The Charter Challenge is a joint project lead by Law Day partner, the Ontario Justice Education Network (OJEN). The Challenge is an online exercise for high school students (grades nine thru 12) to help gain a better understanding of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by placing them in a simulated real-world situation. Activities are directly tied to the provincial curricula and help students exercise collaborative and decision-making skills.


Students will use the project web site to gather information, share ideas and debate issues in the online environment. Expert mentors that include members of the judicial system and representatives of various interest groups will provide feedback throughout the project, which will provide students with the necessary background information and a variety of legal opinions relevant to the topic.

Program Objectives

• Increase students’ understanding of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  
• Provide opportunities for students to collaboratively examine fundamental rights, freedoms and human rights issues
  
• Allow students across Canada to share ideas, debate human rights issues and provide peer feedback in real time via video conference and the Internet

Video Conference

The final activity in this year's project will be an online video conference event that will take place in April, 2008 as part of Law Day activities taking place across the country.

Prior to the video conference, students will research and debate their topic and prepare a formal presentation that outlines their solutions to the problem.

There is no cost for this program. Teachers and their students will be provided with an account to gain access to the online simulation.

Information

For more information please visit http://www.ojen.ca/Charter-Challenge-eng.htm.