January 2013 edition credits

To Consider

1. The media outside our country rarely cover any political stories about Canada. News stories about Rob Ford have run in Britain, Australia, Sweden, Germany, and – among other places – in the United States. How do you feel about this media coverage? Is it good that these other countries are finally talking about Canada, or not?

2. What is the appeal of an underdog (someone who is seen as unlikely to win a competition)? Do you like people who are underdogs? Do you feel that Rob Ford is an underdog?

3. What qualities would you respect in a person running for mayor?

1. a) What qualities (personality traits) are usually associated with Canadians? List 5 or 6.

b) After you have listed the traits, decide which of these qualities is true (correct in most cases) or false (a misunderstanding or stereotype).

Write “T” or “F” beside each.

2. Review your list and decide what additional qualities you should add in order to have a complete picture of the typical Canadian. Add those qualities to your list.

Viewing Questions

Record your responses to the questions in the spaces provided.

1. Why were some people surprised when Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto?

2. Why was he elected? What qualities did people see in him?

3 a) Record two offensive comments he had made leading up to the election.

b) How did he defend these comments?

4. a) Record the programs he cut or changed early in his term in office to save money.

b) Did they save money?

5. Do you think it is inappropriate for an elected official to give someone the finger if they are angry? Why?

6. a) What happened between Mayor Ford and Toronto Star reporter John Lancaster?

b) Do you think Mayor Ford overreacted, or not?

7. Explain the conflict of interest charges that were brought against Ford.

8. Why do you think that Mayor Ford says the charges are a conspiracy against him?

Post-viewing Questions

1. Review the list of qualities you created for the typical Canadian in the pre-viewing activity. Reflect on what you learned about Rob Ford in this video story. Does he fit the mold of a typical Canadian? Explain your answer.

2. Do you think it is important that all politicians act and behave in a certain way? That is, is there a set of standards that politicians should strive to achieve? Why or why not?

3. In the video you learned that people living in England, and the United States are familiar with Rob Ford because of the media coverage he has attracted. Does it bother you that this is the image of Canadian politics that is being depicted to the international community? Explain.

ACTIVITY: Looking for Continuity and Change


Additional Research

Good sources of information on Rob Ford include:

• 
  CBC News, www.cbc.ca/news/
  
• 
  The Toronto Star, www.thestar.com
  
• 
  The National Post, www.nationalpost.com
  
• 
  Maclean’s magazine, www2.macleans.ca
  

Copy the following organizer into your notebook and complete with a partner. You will need to do additional research to find quotes from Rob Ford that relate to each of the topics in the chart. You may need to watch the video again to complete the chart.

You can also consider doing this exercise about your own local mayor. Modify the first column in the chart to reflect key local issues.

When you have finished recording and discussing the information, complete the Analysis questions that follow.

	Before the Election	After the Election
Rob Ford’s behaviour inside city council chambers
Rob Ford’s attitude toward homosexuality
Rob Ford’s attitude toward cyclists
Rob Ford’s opinion on public transit
Rob Ford’s attitude toward the homeless and homeless shelters
Rob Ford’s opinion on immigrants

Analysis

1. Review the information in your chart. Would you say there has been more continuity or more change in Rob Ford’s (or your mayor’s) opinions/attitudes across the columns? Or an equal amount of both?

2. Do you think voters like it when politicians remain consistent in their attitudes and opinions, or are voters accepting of change?

3. One thing we know about voter behaviour is that voters opt for a change when they cast their ballots during an economic downturn. What other lessons can be learned from the most recent local election in your area?

SETTING THE STAGE

Assassination

In an attack that demonstrated the precision and tactical efficiency of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari was assassinated in a brutal air strike that targeted his car as it made its way down a street in Gaza. Israel claimed the attack was justified after Hamas forces spent months firing rockets out of the volatile Gaza Strip toward targets in Israel. The IDF announced the killing of Jabari via Twitter just minutes after the assassination and then unleashed a series of bombardments on 20 other Hamas strongholds in Gaza.

