Assignment # 10: Questions

- On Friday April 17, my class had a class discussion about the War of 1812. At he end of the class, we had to answer a couple of questions Ms. Pollock gave us. Here are the questions:

- In your own opinion, who won the War of 1812? Explain.

- In my opinion, I think that the British won the War of 1812 because not only did they fight harder and smarter, they won more battles than the Americans did. When the Americans burned some of Canada's houses and land, the British wanted revenge so they burned Washington, including the White House. Also out of all the important battles, the Americans won only one battle but the British won six. These examples prove that the British were more committed to win and they should have won the war.

- Does there need to be a winner?

- I think that there should always be a winner at a war because if there is no winner, then the countries that were at war would have earned nothing at the end, and many lives would have been lost for nothing. They would also suffer a lot of destruction and financial instability because weapons and ammunition cost a lot of money . Victory at the end of a war would somehow cover up for these losses.

Santana's websites: Review

- According to Miss Pollock, Santana is her best searcher. She always says that her websites are full of information that can help us when we are doing our assignments. I have also looked at the websites and I think they are pretty cool. They are full of very useful information that really could help you in your assignments.

- First, let's start with the website she mentioned on Black Loyalists. I think the website on Black Loyalists was awesome. It was full of very useful information on the Black Loyalists. It was very detailed, it was filled with accurate information, and it was very organized. to see it, click this.

- I will put my next review later.

Assignment #9: Journal of Captain John Patrick Mason

- I am responding to assignment #9 on Mike's blog.

Journal of Captain John Patrick Mason

- The American Revolution had ended but unfortunately we, the British, lost. Even though we fought very hard, we were not able to conquer the Americans.

- During that War, I was a Loyalist and I served as Captain John Patrick Mason. I was very loyal to the Crown. I payed taxes and I shared the political views of the Queen even though I was in a different continent. I was the leader of many missions and most of them were successful. I was also included in missions with Major General Benedict Arnold which was a great honour to me because many of us in the army considered him as the best general. I was awarded many medals for my achievements, and I was considered a very important figure in the war. I was also very wealthy. I inherited all my money from my father.

- Life was already hard during the American Revolutionary War. I lost one of my sons in an explosion and I knew that we had to go somewhere safer but we couldn't. Fortunately, the rest of my family was safe until the end of the war. At this time, there was no use for staying in the United States of America. That is what the Americans called their country after they won the war. Many Loyalists decided to leave. They were called the United Empire Loyalists. Some of them went back to Great Britain. Others, specially blacks, went to the Bahamas but many wanted to go to British North America where people over there were still loyal to the Crown.

- Today, I decided that I should also take my family to British North America as many Loyalists did because it is more peaceful there. I discussed the matter with my family and they all thought that it was a splendid idea. We all agreed to go to a town in Nova Scotia called Shelburne. We heard it was a peaceful town and many of its residents are also loyal to the Crown. Therefore, tomorrow we set out to British North America.

- I am a little nervous of going to Nova Scotia because this is my first experience there. I don't know how life is going to be even though many of of friends who already left there told me how well they were treated. I am also nervous that my two younger kids might not like it there but I'm sure they will get used to it. I was also informed that if I go there I will receive 700 acres of land for my services as Captain which is good news because I can use that land as a starting point for my new life.

- Captain John Patrick Mason


- Sources:

- The Wikipedia article on Loyalists

- Wikipedia articled on Shelburne

- The United Empire Loyalists

- Another website on United Empire Loyalists


- I got the name John Patrick Mason from an awesome movie called The Rock that stars Sean Connery who plays a British Operative called Captain John Patrick Mason.

P.S. Unfortunately, it is hard to see the map of Nova Scotia clearly so just click on it and you'll get a bigger image.

FutureMe.org

* Hello Readers,

* A while ago I mentioned Dan Brown in one of my blog entries and he found something really cool. He found a website that lets you send e-mails to send to yourselves but you will receive in the future. You get to choose when you want to receive the e-mail (example in 10 years). I already sent my e-mail (I should receive it in 10 years!) and it would be really cool if you guys did it too.

Here is a link to the website: Future me

* Later

Assignment # 8: The Real Riel

- I am responding to assignment # 8.

