THE CANADIAN SOCIAL STUDIES SUPER SITE

DISCLAIMER

CAUTIONARY NOTE

CANADA - GENERAL INFORMATION 

CANADIAN BIOGRAPHIES ONLINE

CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

Your Webmaster has discontinued adding new news articles to the list of controversial issues. This is because you can follow any current issue you want using Google Alerts. This is a service that will email to you up-to-date media sites with the topic(s) of your choice, for example the long gun registry below. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts  for this service. You can obtain earlier information on a topic by using a search engine of your choice.

Canadian Long-Gun Registry

• RCMP Canadian Firearms Program "Your source for firearms services and information."
• thestar.com Toronto edition, August 31, 2010. “Gun registry effective but misunderstood, says RCMP.”
• Gun registry fires up mayoral debate, by Roger Tran, The Toronto Observer, posted 21 October 2010.
• National Post, May11, 2011 "Lorne Gunter: Police are stigmatizing lawful firearm owners"

Human Cloning

• Humancloning.org - Humancloning.org bills itself as "the official site in support of human cloning technology." The sponsor of the site has obtained U.S. government non-profit tax-exempt status and is incorporated in the state of Georgia. It is worth looking at to see why they support cloning. The Webmaster reminds you that this is a one-sided view of this highly controversial topic and that the site does not provide names of those associated with its sponsoring organization.
• http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/genetics_reproduction/rgtech.html - This is a CBC website giving background information about Canada’s Bill C-13 banning human cloning, womb rental contracts, and the sale of human sperm and eggs. The bill received royal assent March 26, 2004.

In 1992, the National Film Board, the CBC and Gala Films produced The Valour and the Horror, the most controversial film series ever made in Canada. The segment "Death by Moonlight" was the subject of a multi-million dollar defamation law suit by the aging veterans of RCAF Bomber Command. The case was never heard by a jury since the courts ruled that the veterans did not have legal standing to sue. The Valour and the Horror was severely criticized by Canadian historians such as Jack Granatstein (see his comments in Who Killed Canadian History?, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., 1998 pp 14-15, 116-120. ) and Desmond Morton. An entire issue of Canadian Social Studies (Winter, 1994, Volume 28, Number 2) was devoted to this matter. The CBC will not show the series again since it does not meet the CBC's standards for accuracy. Bomber Command veterans and supporters of the series have set-up websites to present their sides of the story.  

• Report of the CBC Ombudsman.    by William Morgan. Click on the Ombudsman’s report in the index or scroll down to pages 61- 72. This is in the Google Books on-line sample pages of The Valour and the Horror Revisited by David J. Bercuson and and S.F. Wise. It provides the reasons why the CBC will not re-broadcast The Valour and the Horror.
• The Bombing Of Brian Mc-Kenna  This is a critical essay about The Valour and the Horror written by historian Neil Cameron.
• The Producers' Response to the Critics  This site is where the producers of The Valour and the Horror defend their production. The first section “Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941” is not on-line. (This site has become inactive. The Webmaster has not yet been able to find an alternate site defending the series producers.)
• The Valour and the Horror From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article appears to provide a fair balance between the positives and negatives of this series.

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• Environment Canada. - The job of Environment Canada is protecting the environment, conserving the country's natural heritage, and providing weather and environmental predictions. Their programs and services implement the federal government's environmental agenda.

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• Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.  An extensive link with government and other sites related to Canada’s First Nations.
• Native American Indian Resources. A comprehensive web site (both Canadian and U.S. tribal groups) with over 300 pages dealing with everything from culture to geographic information systems as they relate to First Nations people. It is designed for Indian teachers. A number of pages are difficult to read because of contrast problems.
• CBC Aboriginal. This Canadian Broadcasting Company site reflects aboriginal life in Canada and includes weekly news stories, arts and culture, personality profiles, programming, regional content, archival information as well as background and history to current topics, and more.
• Path of the Elders.  This site deals with the Anishinaabe (Northern Ojibway) and Mushkegowuk (Northern Cree) bands of Northern Ontario for Grades 4-10. There are historical resources, including Treaty 9’s history written from an Aboriginal perspective, video and audio clips of interviews with Elders, archival photographs and interactive role-playing games. The games are a bit difficult for children without some initial adult guidance and cannot be played without registering.