Israel’s show of force

What ensued was eight days of tension in the Middle East region where such episodes have been all too common since the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. According to some estimates, Israelis are subject to close to 700 rocket attacks a year from Hamas and over half of the nation’s population is within striking range. After an apparent escalation in Hamas attacks through the fall of 2012, the IDF put Operation Pillar of Defense into play. The assassination of Jabari and the initial bombs were just the tip of the iceberg. During the weeklong conflict, the IDF struck over 1 500 sites within Gaza, killing over 160 Palestinians (103 of whom were civilians according to the United Nations). And, from the outset, Israel threatened a ground invasion of Gaza, calling up 75 000 army reservists to back up their threat.

Hamas’ response

For its part, Hamas started firing every rocket they could muster at their Israeli neighbours after hostilities began on November 14. Almost 1 400 rockets were launched from Gaza with close to 60 hitting heavily populated urban areas including one rocket that struck the suburbs of Tel Aviv (the first rocket to hit Israel’s capital since the Gulf War of 1991) and another that hit Jerusalem (striking the holy city of Islam and Judaism for the very first time). In all, only six Israeli’s lost their lives in the rocket attacks, thanks in large part to the IDF’s Iron Dome – the nation’s air defense system that intercepted close to 400 Hamas rockets (though the IDF claims that their interception rate was over 80 per cent).

The diplomats arrive


Did you know?

Hamas fired close to 1,400 rockets at Israel during the conflict in November 2012. Of those rockets, about 150 never made it out of Gaza, roughly 400 were intercepted, almost 900 fell in open areas, and nearly 60 hit urban areas in Israel.

Source: The Economist, Gaza abacus
November 19, 2012
With the might of the Israeli army threatening to escalate its attack on Gaza, the international community stepped up its efforts to try to get the two sides to agree to a ceasefire. Nations like the United States, Canada and Britain defended Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas but encouraged their Israeli ally to stand down when it came to the threat of a ground attack. Meanwhile, Hamas found support with a number of Arab states including Iran (the main supplier of arms to Hamas militants), Egypt (the nation from which the arms are smuggled into Gaza via a network of tunnels on the Gaza-Egyptian border) and Turkey. Before the tense eight days had passed, heavyweight diplomats like United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon, United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr brought their influence to the table to try to bring the combatants together. Outside the negotiating room, US President Barack Obama and Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi were believed to have played critical roles in getting Israel and Hamas to suspend hostilities. On November 21, after intense negotiations at Egypt’s intelligence headquarters in Cairo, Clinton and Amr announced the end of hostilities and the beginning of a ceasefire.

Victory (?)

With the ceasefire came posturing on both sides. Israel claimed that their military solution had brought Hamas to its knees and created an end (however brief) to the escalating rocket attacks. Meanwhile Hamas claimed that the international attention brought to bear on the crisis showed that they were a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East. While western countries like Canada and the United States agree with Israel’s depiction of Hamas as a terrorist group, the fact that the conflict could attract the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Secretary of State of the United States lent some credence to the claim that Hamas was a powerful organization. While both sides claimed victory, the world held its collective breath as the tenuous ceasefire held itself together.

Checking Understanding

1. How did the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas begin?

2. How forceful was Israel’s response to the ongoing threats posed by Hamas?

3. How successful was Hamas’ response to Israel’s attack?

4. What role did international diplomats play in negotiating a ceasefire?

5. Who emerged victorious at the end of the conflict?

VIDEO REVIEW

Pre-viewing Questions

Israel was been at odds with Palestinian militants since its creation in 1948. If you look at a map of Israel you will notice that the Palestinian people are located in a small pocket on the coast called the Gaza Strip and a larger inland area called the West Bank. The land mass separating the two areas is the state of Israel. Keep in mind that Israel is in charge of the entire area.

