out of the common-law to inform the Red Cross of his HIV status?) and R. v. Sansregret (1985) q 1-6 p.72 (Main Question: Is willful blindness relevant to a mistake of fact in consent in a sexual assault charge?)

B Block Social Studies 10 - Today with Mr. Elliott we will finish the work we began yesterday in class.

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