While participating in this unit I gained a great understanding about the importance of equality, fairness and the rights of people.  I also learned about the historical significance of social injustice in Canada and Vancouver and its connection to modern day. We looked at the evolution of equality and fairness in Canadian society and concentrated on Vancouver’s Lower Mainland. We focused on investigating past injustices against human rights here and whether injustices are still going on today.  The driving question for this unit was “Through the emergence of Vancouver, was the experience the same for everyone?” I found that the experience wasn’t the same for everyone and some people were treated unfairly. Today, people are treated better but there are still some inequities like when people with disabilities try to come here.

Here are the steps we took for the project.  Our learning took place through group work, individual reading and assignments, in the classroom, with interviews, and out in the field.  We learned about the information from many angles, in the past and the present.  A key part of this project was to record, edit and create a podcast. Our podcast included conversations, interviews, and research.  The goal of the podcast was to research and teach others about a social issue in Vancouver that we were interested in.

The first step in creating our project was to embark on a field study that consisted of visiting the Museum of Vancouver.  The museum’s vision ‘is to inspire a socially connected, civically engaged city’ so it was a good place to go for our research. While we were at the museum we were told to pick a topic that we thought would interest us. After going through the entire museum and seeing all of the exhibits I came to a conclusion that I was most interested in a topic that has really affected Vancouver.  I chose the topic of immigration because so many people have immigrated here from other countries in the past 100 years.

The group that was put together for the immigration Podcast was created by our teacher, Ms.Emily Maxwell Our group consisted of me, Sydney, Reid as well as Claire. Once our team was set up, we set off to work. Our group split up the work and each researched a time period within the requirements. I chose to research the modern laws and requirements for immigrants to be accepted into Canada. I was surprised by the number of immigrants coming to Canada compared to the 1920-30 era because there are more people coming today. The reason why I was surprised was because of the number of requirements that you have to meet in order to enter the country today. While we were at the museum were assigned to make a behind the scenes video for the unit. So here is the video.

After we had all finished doing our research we set off to compile all of the research together and make a script for the podcast.  Ms. Maxwell recommended that we not make the script sound too serious and design it so we could add thoughts as we were recording it to make it sound less scripted. This advice really helped and it made the podcast sound a lot more natural.

We started to record the podcast. As we were recording we realized that the audio was not up to par so by the time we had finished the final draft we had done the recording three times. The best place that we found to record ended up being in a basement.  This was probably because it was so quiet and didn’t pick up minor background noises.

As we were recording the podcast we obtained an interview from a Border Immigration officer named Alex. Alex was very helpful with all of our questions and helped us understand the laws surrounding modern immigration. This was good information for our podcast.  After we had finished all the recordings, the interview,  as well as the music that we made from scratch in Garage Band, we put the podcast up onto SoundCloud for the entire world to listen to. The last part of the podcast assignment was to email the podcast to our interviewee.  So Sydney sent the podcast by email to our interviewee and the podcast was a wrap.  We feel we produced an entertaining and informative podcast in our group. While we were doing the project we were also assigned to read a book. The book that we had to read in a group was called War Child. War Child is about a rapper that was a child solder when he was 11 in Africa. It is a good book and with out spoiling it I will leave it at that.

Through this podcast I learned a lot about immigrating to Canada. The main thing that I am taking away from this project is that not everyone was treated the same when it came to immigration. In the early 1900s, a lot of people were being sent back to where they came from after they had already spent their entire life savings on the trip to make it to Canada. This was often based on racial and cultural discrimination.  Today the immigration game has changed drastically and it is generally much more fair.  Even though there a lot of requirements to enter Canada like education and skills, more people are being allowed into Canada.

https://soundcloud.com/user-302480519/immigration-podcast

The final assignment for this unit was to make a 500-700 word essay about our topic. We each picked a topic within the podcast subject and wrote an essay about it. For my group we picked the topic of immigrants with disabilities. We were arguing that immigrant applicants with disabilities should be treated more fairly and the same way as all Canadians.  Right now some are rejected based on costs but they aren’t given the cost information to defend the decision.  Then the whole family has to leave the country even if some family members are well educated and could pay for extra costs.  This was based on a Global news investigation.  After we had each written an essay we compiled them into one letter that went to Terry Beech. He is a Canadian politician who was elected as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada to represent the federal electoral ward Burnaby North—Seymour.

Overall this project has helped me understand a very important topic that has been in the news a lot lately since so many people want to come to Canada.   I learned what it takes to become a Canadian citizen and it makes me appreciate being a Canadian citizen already.  My ancestors came over from the UK and Austria long time ago.  I learned about all of the immigrants trying to come to Canada who got turned away many years ago based on discrimination.  Lastly, I educated myself on what immigration is about so I can have a strong and informed opinion of what I think immigration should look like.