A1. Application: Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Canadian Identities
Specific Expectations
A1.1
explain how various features, including built, physical, and social features of communities, can contribute to identities in and images of a territory and/or country (e.g., built features such as memorials, different types of buildings, parks, canals, dams, railroads; physical features such as climate, landscape, vegetation, wildlife; social aspects such as cultural traditions, religious celebrations, economic bases; geographic, political, and/or socioeconomic boundaries between communities), and assess the contribution of some of these features to images of and identities in Canada (e.g., with reference to resource-based communities such as mining or logging towns or fishing outports; the Canadian winter; landscapes such as mountains, prairies, sea coasts, tundra; wildlife such as moose, elk, beaver, bison, cod; the variety of populations with heritages from around the world in neighbourhoods in some of Canada’s largest cities)
- In what ways do war memorials, including the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument, contribute to an understanding of identities in Canada?
- Why are the old grain elevators on the prairies a key image of Canada?
- In what ways does the Canadian climate contribute to identities in and stereotypes of the country? To its global image?
- Why are the maple leaf and the beaver symbols of Canada? What do these symbols imply about this country? How are these symbols connected to First Nations and Métis communities?
- Why are certain features/symbols more significant to some groups than to others?
- What are some ways in which physical geography influenced the location of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities and traditional territories? How did geographic features affect the ways of life of some of these communities? What impact have the ways of life of some of these communities had on the images of or identities in Canada?
A1.2
analyse some of the contributions that various First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities and individuals have made to Canada (e.g., with reference to artists such as wood, bone, and soapstone carvers, painters and printmakers, bead workers, and/or the Indigenous Group of Seven; Inuit understanding of life and travel in the Arctic; the democratic ideas/practices of the Haudenosaunee; guidance/aid provided by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people to European fur traders and explorers; modes of transportation such as canoes and kayaks; Indigenous knowledge of plants and medicines; technologies used for fishing, aquaculture, and agriculture)
- What impact did the Métis List of Rights of 1860 have on the Manitoba Act and on Canada?
- What are some ways in which First Nations and Inuit methods of transportation have contributed to Canada?
A1.3
analyse some of the contributions that various settler/newcomer groups have made to Canadian identities (e.g., the contributions of French and English communities to the development of Canada as a bilingual country, of the British to the Canadian parliamentary system, of Chinese labourers to the construction of the transcontinental railway, of Irish and Italian workers to the development of canal systems on the Great Lakes, of various communities to Canada’s multicultural identity)
- Who are the founding nations of Canada? For whom is the concept of “founding nations” troubling? Why?
- In what ways is the Canadian system of government similar to that of Great Britain? What accounts for the similarities? Do you think Canada’s status as a constitutional monarchy is important to our identity as Canadians? Why or why not?
- What are some ways in which people from Africa, the Caribbean, or South or East Asia have contributed to Canada and to identities in Canada?
A1.4
explain how various groups and communities, including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, have contributed to the goal of inclusiveness in Canada (e.g., with reference to the efforts of women’s rights, civil rights, Indigenous, or labour organizations, or of advocacy organizations for immigrants, disabled people, or various religious or ethnic groups; the Métis idea of and belief in respectful blending), and assess the extent to which Canada has achieved the goal of being an inclusive society (e.g., with reference to the policy of multiculturalism, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, freedom of religion, the recognition of gay marriage, the ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People)
- What are some of the actions that have been taken by First Nations, Métis, or Inuit individuals or organizations to improve the status of Indigenous people in Canadian society?
- What was the role of women’s groups in ensuring that gender was included in the Charter of Rights?
- What actions have been taken by individuals or by organizations such as L’Arche to improve the status and the quality of life of people with disabilities in Canadian society?
- Do you think that Canadian society allows for your community to make a meaningful contribution to identities in Canada? Why or why not?