Grade 12 - EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Analyse how legislation, the courts, and public policy approach equity and social justice issues (e.g., federal and provincial human rights legislation, United Nations conventions, Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights, high court decisions on equity issues, workplace policies on discrimination and harassment), and how they can affect people’s perceptions of these issues. Teacher prompts: “Why did feminist groups lobby to have sex equality provisions included in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? What difference do you think it would have made to Canadian law and society if they had not been successful?” “What arguments can be made for and against the idea that access to adequate food, housing, and health care, as well as clean air and water, is a basic human right?” “How effective do you think anti-discrimination policies are in changing individual attitudes and behaviour?”

Indigenous rights

Describe the ways in which Aboriginal peoples in Canada and other indigenous groups around the world (e.g., the Innu of Labrador, the Lubicon Cree of Alberta, Guyanese indigenous peoples, the Basque people of Spain and France) have used laws or international attention to try to effect changes in domestic policy with respect to social justice issues. Teacher prompts: “How and why is Amnesty International promoting the cause of the Lubicon Cree?” “What is the significance of the establishment of the Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA)? What is this group’s position on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? What is the position of Aboriginal groups in Canada with respect to the UN declaration? What is the position of the Canadian government?”