• Aboriginal Canada Portal. URL links to national aboriginal organizations, claims and treaties, language, heritage, culture and much more – very extensive

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• The National Atlas of Canada Online. "Learn about Canada's geography through texts and maps; access data sets; use our interactive mapping tool; meet our partners; try our quiz and consult our teaching resources section."
• Historical Maps of Canada This site is sponsored by Canadian Geographic magazine. It is a click and change set of historical maps of Canada from 1700 to 1999.
• The Canadian Council for Geographic Education. The CCGE was established in 1993 as a joint initiative of the The Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the National Geographic Society of Washington, D.C. This site is notable for its list of geography links. The CCGE periodically sends members excellent geography teaching materials, and the Webmaster encourages Canadian teachers to join this organization.
• Google Maps - This is a powerful and user friendly high resolution GIS of the world. You can zoom--in on a location and view it as a map, satellite image, or combined hybrid. Zoom to see your own home, find the location of an address with the search engine, and find the route to and from two locations.
• Google Earth - This is the free download page for Google Earth. Unlike Google Maps it requires installation on your computer. This page will also give you information on how to operate the program. The program has many higher resolution satellite images and more features than Google Maps. These features include viewing the images from different angles and different direction. Some images have 3D renditions of buildings. This newer version of Google Earth provides undersea views. It also contains a feature called Historical Imagery that allows you to scroll back over previous historical satellite images of an area to see its development or degradation.
• Geography Games - A set of three classroom geography games for the elementary and middle years written by the Webmaster.

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• United Nations. The home page of the United Nations, dealing with peace and security, international law, economic and social development, human rights, humanitarian affairs, and the facilities and operation of the organization.
• The WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources. This site contains an extensive quality list of portals, indexes, web directories and other resources for international affairs.
• Saudi Aramco World. This magazine is the National Geographic of the Islamic world. It covers culture, history, geography, and science with full colour illustrations. Each issue contains lesson planning, book reviews, listings of international exhibitions of Islamic art, literature, and history. A free hard copy subscription is available.

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• Library and Archives Canada. "The National Archives of Canada preserves Canada's archival heritage, and makes it available to Canadians through a wide variety of means - publications, exhibitions, special events, as well as reference and researcher services." This site is now linked with the National Library of Canada.
• Canadian Archival Resources on the Internet. This site, developed by the University of Saskatchewan, which has now migrated to the Archives Canada site,  provides links with archival resources across Canada.
• The Canadian Museum of Civilization. An extensive and impressive collection  of Canadiana. Here you will find a variety of information about Canada including history, archeology, culture, First Nations and more. There are sections for educators, kids, and scholars. This site has the updated "Oracle," originally a print item, developed for social studies in Canadian schools during the 70s and 80s. Go to the site map for a quick over-view of what is available.
• The Canadian War Museum. This national museum presents Canada’s military past and how it shaped the country from earliest times to the present, featuring the experiences of people on the battlefields and at home and has online educational resources including planning materials for Remembrance Day.
• Images Canada.  This site has search access to over 65,000 images of Canadian events, people, places and things on websites of participating Canadian cultural institutions.
• CBC Archives. Examine sound and video clips of interest to modern Canadian history. Listen to Nelly L. McClung discussing the "Persons Case." See Leonard Cohen being interviewed by a young Adrienne Clarkson, and hear him read his poetry, and much more. There is a teacher's section with information for grades 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12.
• Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History. A unique Canadian history site to learn about history as a cold case file. You have actual Canadian criminal cases from the past and the historical resources associated with them. Examine the resources and decide whether justice has been done. Learn about the nuances of looking at the past – or just enjoy yourself.
• Memory Project. This Dominion Institute site is a valuable living history resource to connect veterans and students online and in classrooms across the country. Speakers are provided and there is also an online database with oral histories and artifacts of Canadian veterans. This is an excellent resource for Remembrance Day and units dealing with Canadian combat and peace keeping.
• Black History Portal. An excellent annotated guide to the history of the black community in Canada.

• Edwards v. A.G. of Canada. This is the Privy Council judgment in the “Persons Case”  in which Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie L. McClung, Louise C. McKinney, Emily F. Murphy, and Irene Parlby appealed the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada that women were not eligible to sit in the Canadian Senate since they were not persons according to the British North American Act of 1867.

• Peel’s Prairie Postcards. This is an image archive at the University of Alberta of over 15,000 postcards dating back to the turn of the 19th century dealing with the Canadian prairies. This site has a search engine, including a browse feature, to find pictures you may wish to use for teaching. Additional archival materials in the Peel’s Prairie Provinces collection will also be found on this page.

• Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness. A University of British Columbia site dedicated to facilitating research on the understanding and teaching of history.

• THEN/HiER The History Education Network. This is a pan-Canadian collaborative for history and the teaching of history at the University of British Columbia. It has an extensive resources section and the site is well worth browsing in general.

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HUMAN RIGHTS

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• e-Pals. A pen pal network with over a million students and teachers in more than 20,000 registered classrooms in over 100 countries.

Both pen pals and e-mail pals can also be obtained by contacting ministries of education, educational associations -- in particular social studies specialist groups, consuls and embassies. E-mail addresses can often be obtained where there is an Internet URL. The URL can be obtained by using Internet search engines.

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• 2Learn -Telus Learning Connection. This is an interactive site that is divided into research skills and strategies, teacher tools, professional growth and mentorship, curricular resources, and a telecollaborative project centre. Teachers can involve their classes with online projects, find tutorials for presentation instruction and instructional resources, among other items. This site has a powerful function for teacher inservice instruction.
• Web 2.0 Tools - 2Learn.ca's site. This site has selected web 2.0 tools and resources to support these tools. It has teacher background information on pedagogies such as TPACK, Constructivism, and Multiple Intelligences and contains student tools and teacher resources for using the tools.
• Learning Resources & Ministries of Education. All provincial and territorial learning resources and ministries of education are at this site. Grants for teachers are also noted. This site is operated by Curriculum Services Canada, a non-profit charitable education organization. .
• Educational Resources in Social Studies. This website was prepared by Open Learning Network’s Community Learning Network of British Columbia. It is a very comprehensive site that is Canadian oriented. There are excellent links to materials for planning and projects.
• Teaching Values. This is the Webmaster’s theory and procedures for teaching values using love, kindness, and respect for human dignity for the elementary and secondary levels. It was originally published in the McGill Journal of Education.
• National Council for the Social Studies.  NCSS Online. This is the site for the world’s largest social studies organization.
• Weblens. Almost 5,000 Internet research resources. It is the companion site to Pam Blackstone's technology column in the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper and is one of the most powerful search sites on the Internet.
• NFB. This is the National Film Board of Canada home page. Check it for visuals that you can use in class. It states: “Watch hundreds of films, anytime, anywhere, for free. Documentaries, animations and other alternative dramas on the web, or on you personalized home page, or on your iPhone. Also, watch trailers, upcoming online releases and playlists.”
• Virtual Library Museums Pages. This site has a directory of Museums around the world with links to selected libraries around the world.
• Evaluating Internet Research Sources. This website by Robert Harris is one of the finest guides for evaluating sources in general in addition to Internet materials. If you are planning to teach about resource evaluations this website is a must read item.
• Advocates for Youth. Resources for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth: select organizations, web sites, videos. Check this site out in "Planning and Teaching - General Resource Information," and "Human Rights."

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• Canadian Space Agency. This site is contains information about Canada’s role in the space program. There is general information, current event items, and material for educators. The site also cross-links with other space agencies.
• NASA - Home Site. This is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's main site. Here the social studies teacher can keep up with space exploration current events and find lots of resources about space programs.
• NASA Earth Observatory Images. This is an excellent geographic aid for current events. It is a free NASA listserv that e-mails you weekly current interest images ranging from satellite images of the earth to outer space images. The site also contains an archive of satellite images of the earth among other items. You can unsubscribe when you wish. Click into the site and you will find an icon to subscribe to this service. Highly recommended.
• Stellarium - A free downloadable powerful planetarium astronomy program that shows the night sky anywhere in the world. The display moves with a timer to show the changing night sky or can be locked for a specific time. Great for teaching about space probes in current events and astronomy in general. Once the program is opened press the “h” key for command information including exiting. Click on the configuration box on the lower left task bar and click on location. On the map click on the location you want (latitude and longitude specifics will help). The lower right task bar controls the time. Thirty minutes of playing with this program and its task bars will make you an expert. This program is very impressive.
• Google Earth - This is the free download page for Google Earth. Unlike Google Maps it requires installation on your computer. This page will also give you information on how to operate the program. The program has many higher resolution satellite images and more features than Google Maps. These features include viewing the images from different angles and different direction. Some images have 3D renditions of buildings. This newer version of Google Earth provides undersea views. It also contains a feature called Historical Imagery that allows you to scroll back over previous historical satellite images of an area to see its development or degradation.

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