Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute
Upper Grand District School Board
Course Outline
Department: Business
Course Title:
Understanding Canadian Law
Course Type: University/College Preparation
Grade: 11
Course Code: CLU3M
Credit Value: 1
Department Head: Stephen Fleming
Teachers: David Fast
Teacher email: (not mandatory)
Date of Development: October 1, 2015
Curriculum Document:
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/sec
ondary/2015CWS11and12.pdf
Course Prerequisites/Corequisites:
Canadian History since World War I, Grade
10, Academic or Applied
Course Description:
This course explores Canadian law, with a focus on legal issues that are relevant to the lives
of people in Canada. Students will gain an understanding of laws relating to rights and
freedoms in Canada; our legal system; and family, contract, employment, tort, and criminal
law. Students will develop legal reasoning skills and will apply the concepts of legal thinking
and the legal studies inquiry process when investigating a range of legal issues and
formulating and communicating informed opinions about them.
Term Work (70% of the final mark)
Unit Title, Big Ideas, and Unit Culminating Tasks
Legal Foundations: Law is based on principles derived from society’s beliefs about what is
fair and just. Legal systems of the past have influenced the Canadian legal system. Canadian
law is administered by individuals and groups working together within the justice system. Law
changes over time in response to a variety of factors, including what society values and
believes in, technological advances, and political trends. Unit test, law in the news
presentation.
Rights and Freedoms: The Canadian Bill of Rights, the Ontario Human Rights Code, the
Canadian Human Rights Act, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms represent
Canadian beliefs about what constitutes a human right. Canadian human rights laws and
their interpretation by the courts are influenced by changing societal values, technological
developments, and political trends. Balancing minority and majority rights is a principle in
Canadian human rights legislation. Canadian law attempts to achieve a balance between the
good of society as a whole and the rights and freedoms of individuals. Unit test, Charter
Freedoms reflection essay.
Civil Law: Tort law provides compensation for people who have been injured by the
wrongdoing of those who had a duty of care. Family law exists to protect all members in
domestic relationships, even when the relationships end. Unit test.
Criminal Law: Criminal law is based on the principle that all members of society deserve to be
protected from wrongdoing. The rules governing the criminal trial process represent an
attempt to balance the rights of the accused and the rights of the victim and society. There
are different perspectives on how effectively the Canadian criminal justice system achieves a
balance between crime control and prevention on the one hand and the principles of justice,
fairness, and the protection of individual rights on the other. Precedent-setting legal cases,
scientific advances, and societal trends have led to changes in Canadian criminal law and the
criminal justice system. Unit test, mock trial.
Culminating Tasks/Exams (30% or the final mark)
Course Culminating Task/Exams and Description
News project, Final exam.
Based on the range of students’ learning needs, a selection from the strategies listed below may be
utilized. Refer to list of teaching and assessment strategies.
Teaching Strategies:
This course provides differentiated learning for its students by implementing the following
teaching and learning strategies:
 Activity-based Strategies: Oral presentations, panel discussion, and repetition and
practice.
 Direct Instruction Strategies: Cloze, demonstration, guided writing, lecturer, mnemonic
devices, practice and drill, prompting, review, visual stimuli, and Socratic dialogue.
 Independent Learning Strategies: Homework, independent reading, independent



study, learning log, memorization, portfolio, reflection, report writing, and response
journals.
Inquiry and Research Model Strategies: Inquiry process, questioning process,
research process, writing process.
Learning skills accommodation: Interpersonal intelligence, intra-personal intelligence,
logical-mathematical intelligence, verbal-linguistic intelligence, and visual spatial
intelligence.
Thinking Skills Strategies: Case study, classifying, concepts verification, concept
mapping, expressing another point of view, issue-based analysis, lateral thinking,
media analysis, meta-cognitive reflection, oral explanation, problem posing, problemsolving, and writing to learn.
Assessment and evaluation strategies:
Our theory of assessment and evaluation follows the Ministry of Education's Growing Success
document, and it is our firm belief that doing so is in the best interests of students. We seek to
design assessment in such a way as to make it possible to gather and show evidence of
learning in a variety of ways to gradually release responsibility to the students, and to give
multiple and varied opportunities to reflect on learning and receive detailed feedback.
Growing Success articulates the vision the Ministry has for the purpose and structure of
assessment and evaluation techniques. There are seven fundamental principles that ensure
best practices and procedures of assessment and evaluation by Virtual High School teachers.
VHS assessments and evaluations,
 are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students;
 support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are
learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First
Nation, Métis, or Inuit;
 are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and,
as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and
experiences of all students;
 are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the course and
at other points throughout the school year or course;
 are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide
multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning;
 provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to
support improved learning and achievement;
 develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning,
set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning.
Textbooks/Learning Resource Materials (align with Policy 603)
Law in Action ISBN: 0-13-040592-2
Fees for Learning Materials/Activities
Learning Materials/Activities
Field trip to Guelph Criminal Court
Cost
$0
Please refer to the GCVI Student Handbook for our school policies on:
● academic integrity
● late and missed assignments