Different constitutionally-embodied individualistic premises, a different judicial system, and different social beliefs argue for a specifically Canadian approach to the problem of children's rights. (MJB)

In this learning activity senior high social studies students examine and discuss specific parts of the Soviet Constitution and learn that there is often a big difference between theory and reality. (RM)

Presents findings of a socio-legal research study focusing on areas of concern for educational planners under the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The experts consulted identified seven major areas to watch for: fundamental freedoms, legal rights, equality rights, minority language educational rights, denominational school rights,…

Reviews the results of the October 26, 1992, national referendum on the Canadian constitution. Describes the impact of the results on the provinces of western Canada. Concludes that a new national election should be called to resolve further the constitutional issues. (CFR)

Canadian public education has become secularized. Although the Charter's language on freedom of conscience and religion prohibits religious indoctrination in schools, it does not proscribe education about religion. Generally, Canadian courts have followed and accepted American developments in this regard but have avoided byzantine judgments on…

Canadian public school boards still discriminate against homosexual educators. In British Columbia and Manitoba, recent court challenges raise questions about disciplining educators on the basis of sexual orientation and discussion of homosexuality in the classroom. Employment sanctions based on sexual orientation alone violate basic human and…

Many educators are committed to multicultural education and are constantly seeking an inclusive curriculum voicing the diversity of the many cultural groups in the United States. The influential work of James Banks (1981, 1997, 2001) has encouraged a generation of educators to design a multicultural curriculum. Yet while this task remains an…

In many western countries, corporal punishment has been abolished as a form of punishment in criminal trials and in schools. Under South African common law, persons entitled to enforce discipline may inflict corporal punishment within certain guidelines established by the Supreme Court. For the first time in the Republic of South Africa (RSA), the…

This compilation of over 40 lesson plans on various topics in law related education was written by classroom teachers from around the United States who had participated in the fifth of an annual series called Special Programs in Citizenship Education (SPICE)--weeklong institutes devoted to learning about different cultures and laws. Called SPICE V…

Both Protestant and Catholic residents of Ontario's school districts have historically had the right to establish separate public elementary school boards and schools, and to levy taxes to support those schools, under most conditions. Only recently have all major political parties in Ontario agreed to funding Catholic public secondary schools…

Addresses litigation launched by a wealthy school district against the Alberta (Canada) Ministry of Education, regarding legislation to increase fiscal equity among school systems. Reviews the concept of fiscal equality, financial plans to achieve this goal, and the Alberta funding structure. Describes proposed changes to the School Act. The…

In Ontario, Canada, the 19th-century educational imperative of indoctrinating public school students in a common Christianity became intolerable, given the province's increasingly pluralistic population. Most vestiges of religious practice and instruction have been swept from public schools. Religious minorities' preference for a unitary,…

Images of heretics burning at the stake or of traitors being drawn, hanged, and quartered for disloyalty to the king seem well removed from twenty-first century America. Yet the laws that defined these offenses--which included heresy and blasphemy, sedition and treason--were at the heart of some of the most significant debates defining the shape…

Establishing constitutional government involves not simply the creation of a written document that purports to create the political structure of a nation and guarantee rights to its people, but "constitutionalism" in the sense of meaningful and effective adherence to constitutional norms of democratic organization and the protection of…

Free elections are one of the fundamental principles of any parliamentary democracy. The constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Basic Law, stipulates in its article 20(2) that "all state authority emanates from the people" who exercise that authority "by means of elections and referendums and through special…