- Firas: Hello everyone and welcome to “Interviews with Firas Darwiche” and today I am going to be interviewing a very colorful person: Mr. Louis Riel. Now before I start interviewing Mr. Riel, I would like to let you know that this interview is taking place in jail where Mr. Riel is spending his last weeks before being executed as he was sentenced to death. I am going now to give a small introduction about him.

- Louis Riel was probably one of the most controversial figures in Canadian History. He was born in St. Boniface 1844. He became a politician, the founder of the province Manitoba, and the leader of the Métis people of the Canadian Prairies. Louis Riel was a Métis himself, which is a son or daughter of an aboriginal and a European, and sought to preserve Métis rights and culture.

- Firas: Alright Mr. Riel let's begin. In the year 1858, you were sent to Montreal with the hope to become a priest. What happened then?

- Louis Riel: Well Firas, I didn’t like being forced to do something I don’t like, so I dropped out because I wanted to study law with a man named Rudolphe Laflamme.

- Firas: What did you do after that?

-Louis Riel: After that, I also dropped out of college. Then I found work in Chicago and in St. Paul, Minnesota. Later, I returned to Saint-Boniface in 1868.

- Firas: Thank you and now I have another question. What was the purpose of the Red River Rebellion?

- Louis Riel: When I returned back, the Canadian government decided that all of the Métis farms would make great places to install English-speaking settlers from Ontario and without regard for the Métis rights. Faced with this threat, we decided to resist. We set up a provisional government for the territory we called Manitoba. I was elected as the president of the federal government so I decided to take over Fort Garry (which is Winnipeg) and made a list of Métis rights. I thought this will emphasize to the federal government the importance of negotiating with them Manitoba's entry into the Canadian Confederation. Sir John A. McDonald decided to negotiate but I was sent into exile for the United States for executing Thomas Scott, an Ontarian. I think this was a bad idea because this execution provoked hate against me especially in Ontario.

- Firas: That is a very good answer. But I am still wondering, why did you kill Thomas Scott? Did he threaten to kill you maybe?

- Louis Riel: I didn't execute him because he was trying to kill me, I executed him to demonstrate to the Canadians that the Métis must be taken seriously.

- Firas: Thank you for clearing things up, but I do have more questions. In 1882, federal surveyors once again descended on the Métis and treated them exactly as they had done in 1869. What did the Métis do this time?

- Louis Riel: I was still living in the United States, the Métis once again appealed to me to come back, be their leader, form a government, and organize a resistance. This time though, we had support of the Plains Amerindians, who also saw them selves threatened by the encroachment of settlers from the East. The government refused to negotiate and sent troops to fight against us. The combined force between us and the Amerindians wasn’t strong enough and some of my people fled away so I was imprisoned and charged with high treason.

- Firas: What happened after you got imprisoned?

- Louis Riel: I went to court and gave two long speeches about why I did this and many more but the judge sentenced me to death.

- Firas: Wasn’t there any attempts made to overturn the death sentence?

- Louis Riel: Yes of course. My defense tried very hard to prove I am not guilty by reason of insanity. However, I rejected these attempts. I prefer to die as a hero and not live the rest of my life as an insane.

- Firas: Beside politics, did you do something else?

-Louis Riel: Of course, I am also a writer. I have lots of publishing related to poetry, religions, and politics.

- Firas: When is the death sentence is going to take place?

- Louis Riel: Very soon, on November 16, 1885.

- Firas: Thank you some much for letting me interview you Mr. Riel and just to let you know, I am on your side.

- Louis Riel: Thanks.

* I hope you enjoyed this assignment. Happy Blogging. Here is a list of websites I visited that helped me:

1- Wikipedia: Louis Riel

2- Louis Riel

3- The Heritage Centre: Biography of Louis Riel

-P.S. Special thanks to Timmy for helping me understand more about Louis Riel and for Tale for helping understand more about the Métis.

-P.S. In a website I visited, it said: "In early 1999, in response to a favourable survey of federal Members of Parliament, MP Denis Coderre introduced a bill in the House of Commons to pardon Louis Riel. The pardon would rehabilitate him in the eyes of history and give him the honour he deserves as a champion of the rights of the Métis and the Amerindians", so they declared him innocent.

Help for assignment # 7

Hello Everyone,

*First of all, I want to wish everyone that is doing assignment 7 luck since it is the biggest assignment yet but this is not what this entry is about. I have found a great website that gives a huge list of very important Canadian personalities. This is important because if you are having trouble finding your three Canadian personalities, you check this website out. To check it out, click Important Canadian Personalities. Happy Blogging!

