Amendments to the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) recently came into force. CPLEA has updated our Canadian Legal FAQs website to reflect these changes.
A package of new YCJA resources has also been created. The package includes a poster , a lesson plan for teachers and the video below:
Mobile Phone Searches at School
Before I worked at CPLEA as a Program Coordinator I was a teacher. The school I taught in had a strict mobile phone policy. If a student was caught with their phone in class they would have it confiscated. The student would then have to pick up their phone at the end of the day from the Principal’s office.
I was talking to a former teaching colleague about an Edmonton school that went a step further and searched the contents of a student’s phone. My friend wondered if this violated the rights of the student.
Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ensures that everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure (which means that everyone has a right to expect a reasonable amount of privacy). Those that act on the behalf of the government, such as police officers, must act in a fair and reasonable way and usually need a search warrant to do a search.
In schools, the guidelines regarding privacy are a little less strict, as teachers and principals are responsible for student safety. Students are aware that they must comply with school regulations and as a result that they may be subject to searches.
It is sometimes appropriate for teachers and principals to search student property such as backpacks and lockers. Before the search, however, questions such as the following must be considered.
- Is there enough proof to justify the search?
- Is the search reasonable?
- Is the search carried out in a reasonable manner?
CPLEA created a series of lesson plans for schools about the Charter called You Decide: Charter Challenges. The teacher backgrounder that accompanies the lesson plans is an interesting read with more information about Charter rights in schools.
Teachers Talk LawNow – Jim Keegstra
LawNow magazine is an incredible resource for teachers. Each issue offers engaging articles about law in language suitable for students. Teachers Talk LawNow is a series of lesson plans for teachers based on these articles.
“R. v. Keegstra was such a landmark freedom of expression case that aspects of this issue were considered in three separate trips to the Supreme Court of Canada between 1990 and 1996.”
This LawNow article is available to download in the July/August 2012 issue of LawNow magazine :
- What Ever Happened to … Jim Keegstra – Peter Bowal and Craig Graham
This weeks blog shifts out of the classroom and into the staff room. Jim Keegstra was a teacher from Eckville, Alberta. For years he had been teaching students his own brand of history that included Jewish conspiracies and other anti-Semitic content. Eventually he was charged with criminally promoting hatred against an identifiable group.
Many recently graduated teachers studied this case in University and older teachers will remember the news coverage. Leave this article on a coffee table in the staff room and see what discussions it creates. Some discussion points to get your started are:
- How could Keegstra teach his opinions for so long and could something like this happen today?
- What limits should there be on “free speech”?
- If Keegstra had kept his opinions out of the classroom, but still made them public, should he have kept his job?
Teachers Talk LawNow – Electoral Reform
LawNow magazine is an incredible resource for teachers. Each issue offers engaging articles about law in language suitable for students. Teachers Talk LawNow is a series of lesson plans for teachers based on these articles.
This LawNow article is available to download in the July/August 2012 issue of LawNow magazine :
- “Corruption and Scandals – A Modest Proposal – Electoral Reform “ Phil Lister, Q.C.
Who doesn’t love a good scandal? Politics can be a hard sell to some kids. Grab their attention by starting your lesson with a discussion on political scandals. This article is a great conversation starter to get kids to think about electoral reform and how elections work in other countries.
Evaluating Electoral Systems
1. Place students in small groups to review the article and then answer the question, “what reforms to our political system (if any), are required to keep democracy healthy in Canada?”
2. Students will research electoral systems in other countries to create a proposal to change or protect our current electoral system.
3. Hold a class referendum where groups present their proposals to the class. Guide students in a debate on the merits of each proposal.
4. Conclude the lesson with a final class vote on the proposals.
Teachers Talk LawNow – The Olympics and Doping
LawNow magazine is an incredible resource for teachers. Each issue offers engaging articles about law in language suitable for students. Teachers Talk LawNow is a series of lesson plans for teachers based on these articles.
