Source 1: Political Cartoons

Analyze one of the following cartoons below:

Source 1: Political Cartoon

Political Cartoon Choice:
1. What do you see in the cartoon? List any of the following that appear:
People or characters
Text or speeches
Any other important
details (Symbols,
references, etc.)

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2. What seems to be happening in this cartoon?

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3. What is the issue being highlighted in this cartoon?

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4. What seems to be the cartoonists position on this issue? Are they in favour or against
Canadas justice system? What do they like or dislike about it?

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5. In a brief paragraph, explain your opinion on this issue. Do you agree with the cartoonist or
not regarding Canadas justice system?

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Section Total:

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Source 2: Newspaper Article

Analyze one of the following newspaper articles below:
Article 1:
Conservatives vow to toughen youth justice act
Youth 14 and over would be named when convicted of serious crimes
CBC News Posted: Sep 22, 2008 10:30 AM

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said tougher sentences for young people
who commit crimes will serve as a deterrent.
Stephen Harper vowed Monday that a re-elected Conservative government
would reduce protections under the Youth Criminal Justice Act for young
people convicted of serious crimes.
Under the Conservative leader's proposal, young people 14 and over found
guilty of crimes such as manslaughter, murder or aggravated assault would
face tougher sentences, and no longer have their identities protected.
The act currently forbids the release of young offenders' identities, unless the accused are found guilty and handed
adult sentences.
Judges would also be allowed to decide whether a young offender who is convicted again for a less serious crime
should be identified.
"Of course offenders have rights," said Harper while campaigning in Ottawa for the Oct. 14 federal election. "But we
believe those rights must be balanced with responsibilities, and that victims have rights too."

Liberals, BQ against Tory youth crime plan

Harper said the tougher sentences would act as a deterrent for would-be criminals.
"In this new legislation, the main purpose will be not only to rehabilitate young offenders, but also to protect society,
and the primary goal of sentencing will be to deter others from violating the law," Harper said at an event.
The Conservative leader acknowledged that crime rates have fallen in many areas in recent years, but said violent
crime by young offenders increased 30 per cent between 1991 and 2006.
"Frankly, you cannot rehabilitate somebody unless you drive home to them the seriousness of very violent crimes,"
said Harper.
Liberals said the Conservative proposal won't make Canada safer and compared it to attempts in several U.S. states,
where they claim slapping young people with harsher sentences failed to reduce crime rates.
"It's the wrong approach," Liberal Leader Stphane Dion said, after unveiling his party's platform in Ottawa.
Dion said his party's platform contained a crime-reduction strategy based on the approaches of previous Liberal
governments, which he said have brought the lowest crime rate in 20 years.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe also decried the Tory plan. "This is the Republican way of the United States,
more people in prison, more arms in circulation," Duceppe said Monday. "I don't want to live in that society."

Article 2:

Youth justice reforms called backwards step

N.B. child/youth advocate criticizes federal youth justice changes
CBC News Posted: Jun 11, 2010 6:50 AM AT Last Updated: Jun 11, 2010 11:14 AM AT

Bernard Richard, New Brunswick's child and youth advocate (protector), is calling the federal government's proposed
youth justice changes a step backwards.
Bernard Richard told the House of Commons standing committee on justice and human rights on Thursday that the
federal government's proposed changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act would send more young people to jail.
"It's a totally different approach. I think we're going backwards, back to the Young Offenders Act, which allowed us to
have an extremely high incarceration (jail) rate of youth as compared to other advanced, civilized nations," Richard
said.
Richard told the Commons committee he worries the proposed changes will lead to more spending on jails.
He also told the federal politicians he's concerned that if the reforms are implemented there may be less money spent
on innovative (outside the box) approaches to treating young people with mental health or severe behaviour
disorders.
To illustrate his concerns, Richard raised the tragic case of Moncton teenager Ashley Smith, who died in an Ontario
prison when she was 19 in October 2007.
Smith was sentenced to a month at the Miramichi Youth Centre in 2004. But the Moncton girl remained in custody for
more than three years, racking up internal charges that kept her in the detention centre.
She eventually made it into the adult system where she ended up at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in
Kitchener, Ont.
Smith choked herself to death in a prison cell, prompting an investigation by Richard as well the federal correctional
investigator.
"During those three years, she spent two-thirds of her time in a solitary 8x10 cell with the lights turned on 24 hours a
day," Richard told the committee. "And if she didn't suffer from mental illness when she went in she would have when
she came out and I would have as well."
The Conservative government unveiled the proposed reforms to the Youth Criminal Justice Act in March.
The changes are intended to give judges the power to consider non-criminal behaviour when sentencing Canadians
under age 18. The proposed changes come as youth crime is on the decline in Canada.

Source 2: Newspaper Article

Article Choice:
1. What is the article about? Briefly (2-3 Sentences) summarize the article.

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2. What is the issue being highlighted in this article?

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3. Are there any biases present in this article? If so, who is the author biased towards?

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6. In a brief paragraph, explain your opinion on this issue. Do you agree or disagree with the
proposed reforms to the youth justice system?

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Section Total:

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Source 3: Your Choice

Choose a source of your own, and complete an analysis in the space below. You may choose
any type of source, such as a political cartoon, a newspaper article, a clip from a news show,
etc. Your analysis must be in the form of a paragraph, but still contain the components from the
section above, including:
1. Source information
a. Copy and paste your source in the space below

b. Provide the link for the website you found your source from

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2. Briefly summarize the source

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3. What is the main issue in the source?

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4. In a brief paragraph, explain your opinion on the issue you found in the source. What are
your thoughts and opinions on what the source says about Canadas justice system?

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Section Total:

Assignment Total

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