Election Volunteer Assignment

Welcome students in my Canada in the Contemporary World class (Grade 9). This is where I would like you to post your thoughts and comments related to your volunteer experience over the course of the Provincial election. You can make multiple posts and please comment on the experiences of your peers. Also, please remember that 7 billion people can potential view your post – so professional writing is a must!

I hope you have a great time taking in how grassroots democracy works. If you have pictures or videos and would like them posted, please email them to me.

Know Your Rights

It’s been pretty fun learning about the Charter, right? I think it’s cool. Do me a favour: listen to the following radio called Know Your Rights (episode 1). In terms of Freedom of Expression, have your rights ever been infringed upon or have you been guilty of libel or slander? Let us know how this part of the Charter applies to you and if any of the examples on the program strike you.

Here is the video that the host of Know Your Rights refers to. The officer is the one suing the creator of the animated series about him. Did the animator go too far?

A Crumbling Empire

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul made some pretty interesting comments about American imperialism last Monday. In the video below, Noam Chomsky gives his thoughts on the comments. Take a look:

Here is an article on how poverty is dramatically rising in the United States from the New York Times.

What do both of these stories say about the United States? As Historians, where do we start in order to unravel the story?

Does it Matter Who Shapes Us? (Can His)

John Ralston Saul asserts in A Fair Country that “we are a metis civilization.” Firstly, do you agree with his historical interpretation? Secondly, why does he bother to write such a book? What is the point of writing about the past? What is history? What happens to our society if we become A-historical? Why are we bothering to teach this stuff to you guys?

What Do We Fix? (Econ)

Based on the introduction to Ha-Joon Chang’s book 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism and his RSA presentation below, there might be something wrong with our economic system. As students, however, what do we need to know about economics, capitalism, and western culture in order to fix what Chang perceives as broken? Is our economic system broken at all? Please ignore the first few minutes of his talk – he is somewhat fixated on the title of the book!