Assignment # 7: Canadian Personalities

Hello Readers,

* I am responding to my new assignment, Assignment #7.

* Question a.) : Which category of Canadian Personalities interested you the most? Did you like the "we inspired", "we founded", "we fought", "we built" or "we governed" section the best? Why?

* I think that out of those 5 categories the "we fought" category is my favorite because it gives a list of people who fought hard for what they believed in, and they never gave up. Also, the idea of war always interested me because the topic is very exciting and to me, I love to learn about war even thought most of the people on the list weren't involved in war.

* Question b.) : Which personality interested you the most? Why? Find an image of him or her to embed (add to the body of your post) and write, in your own words, a short description of what he or she did and why he or she is your favourite. If you get information from any source, you must credit it by creating a link to it (that includes information from the site that I've asked you to look at).

* Marquis de Montcalm interested me the most because he was a very brave soldier who fought any battle he was called for. Marquis de Montcalm was a commander for the French forces in the Seven Year's War. He is most remembered by one of the battles he fought in and called The Fall of Quebec. He won many great victories in the Seven Year's War but was defeated on the Plains of Abraham by a surprise attack by the British. Montcalm decided to fight anyways even though he was outnumbered. The battle lasted for about 20 minutes. Also, Montcalm got hit by a musket ball which led to his death. His last words were: " I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." This shows that he was very brave and this is the reason why he is my favorite. To learn more about him, click this and to see a reenactment of The Fall of Quebec, click this.

* Question c.) : In your post, suggest three more influential Canadian personalities that could be added to this site. Why did you choose these people? Which categories would they fit into? Link to information about each of them.

* Roberta Lynn Bondar is the first Canadian women in space and also the world's first neurologist in space. She worked in NASA to research space medicine. She also worked there to experiment what happens to the human body after exposure to space. I think that she would fit in the "We inspired" category because she is not only a person who went to space, but she is the first Canadian woman who went to space.To learn more about her, click this.

* The second person I would add to this list is Terry Fox. As most Canadians should know, Terry Fox was a person that had cancer and had to get one of his legs amputated. After his leg got amputated, Terry Fox was given an artificial leg and decided to run across Canada collecting donations which he will donate to Cancer research. He raised about 10.5 million dollars but unfortunately died from pneumonia. I think that Terry Fox would fit in the "We fought" category because he was fighting for something he believed in and never gave up. Also, I can say that he was very brave because he was committed to run across Canada after having cancer with a artificial leg. To learn more about Terry Fox, click this.

* The last person I would add to this list is James Cameron, an Academy Award winning Canadian director. He directed very successful movies such as Terminator 1 and 2 which made more than 250 million dollars domestically. He also directed the highest grossing movie of all time, which is Titanic that made 600 million dollars domestically and about 2 billion dollars worldwide. James Cameron would fit in the "We Inspired" because when you think of famous directors, they are mostly American but James Cameron became very successful by directing some of the most famous movies and series. Would you have guessed that the person that directed Titanic was Canadian? To learn more about James Cameron, click this.

d.) Which History-Maker did you have the most in common with? Were you able to figure it out from the clues given? What do you share with that person? What are some things that are different between you and that person?

* From the History Canadian Match Up Game, I found out that the person that I am most like is Norman Bethune (1890-1936 ) . I wasn't able to figure it out from the clues given because I never heard of him. According to Wikipedia, "Norman Bethune was a Canadian physician and and medial innovator". He was also a teacher, a medical doctor, and an inventor. Even though Norman Bethune was Canadian, he was China's greatest hero because when China was at war with Japan, there wasn't enough doctors to help the wounded. So, Bethune started to teach others first aid and simple surgeries.

* Some things that we have in common:

- We both had two other siblings
- We both have nicknames. ( His is Beth and mine is FirFir )
- We both love science.
- He was a doctor and I want to be a doctor in the future.
- We were both born in Canada.

* Some things that we don't have in common:

- His first language is English, mine is Arabic.
- He thought the most important thing is Education, I think it is Peace.
- He was born in the spring, I was born in the winter.
- He likes to paint in his free time, I like to read in my free time.

