• Sample topics:
  • forms of government and decision-making models (e.g., parliamentary democracy, constitutional monarchy, consensus, autocracy, republic, monarchy, democracy, theocracy)
  • consensus-based governance (e.g., Nunavut) and First Peoples self-governance models (e.g., Sechelt, Nisga'a, Tsawwassen)
  • models for classifying political and economic ideologies (e.g., linear left/right; two-dimensional, such as political compass)
  • ideologies (e.g., socialism, communism, capitalism, fascism, liberalism, conservatism, environmentalism, libertarianism, authoritarianism, feminism)
  • levels and branches of government:
    • local, regional, territorial, provincial, federal
    • executive, legislative, judicial
  • Indian Act:
    • Crown- and federal government–imposed governance structures on First Peoples communities (e.g., band councils)
    • title, treaties, and land claims (e.g., Nisga'a Treaty, Haida Gwaii Strategic Land Use Decision, Tsilhqot'in decision)
  • Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • elections and electoral systems:
    • election campaigns
    • minority and majority governments
    • proposals for electoral reform and alternative election systems

• Sample topics:
  • environmental issues, including climate change, renewable energy, overconsumption, water quality, food security, conservation
  • stakeholders (e.g., First Peoples; industry and corporate leaders; local citizens; grassroots movements; special interest groups, including environmental organizations)
  • other considerations in policy development, including cultural, societal, spiritual, land use, environmental
  • social welfare programs (e.g., health care, education, basic income)
  • national programs and projects:
    • national climate strategy, including carbon pricing and ending of coal-fired electricity generation
    • stimulus programs, infrastructure projects
  • trade agreements:
    • NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement)
    • Trans-Pacific Partnership

• Sample topics:
  • Canada and Britain (e.g., World War I; Statute of Westminster; Constitution Act, 1982)
  • Canada and the United States (e.g., free trade, bilateral defence, Montreal Protocol on acid rain)
  • Canada and the world (e.g., League of Nations, World War II, United Nations, Paris Climate Agreement)
  • Canada (treaties with First Peoples, Quebec sovereignty movements)

• Sample topics:
  • First Peoples identities (e.g., status, non-status, First Nations, Metis, Inuit)
  • Francophone identities (e.g., Franco-Ontarian, Acadian, Quebecois, Metis, bilingual)
  • immigration and multiculturalism:
    • immigration and refugee policies and practices
    • bilingualism and biculturalism (Official Languages Act)
    • multiculturalism policy (Canadian Multiculturalism Act)
    • cultural identities of subsequent generations (e.g., second-generation Japanese Canadian versus Canadian of Japanese descent versus Canadian)
  • manifestations or representations :
    • First Peoples arts, traditions, languages
    • place-based identities and sense of belonging (e.g., Haida Gwaii versus Queen Charlotte Islands; “up North” and “back East”; affinity for ocean air, wide-open spaces; spiritual ancestors)
    • media and art (e.g., CBC radio and television, Group of Seven, National Film Board, Canadian content)
    • scientific and technological innovations (e.g., snowmobile, insulin)
    • sports and international sporting events (e.g., hockey, Olympics)

• Sample topics:
  • Discriminatory policies and injustices against First Nations:
    • The Indian Act
    • Indian hospitals
    • enfranchisement
    • banning of governance and cultural ceremonies (e.g., pot-latch)
    • reserves
    • pass system
    • restrictions on land use
    • lack of voting rights
    • ban on hiring lawyers to pursue legal actions (including treaty)
    • Sixties Scoop
    • birth alerts (connected to Millennial Scoop)
    • forced sterilizations
    • the White Paper 
    • nutrition experiments 
    • overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system
    • cultural genocide as described by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
       

Sample topics:

• The Holocaust and Nazi atrocities
  • life before the Holocaust, including the existence of well-integrated and thriving Jewish communities in many countries throughout Europe
  • the rise of discrimination, racism, and antisemitism in Europe (e.g., social and political effects before and after WWI; development of imperialism, nationalism, racism, inferior race theory, and eugenics; ancient roots of antisemitism in Europe, discrimination against the Sinti and Roma)
  • the main beliefs of Nazi ideology and the process behind Hitler’s rise to power in democratic Germany (e.g., Hitler becoming Chancellor and using the 1933 Enabling Act to gain dictatorial powers)
  • denial of Jewish immigrants by Canada and other nations during the interwar years (e.g., MS St. Louis in 1939)
  • the evolution of displacement, persecution, and violence into mass killing operations by the Nazis (e.g., Nazi racial ideology and the concepts of Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) and Lebensraum, forced sterilizations, the Nuremberg Laws, development of concentration camps, Kristallnacht, ‘euthanasia’ killings (T4 program), ‘Holocaust by Bullets’ and the Einsatzgruppen mass shootings, the Wannsee Conference and the ‘Final Solution and death camps – e.g., Auschwitz-Birkenau)
  • individuals and groups targeted by the Nazis as part of the Holocaust and other systematic persecutions (e.g., Jews as the primary target of Nazi persecution, along with other groups including Sinti and Roma, Eastern European civilians, persons with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witness, Black people, political opponents, prisoners of war)
  • the scale and singularity of the Holocaust and the murder of 6 million Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe as part of the Nazi plan for complete physical annihilation of the Jewish people
  • stories of resistance and resilience during the Holocaust
  • aftermath of the Holocaust (e.g., overcoming trauma and loss, rebuilding lives, and the pursuit of justice through venues like the Nuremburg Trials)
  • the development of the concept of genocide by Raphael Lemkin to identify and prevent similar atrocities (e.g., the Holocaust as the paradigmatic example of genocide, the Genocide Convention, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
  • Additional topics related to the concept of genocide
    • the Ten Stages of Genocide as published by Genocide Watch
    • other internationally recognized genocides during the 20th and 21st centuries (e.g., Armenian, Holodomor, Khmer Rouge, Rwanda, and Darfur) and the 2020 recognition of the Roma Genocide by the Canadian Parliament 