1. What problems do you think this poses for the Palestinians?

Viewing Questions

1. What happened to Ahmed Jabari on November 14, 2012?

2. What role did Twitter play in the announcement of what happened to Jabari?

3. What did Israel do shortly after taking action against Jabari?

4. How did Egypt respond to the attack on Gaza?

5. What message did United Nations Security Council President Hardeep Singh Puri and Canadian Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay echo in the wake of the renewed conflict between Israel and Hamas?

6. Why does Peter MacKay think that the Middle East is too volatile a region for the world community to allow things to get out of hand?

7. a) What message did countries like Canada, France, Russia and Britain consistently send to Israel and Hamas over the course of the conflict?

b) How did Israel respond to this message?

8. What role did the United State expect Egypt to play when it came to the Hamas-Israel conflict? Does this role match the expectations of people in the Muslim Brotherhood?

9. Describe the plight of the people of Gaza a week after the conflict began.

10. Why did civilian deaths in Gaza spike as the conflict raged on?

11. How has life changed for people living in the Yad Mardechai Kibbutz?

12. What fears do the people living close to the Israel-Gaza border have about living in a conflict ridden Middle East?

13. What unintended consequences came out of the ceasefire?

Post-viewing Questions

1. In his interview with Peter Mansbridge, Minister of Defence Peter MacKay maintained that Canada could play a role in peace discussions even though they are clearly on Israel’s side? Do you think this is a realistic position?

2. In the end, Egypt played the role of mediator in the conflict; thus meeting the expectations established by the United States (who promised Egypt millions of dollars in aid money). This surprised some people because new Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi is part of the same Muslim Brotherhood as many members of Hamas. Based on this information, why do you think many international observers are very concerned about Egypt’s commitment to peace between Israel and the Palestinians?

ACTIVITY: Social Media

Minds-On Activity

1. Do you use social media services like Facebook and Twitter? Describe how you use these social media sites on a typical day.

2. Are there any activities that the social media sites prohibit? For example, what policies do these sites have when it comes to posting violent or provocative images?

3. Do you think that government agencies should be allowed to use social media to promote their work? Should there be limits placed on a government’s use of social media to promote itself?

The Tweets of War

In her article “The Tweets of War,” Emily Greenhouse describes how the Israel Defense Force (IDF) used social media to provide a narrative of their attack on Hamas. Read the examples listed below and complete the activity that follows:

• 
  The IDF announced the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense on Twitter: “The IDF has begun a widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the Gaza Strip, chief among them Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets.” A few minutes later they announce the assassination of Hamas’ military leader: “The first target, hit minutes ago, was Ahmed Al-Jabari, head of the Hamas military wing.”
  
• 
  Later the IDF tweeted a distorted mug shot of Jabari with the word “eliminated” written at the bottom of the picture.
  
• 
  A few days into the conflict, the IDF tweeted: “Since the beginning of 2012, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired 768 rockets into Israel” followed by this bold tweet “All options are on the table. If necessary, the IDF is ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza.”
  
• 
  The IDF’s Flickr account showed photos of Hamas rocket launch pads with detailed graphics explaining what was in the photo.
  
• 
  The IDF also used Tumblr to show followers leaflets that were distributed in Gaza that warned people to “take responsibility for yourselves and avoid being present in the vicinity of Hamas operatives and facilities and those of other terror organizations that pose a risk to your safety…until quiet is restored in the region.” This showed the IDF’s acknowledgment that some collateral damage could result if people didn’t distance themselves from Hamas.
  

According to Greenhouse, this use of social media is unprecedented. Certainly social media has been used by citizens during populist uprisings like the Arab Spring to organize and spread the news, but this is the first time a government has used social media as a propaganda tool in its effort to provide a play-by-play of its military efforts.