LawNow Article available to download in the July/August 2012 issue of LawNow magazine :
- Which Passport Should I Take to the Olympic Games? – Hilary Findlay
Athletes that cheat ruin the spirit of competitive sports, but they also provide “teachable moments” for science teachers. Talking about doping in the Olympics is a stealthy way to teach biology to students. This LawNow article discusses new anti-doping efforts at the London Olympics. This is an excellent opportunity to teach about body systems, specifically the circulatory system and respiratory systems.
Circulatory and Respiratory Student Teaching
1. Divide your students into small groups. Assign the circulatory system to half of the groups and the respiratory system to the other half.
2. Students will research their system and prepare an interactive presentation for their classmates. This presentation should include
- the role of the circulatory or the respiratory system in the body;
- the parts of the system and their function; and
- an explanation of blood doping and how it relates to their body system.
3. Pair the circulatory system groups with respiratory system groups and have students perform their presentations to each other.
Genetics and the Law
I was looking for connections between science and the law when I stumbled upon the very interesting (and probably a little controversial) topic of genetically modified organisms. Here’s what I found…
The Harvard Mouse
The Harvard mouse is considered a landmark case because it’s an example of the limits of our patent laws. In Canada genes, individual cells, and microorganisms have been granted patents since the 1980s, However, something as complex as a mammal had not.
Harvard College created a process to insert a cancer causing gene in mice for research. They sought a patent for the process and the product (the mouse). The Americans allowed the patent but Canada was different. In 2002 the Canadian Supreme Court’s interpretation of the word invention made a higher life form , like a mouse, unpatentable. Canada became the first major jurisdiction to refuse to recognize the patentability of higher life forms. [Harvard College v. Canada (Commissioner of Patents), 2002 SCC 76, [2002] 4 S.C.R. 45]
Monsanto Canada Inc.v. Schmeiser (SCC, 2004).
Just two years after the Harvard Mouse case came another important lawsuit. Since the 1980s, Canada has allowed the patenting of genes and individual cells (but not higher life forms). Crops like genetically modified canola have been patented. This means that if farmers want to grow them, they must pay the company that owns the patent.
One concern with genetically modified organisms is that the genetic material might spread outside its intended area. Seeds could travel by wind or the crop could cross-pollinate with the neighbouring field.
This is what Percy Schmeiser claimed when Monsanto took him to court for growing Canola that contained their patented herbicide resistant gene. He claimed that seeds from a neighbouring field landed on his land. Eventually the Supreme Court found that Schmesier had infringed on the patent by growing the crop. Schmeiser argued that the plant was a higher life form and could not be patented. The court agreed that a plant was a higher life form and could not be patented, but the herbicide resistant gene could be. Schmeiser was ordered to remove the canola from his land but was not forced to pay any money to Monsanto. [Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser, 2004 SCC 34, [2004] 1 S.C.R. 902]
Read more here and here
Transgenic Fish
Transgenic organisms are living things with genetic information that has been added from another species. A Canadian company has created transgenic salmon that grow to full size at twice the rate of a normal fish. (Read how here.) The laws and regulations around it are a bit murky. As it gets closer to the grocery store shelf it can give us a better idea how transgenic organisms fit under our current laws (and any new ones).
While we wait… did you know that transgenic fish have been available for purchase in Canada already? Not in our grocery stores, but in our pet stores.
GloFish™ were briefly available in Canadian pet stores until Environment Canada found out about them. (Read more at: “CBC – Marketplace: Growing Nemo”.) The fish are obviously a bit different from the Salmon because they are not meant to be eaten. They made it into the Canadian marketplace before getting government approval and have since been banned from being imported. GloFish™ are a genetically modified aquarium staple, the zebra danio, that has been genetically altered to glow. The glowing effect has been added by introducing a gene from sea coral. The example illustrates the challenges faced by our government and regulatory agencies as innovation outpaces our laws and ability to enforce them.
As science continues to advance and push legal and ethical boundaries expect to see many of these issues brought to court.