• Sample topics:
  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and calls to action (e.g., access to elders and First Peoples healing practices for First Peoples patients; appropriate commemoration ceremonies and burial markers for children who died at residential schools)
  • human rights tribunals
  • Canadian Bill of Rights and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Supreme Court challenges
  • international declarations (e.g., UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child; UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)
  • anti-racism education and actions
  • First Peoples protest and advocacy movements (e.g., National Indian Brotherhood, Oka Crisis, Idle No More)
  • other protest and advocacy movements (e.g., Pride, women’s liberation, inclusion)
  • redress movements for historic wrongs (e.g., Japanese-Canadian Legacy Project, Truth and Reconciliation)
  • federal and provincial apologies (e.g., apology for Chinese Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act; Chinese Historical Wrongs Consultation Final Report and Recommendations regarding head tax and discriminatory treatment of Chinese immigrants; apologies for internments, residential schools, Komagata Maru)

• Sample topics:
  • Canadian constitutional issues:
    • Meech Lake Accord
    • Charlottetown Accord
    • Calgary Declaration
  • Quebec sovereignty:
    • Quiet Revolution
    • October Crisis
    • Parti Québécois
    • Bloc Québécois
    • Bill 101
    • 1980 and 1995 referenda
  • First Peoples actions:
    • involvement in Meech Lake Accord
    • Oka Crisis, Gustafsen Lake Standoff, Ipperwash Crisis, Shannon’s Dream (Attawapiskat)
    • Idle No More
  • national and regional First Peoples organizations:
    • National Indian Brotherhood
    • Assembly of First Nations

• Sample topics:
  • global armed conflicts and Canada’s role in them (e.g., World War II, Korea, Suez, Cyprus, Gulf War, Somalia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Syria)
  • non-participation in global armed conflicts (e.g., Chanak Crisis, Vietnam War, Iraq War)
  • involvement in international organizations and agreements, including League of Nations, United Nations, La Francophonie, Commonwealth, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), Group of Seven (G7), NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), WTO (World Trade Organization), Paris Climate Agreement, Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement, Ottawa Treaty
  • support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

• Key skills:
  • Draw conclusions about a problem, an issue, or a topic.
  • Assess and defend a variety of positions on a problem, an issue, or a topic.
  • Demonstrate leadership by planning, implementing, and assessing strategies to address a problem or an issue.
  • Identify and clarify a problem or issue.
  • Evaluate and organize collected data (e.g., in outlines, summaries, notes, timelines, charts).
  • Interpret information and data from a variety of maps, graphs, and tables.
  • Interpret and present data in a variety of forms (e.g., oral, written, and graphic).
  • Accurately cite sources.
  • Construct graphs, tables, and maps to communicate ideas and information, demonstrating appropriate use of grids, scales, legends, and contours.

• Key questions:
  • How relevant is Canadian content in a global digital world?
  • What is the role of place in Canadians’ sense of belonging and identity?
• Sample activities:
  • Select significant people to include in a museum display on women’s suffrage.
  • Determine how the significance of Vimy Ridge has changed since the dedication of the Vimy Memorial.

• Key question:
  • Whose stories are told and whose stories are missing in the narratives of Canadian history?
• Sample activities:
  • Assess the coverage of significant political decisions from different media outlets.
  • Recognize implicit and explicit ethical judgments in a variety of sources.

• Key questions:
  • How has the Canadian government’s relationship with First Peoples regarding treaties and land use changed or stayed the same?
  • How have Canada’s immigration and refugee policies changed?
  • How has Canadian identity changed or stayed the same?

• Key questions:
  • To what extent have First Peoples influenced the development of economic and political policy in Canada?
  • How do humans’ relationships with land impact political and economic ideologies?
  • How do different political parties address historical or contemporary problems?
  • What are the causes and consequences of Canada’s multiculturalism policies?
  • To what extent do citizens influence the legislative process?

• Key question:
  • How do art, media, and innovation inform a shared collective identity?

• Key questions:
  • To what extent has Canada’s multiculturalism policy been successfully implemented?
  • How successful has Canada’s bilingual policy been, and to what extent is it still necessary?
  • What are the strengths and limitations of different forms of government?
  • Should the Canadian Senate be abolished, reformed, replaced, or maintained?
  • Should the electoral system in Canada be reformed?