Source: “The Tweets of War” by Emily Greenhouse. The New Yorker (online), November 19, 2012

ACTIVITY: Take a Stand

In a 150-300 word opinion paragraph, state whether or not you agree with the IDF’s use of social media to deliver its message. Focus on why you feel the IDF should or should not have used Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr to communicate to their followers. Overall, do you feel social media was intended to be used in the manner that the IDF used it.

SETTING THE STAGE

The birth of a “Frankenstorm”

Meteorologists knew the storm was going to be huge as it ripped through the Caribbean islands and began heading north along the Eastern Seaboard. Besides the fact that the tropical storm had been upgraded to a hurricane, experts noted that a “block” in the jet stream caused by a high pressure cell over Greenland meant that the storm would not follow the typical pattern of blowing out to sea. Instead, it would turn west and hit the northern United States with tremendous force. Combine this with the fact that the storm was scheduled to hit at high tide on a full moon and it became clear that the media wasn’t out of line when it called Superstorm Sandy a “Frankenstorm.”

Sandy packs a punch

And the “Frankenstorm” sure packed a punch! After wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, the storm made landfall in the U.S. around 8:00 pm on October 29, 2012. Sandy pounded Atlantic City, New Jersey, before making its way through 24 states (over 30 per cent of the continental U.S.), eventually petering out as it moved out of Pennsylvania.

Sandy’s devastation was profound: over 250 people were killed (including 131 in the United States and two people in Canada), thousands of homes and business were damaged or destroyed, and vital infrastructure was shattered from the streets of Jamaica to the mountains of the northern United States. At its largest, Superstorm Sandy stretched over 1 500 kilometres in diameter with wind speeds consistently over 100 km/hr. In its wake, Superstorm Sandy left over eight million people without power in the United States, some going without electricity for several days. Insurance companies braced themselves for the $20 billion in claims that started streaming in and financial experts pegged the economic costs of the storm at over $60 billion in the U.S. alone.

Blanket coverage of storm

Media coverage of the damage done by Sandy as it hit the U.S. was extensive. Images of waves destroying beachfront communities were all over the news. Cameras were glued to a crane, knocked down by Sandy’s high winds, dangling precariously over midtown Manhattan. There was also extensive footage of the famous Atlantic City boardwalk, twisted and destroyed by the force of the storm. Meanwhile, coverage of a huge fire that engulfed a neighbourhood in Queens, destroying over 80 homes, captured the attention of people around the world. It was an incredibly well documented storm and media personnel were on hand to make sure viewers were able to see what they wanted to see.

Caused by climate change

While coverage of the effects of the storm were plentiful, reports linking Superstorm Sandy to climate change were buried beneath a mountain of journalism dealing with property damage and the effects of the storm on the economy. Meanwhile, climatologists were quick to point out that Superstorm Sandy was likely a by-product of global climate change. Unfortunately, this perspective was given limited attention. According to the experts, carbon emissions have caused ocean temperatures to steadily rise over the years. Warm ocean temperatures create an environment conducive to extreme weather events. As a result, so-called “once in a lifetime” storms are now common occurrences. Members of the scientific community were hoping that media coverage of the storm would lead to renewed interest in climate change initiatives. However, in the days following Superstorm Sandy, the devastation dominated the news cycle while the causes of the storm were left for the scientific community to ponder and debate into the future.

To Consider

1. Why did the media refer to Superstorm Sandy as a “Frankenstorm”?

2. List four points that demonstrate the power of Superstorm Sandy.

3. a) What did the media coverage of the storm focus on?

b) What did the scientific community hope that the media would focus on? Why?

VIDEO REVIEW

Pre-viewing Activity

Work with a partner and discuss the topic of extreme weather:

• 
  Describe the most extreme weather conditions your have experienced (e.g. high winds, blizzards, flooding, hurricanes, etc.)
  
• 
  Was the extreme weather you experienced dangerous or life threatening?
  
• 
  Do you feel adequately prepared for extreme weather events?
  
• 
  Do you worry that there may be more extreme weather events in the future?
  

Viewing Questions

1. Why does the introduction to the documentary refer to Hurricane Sandy as a “Frankenstorm”? What evidence was there to support this description?

2. What precautions did people living along the Eastern Seaboard need to take as the storm approached?

3. How many people did meteorologist Claire Martin think could be affected by the storm?

4. What troubling weather development created a situation where Sandy could be a potential “perfect storm”?

5. What establishments closed their doors (and this never happens!) due to the imminent threat of the storm?

6. How many people did storm watchers worry would lose their electricity if Superstorm Sandy travelled along its predicted course?

7. Why did the timing of the storm surge concern experts? Besides high tide, what other factors demonstrated that many natural events were aligning to make this a huge storm threat?

8. Why did officials fear that skepticism might lead to fatalities?

9. How many kilometres wide was the storm?

10. Describe some of the damage Superstorm Sandy delivered as it smashed into the Eastern Seaboard.

11. How much of the United States was effected by the storm?

12. How badly hit was New York City? Describe some of the things people had to deal with as the storm raged on.

13. How many people were without power in the wake of Superstorm Sandy?

14. How much money do some analysts think it will take to fix the structural damage done by Superstorm Sandy?

Post-viewing

1. Do you think the emergence of Superstorm Sandy is a reflection of climate change?

2. Do you think coastal cities need to invest more in combating future storms?

3. What if combating these storms means raising taxes? Is it worth the financial investment?

ACTIVITY: Write a News Report

Use the following information to prepare a news report on Hurricane Sandy:

October 19 – a tropical wave in the Caribbean Sea coverts to a tropical depression then a tropical storm within a six-hour period.

October 24 - Tropical Storm Sandy (the 18th named storm of 2012) is upgraded to a hurricane. With wind speeds of 120 km/hr, Hurricane Sandy batters Jamaica, killing one and causing over $50 million in damages. The hurricane then crosses Haiti (killing over 100) and the Dominican Republic (killing two), causing over $100 million in damages.

October 25 – Hurricane Sandy hits Cuba, killing 11 and causing $2 billion in damages.

October 26 – Hurricane Sandy hits the Bahamas, killing 2 and causing $200 million in damages.

October 26-27 – Hurricane Sandy weakens to a tropical storm but then regains hurricane strength and moves toward the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

October 28 – Hurricane Sandy moves out to sea but its periphery batters the U.S. east coast with rain and high waves.

October 29 – Hurricane Sandy turns northwest and heads toward New Jersey and New York. Downgraded to a post-tropical nor’easter, the storm hits the U.S. near Atlantic City, New Jersey, around 8:00pm local time. The storm hits at high tide and, because of the full moon, water levels are up to 20 per cent higher than normal as the storm begins its assault. Wind speeds approach 130 km/hr.

Shortly after touching down in Atlantic City, Superstorm Sandy hits New York City. The storm surge generates record high waves of over four metres as water spills over sea walls and floods lower Manhattan. Lower Manhattan subway stations around Battery Park are underwater.

October 30 – the New York Subway and the New York Stock Exchange shut down for the day. The storm moves inland. High winds could be felt as far away as Toronto. Two Canadians are killed (a woman in Toronto and a hydro worker in Sarnia). An estimated $100 million of damages are recorded in Canada.

By the end of October 31, the storm weakens as it moves out of Pennsylvania. At its peak, over eight million people are without power in 15 U.S. states.

In all, over 250 people are killed by the storm as it moves from Cuba to Canada over 10 days.

In the U.S., 131 people are killed in the storm and damages approaching $60 billion are reported.

Source: “News Watch: A timeline of Hurricane Sandy’s path of destruction.” National Geographic, November 2, 2012.

Writing tips:

1. Avoid trying to squeeze all the information into your report. Pick and choose the information that you feel is most important.

2. Use the information to tell a story. Try not to just throw a bunch of facts at your reader.

Length of news report: 250-500 words

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