SmThesis Statement Rubric Copy

8/12/2019 SmThesis Statement Rubric Copy

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Canadian Politics

Thesis Statement and Working Bibliography Rubric

Thesis Statement: 5 marks

2 marks is a topic clearly articulated and related to course content.

3 marks clarity: is there a clear and discernable link between the dependent andindependent variables.

The aggressive efforts of the Canadian government to expand production of the AlbertaTar Sands are unethical and irresponsible. These federal actions are undemocratic in theirlack of transparency, are violating basic human rights, and seriously damaging ourinternational reputation and global responsibility.

Thesis Variables: 6 marks

1 mark for each clearly articulated independent variable and one half mark for eachsupporting piece of evidence.

Variable 1:

Transparency - illegitimate sudies

http://go.galegroup.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CA302664071&v=2.1&u=ko_acd_shc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&authCount=1

DECEPTIONScott Vaughan, Canada's Commissioner of theEnvironment and Sustainable Development, also doesn't shareKent's rather sanguine appraisal of Canada's environmentalrecord, at least as it relates to environmental assessment in the


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tar sands. Vaughan, whose job is to inform Parliament about howwell the federal government is managing its environmental andsustainable development commitments, completed two auditsrelated to environmental assessment in 2009 and found "a

number of serious deficiencies in how assessments are planned,carried out and followed up on." Last October, he releasedanother damning report examining whether environmentalassessments had adequately considered the cumulativeenvironmental impacts of five of Alberta's tar sands mines--Suncor's Project Millennium, Canadian Natural Resources' HorizonOil Sands Project, Shell's Jackpine Mine Project and Muskeg RiverMine, and Imperial Oil's Kearl Oil Sands Project. The results were

sobering.

According to Vaughan's report, Fisheries and Oceans Canada andEnvironment Canada failed to "consider in a thorough andsystematic manner the cumulative environmental effects of oilsands projects in that region." Federal government staff"repeatedly pointed to gaps in environmental data and scientificinformation related to the potential cumulative impact of oilsands projects on water quantity and quality, fish and fish

habitat, land and wildlife, and air." They pointed to "insufficientinformation on the potential acidification of water bodies innorthern Saskatchewan; a lack of baseline data for assessing theimpact of projects on wildlife corridors; and uncertainties andincomplete information regarding the impacts of stream flowrates, tailings [ponds] and other water issues, such as thepotential impact of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons extendingas far as Great Slave Lake." And yet, despite these shortcomings,every single one of the projects was approved.

Also troubling is the fact that the Jobs, Growth and Long-termProsperity Act downloads much of the responsibility forenvironmental assessment to provincial governments. Theenvironmental assessment process in most provinces, includingAlberta, is weaker than the original federal process. Also, Alberta


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degrees. By planning to burn this incredible sum of carbon, the Government iscompromising Canadian citizen's right to life.

http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2013/12/how-climate-change-destroys-human-rights-20131217174532837148.html

http://search.proquest.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/docview/1420263869/fulltextPDF?accountid=3455

http://search.proquest.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/docview/216913872

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e669251d-3525-4bdf-9341-79b3cb374454%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=128

http://www.yjil.org/docs/pub/37-2-hall-weiss-avoiding-adaptation-apartheid.pdf

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1645346


Variable 3:

International Responsibility as a developed country

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/how-canada-can-restore-its-reputation-on-climate-change/article1205436/

http://site.ebrary.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/lib/ocls/docDetail.action?docID=10418747



XL

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6aedce1e-7d93-4fb1-a0c4-dfc2a3c953e4%40sessionmgr110&vid=1&hid=128

DECEPTION The Harper government forecasts more than 500major energy and mining projects over the next decade,


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representing half a trillion dollars of new investments andhundreds of thousands of new, high-paying jobs. The world is ouroyster: a tar sands revolution, a booming economy and energysuperpowerdom are on the horizon.

SYMPOSIUM In the words of UNESCO's advisory World Commissionon the Ethics of Science and Technology: "What is alreadyunequivocally known about global climate change is that it poses a riskof ethically unacceptable harm which is uncertain only in terms ofmagnitude and timing" (COMEST 2010, 29).1 If we can speak ofhuman- kind in the way that we do of an individual, then the appeal israther to a principle of nonpsychosis, of avoiding self-wounding.However, in the climate change situation those who are driving mightnot be those who will go over the cliff; most of the victims, especiallymost of the worst affected, will be, as it were, low-income personswho are riding inse- curely on the bumpers and the car roof, andespecially their children and grandchildren.

The World Commission itself used another analogy that goes beyondthe precautionary principle to reflect that the world faces not just asmall chance of distant disasters but imminent certain and seri- ousdamage, at least for many people, if we do not change course.

[While] it would not be reasonable to expect someone who cannotswim to rescue a child drowning in the heavy swells of a rough sea ...we would find it ethically reprehensible if a well-trained lifeguard,who knows how to brave such conditions and has the equipment to doso, refused to come to the rescue and merely stood by as the childdrowns. . . . We would find it equally reprehensible if the lifeguard didnot act on the grounds that (a) he was waiting for better equipment toarrive, (b) he would compromise his economic position by being latefor his night job, (c) he would not take action unless someone else

assisted him, or (d) he was awaiting specific instructions to intervene(COMEST 2010, 33).

Canada's recent walkout from the Kyoto Protocol, for example, reflectsnot an outright rejection of ideas of human rights, but in effect arejection or lack of a picture of shared human fate andinterconnectedness on Planet Earth.


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gap between rhetoric and reality

Working Bibliography: 4 marks

1 mark for each source that is closely related to the topic.

Please Use the back of the paper.

Total: 15 /

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2220501

http://www.greenparty.ca/files/attachments/a_comprehensive_guide_to_the_alberta_oil_sands_-_may_20111.pdf

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