Current Events and The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Rick Mercer Rant Assignment

To gain a better appreciation of how The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is relevant to our lives today, you are asked to explore a current event or issue where a Charter right or freedom was violated. To do this you may choose one of the issues presented by your classmates or a new one you learn about through research. 

Assignment: Once you have chosen an issue, you are asked to create a Rick Mercer style rant (see examples attached) exploring the relationship between this issue and rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Charter.  

Your rant should include:

-An explanation of the issue or incident in a way that people can relate to 

-How a particular right or freedom guaranteed in the Charter was violated. When doing this, use specific language and rights from the Charter to support your position. 


-Explain why this right or freedom that was violated should be guaranteed in the Charter.

To prepare for this begin by watching the examples of Rick Mercer style rants below. Consider how he hooks in his audience, outlines his position, and uses humour, sarcasm, exaggeration along with carefully chosen arguments and supporting evidence to back up his central position. 

Like Rick Mercer's rants, your rant should be about 2-3 minutes long max, which would make it 350-450 words. If you are working with a partner your rant should be no longer than 3 1/2 minutes long. 

A rough draft of your script should be handed in to Edmodo by Wednesday November 28th. 

Once you have received formative feedback, your final rant should be walking or sitting down, videoed and then posted on Vimeo or YouTube (you will need to create an account). If you would like this to be private, change your privacy settings ensuring to include my email: david.s@calgaryscienceschool.com. 



Here is the rubric for this assignment borrowed from the Alberta Assessment Consortium:

Level Criteria	4 Excellent	3 Proficient	2 Adequate	1 Limited *
Explains impact and relevance of Charter on our lives /8	Provides an insightful explanation of the impact and relevance of the Charter in relation to a current event in Canada today.	Provides a thoughtful explanation of the impact and relevance of the Charter in relation to a current event in Canada today.	Provides a suitable explanation of the impact and relevance of the Charter in relation to a current event in Canada today.	Provides an irrelevant explanation of the impact and relevance of the Charter in relation to a current event in Canada today.
Formulates and supports position /8	Formulates a strong and clear position and provides compelling evidence to support position some of which is based on specific language from the Charter.	Formulates solid position and provides convincing evidence to support position some of which is based specific language from the Charter.	Formulates a position that may not be clear and provides simplistic evidence to support position, which may not include evidence from the charter.	Formulates an unclear position and provides inconclusive evidence to support position.
Employs rhetorical devices to communicate position /8	Adopts rhetorical devices like wit, slippery slope argument, sarcasm, analogies, and exaggeration to make the viewer strongly relate to your opinion.	Adopts rhetorical devices like wit, slippery slope argument, sarcasm, analogies, and exaggeration to make the viewer relate to your opinion.	Some rhetorical devices like wit, sarcasm, analogies, and exaggeration may be absent making it hard to relate to your opinion.	Adopts rhetorical devices like wit, sarcasm, analogies, and exaggeration to make the viewer strongly relate to your opinion.
Communicates information /8	Communicates information in a skillful manner to engage the viewer. This includes speaking clearly and fluidly, with conviction and in an animated way.	Communicates information in an effective manner to interest the reader.  This includes speaking mostly clearly, fluidly, with conviction and in an animated way.	Communicates information in a straightforward manner that generally holds the attention of the reader.	Communicates information in an ineffective manner that does little to sustain attention of the reader.

Filming  and Editing of rant /8

Filming and editing is exceptionally professional employing camera tricks similar to Rick Mercer’s rant, camera is steady, sound is clear, and any cuts between takes are seamlessly integrated.

Filming and editing looks professional employing camera tricks similar to Rick Mercer rant, camera is steady, sound is clear, and any cuts between takes are seamlessly integrated.

Filming and editing lacks professionalism employing few camera tricks similar to Rick Mercer rant, camera may not be steady, sound not clear, and any cuts between takes are less than seamlessly integrated.

There are major issues with the filming and editing in terms of sound, transitions between cuts, movement, or other.

Here are two examples of Rick Mercer Rants to use as a guide. Although his rants follow no set formula, you will notice a number of characteristics common to each of his rants:


-He begins by introducing the topic by relating how this issue relates to our lives
-Then he states his position on the issue by first showing how the opposing position is ridiculous, or employs a slippery slope technique to show what would happen if this policy was pursued in the extreme (i.e., if we give the government access to our hard drives next they will want to record our phone conversations), or how the future would be intolerable if we took this position. 
-Ends with a funny, affirmative statement.      

Student example: