Rights and Freedoms

How Canada got to be one of the freest countries in the world.

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From the latest teaching newsletter

No Ad-Vantage

Fiction Feature: Quebec said kids’ rights to be protected from advertising was more important than the advertiser’s freedom of speech. And the Supreme Court agreed.

Understanding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

In this lesson, students will trace the important events leading up to the patriation of the Canadian Constitution.

Kate Siklosi’s “hand to object care” and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Students will apply aesthetic and historical thinking skills using the work of Canadian artist Kate Siklosi and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to develop an understanding of historical injustices.

Right(s) On

Have students create a poster to help others understand the rights they are guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — then submit their work for a chance to win a free one-year subscription to Kayak!

Lesson Plans

Helping Students Identify Inquiry Topics

This activity is designed to encourage students to make observations about the world around them.

Crafting Big Questions

This lesson supports students in designing their own inquiry question.

Finding and Assessing Sources

This lesson will encourage students to brainstorm different types of sources they can use to answer their Big Question.

Reflecting on Historical Inquiry

This lesson will help students reflect on what they have learned throughout their inquiry project.

Know a teacher who made a difference?

Nominations for the Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Teaching are accepted all year round.

From the Canada's History Forum

Putting the 'I' in History

Connie Wyatt Anderson is a long-time educator from The Pas, Manitoba. She has been involved in the creation of student learning materials and curricula and has contributed to a number of textbooks, teacher support guides, and school publications.

The Waterdown Platinum Jubilee Treaty Forest

Nathan Tidridge, in partnership with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, established the Souharissen Natural Area in Waterdown, Ontario. This 55-acre educational and cultural space continues to evolve as an outdoor classroom and inspiration for numerous curriculum-based projects.

Enriching Cultural Understanding in the Classroom

Maxine Hildebrandt is a member of Pelican Lake First Nation and a teacher at Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School (MECCS), Canada’s only Indigenous charter school, in Warburg, Alberta. Maxine organized a cultural exchange with another rural school in Alberta to introduce students to each other’s history, culture, and perspectives.

Teaching Black History in Canada

Remembering Africville

The city of Halifax bulldozes a Black settlement that had stood for 150 years, destroying a community but not its spirit.

Africville Note-taking Exercise

This lesson teaches students about the history of Africville, Nova Scotia while also practicing the academic skills of attentive listening, note taking, and summarizing.

The Use of Media in Exploring Afro Indigenous Ancestry

This lesson will ask students to use creative, academic, and observational skills to define terms which are important to understanding Afro Indigenous ancestry and to reflect on how media has been used over time to express important ideas about justice and ethnicity.

Sleeping Car Porters

In this lesson, students will analyze artifacts to learn about the experiences of Black sleeping car porters on the job. 

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