What Does it Mean to be Canadian?

What is a Canadian?  How would you explain our nation's morals, values, and culture to someone who is new to our country?  What makes us fundamentally different from our neighbours to the south?  Is there any truth behind the humour in this video?

Should there be restrictions on who we allow to come and live in Canada?  Are there attitudes and beliefs that you would want to see immigrants display before they are allowed to join our nation?  Should they be required to know things about our customs and history before being sworn in as new Canadians?

Today we are going to spend some time talking about citizenship, and the challenges every country faces in defining itself (aside from the stereotypical views placed upon it by outsiders). 

We are going to take a look at a "hot topic" issue at the moment, the new provincial Sex Ed curriculum, by working together through this article from the Toronto Sun.  We are also going to discuss bias, willful ignorance and racism, and what roll they play in how this information is being received (a good place to start is by looking at the "opinions" at the end of the article).  It will be interesting to see how you would handle this situation, as we put our collective minds together and discuss possible solutions.

Please download and save a copy of the Discover Canada brochure from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and save it to the Unit One folder in your digital binder.

We are each going to join over 200,000 Canadians and take the Citizenship Challenge.  Our class ID number is 15210.  Don't worry...you'll get an opportunity to do the quiz again before the end of the course ;)