* e.) One hundred years from now, (in 2109!) imagine that students are learning about Canadian History Makers and they discover you. What will you be remembered for? How were you a Canadian History Maker? You are using your imagination, so think about some things that you would like to accomplish in your life and imagine that you have all the accomplishments of your life to look back on. Write a short profile of yourself, imagining the contributions you have made to the future of Canada. (Write this as though you've lived your whole life. You may have been a phenomenal athlete, the first black Prime Minister, cured cancer...use your imagination!)

Firas Darwiche (1996-2084)

* When Firas Darwiche was a kid, he was an A+ student in both Math and Science which made him feel that he would one day become a doctor. He didn't want to become a normal doctor, he wanted to become a Cardiac Surgeon. During his high school years, he realized that world has changed a lot and has become very advanced and yet, people still didn't find a cure for cancer. So, he decided to work very hard and get into the University of Toronto. When he finished High school, he received a full scholarship to the University of Toronto and became a Cardiac Surgeon 10 years later. Firas Darwiche performed many difficult surgeries, including surgeries to the Prime Minister, which made him the most popular surgeon in Canada. In the year 2048, his sister unfortunately died from cancer so he decided to find a successful cure for cancer. In 2053, He discovered a successful cure for cancer so he decided to try it out. He tried it out on more than 1000 people and none of them died. For this reason, Firas Darwiche became the first person in history to find a successful cure for cancer. He also received the Nobel Prize and became a millionaire. 5 years later, he retired and decided to spend time with his family, his friends, his beloved wife, and his 2 kids. In 2085, Firas Darwiche died from old age and his money was divided between his wife, his younger brother, and his 2 kids. On 2101, Firas Darwiche's picture was on a 25 dollar bill and a scholarship was also named after him for his great accomplishment.

* I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to comment on what you liked or to give me some advice on how to make it better.

A Brief History of Canada

*Almost every time I look at other people's blogs, I always see pictures and video links all related to history. So what I decided to do is to find a video about history myself but unfortunately there weren't any good ones except a video titled: A Brief History of Canada. It is a about 1:30 mins but it tells us about why the Europeans came to Canada and who the Europeans were, meaning John Cabot. One thing I should mention is that it is a "fun animation on Canada's early days." If I find any other videos about history, I will be sure to put links to them as soon as I find them.
Hope you enjoy the videos.

Dan Brown

Hello Readers,

I am pleased that you are enjoying my blog enteries. This is a blog entery just to recommend to you great videos done by a guy called Dan Brown, AKA Pogobat. He talks about a lot of stuff such as: ( Just to let you know, these are the titles of each video )
- Barack Obama
- George W. Bush
- 2012 ( The End of the World )
- His Belief in God.
- Why McCaine Chose Palin
And many other things.

*He is really cool and since youtube is blocked here in school watch the stuff on your own computer.
*So be sure to check out his channel on youtube.


Later....


*** UPDATE: I should have said that when you go to youtube, search pogobat and it should show his channel***

Assignment # 6: William Hall

*William Hall was a free African Canadian. He was born at Hurton's Bluff, Nova Scotia. His parents were extremely poor so he decided to ship out and serve in the Marines. He served in the Marines for six years. Later, he volunteered for the Royal Navy at Liverpool England, 1852.

*On 16 November 1857, at a town of Lucknow, British naval guns were brought up to the Shah Nujeff mosque. The gun crews kept a steady fire so they could try to break through the walls of the mosque. The mutineers threw a lot of grenades and musket balls which caused a lot of casualties for the gunners. William Hall and the lieutenant who was in charge were the only survivors so they decided to fire all the guns they had and that won the battle. For this act, William Hall, became the first Black Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

* William Hall remained with the Navy until he retired in 1876. He was buried in Nova Scotia and his Victoria Cross is preserved in the Nova Scotia Museum.

Here are links to the websites i visited that helped me with this blog:

Wikipedia: William Hall

Corporal William Hall

Assignment #5: It's Really Cold (Part 2)

*In my last blog, I wrote about how it was like for the Europeans to come here to Canada and how they handled the extremely cold weather. In this Blog, I will write about my first Canadian winter and why I moved here.
*In the summer of 2006, a war started back home in Lebanon. It was very dangerous there so the Canadian government decided to bring in all the Canadians. My family was lucky enough to have Canadian passports, so we left to Canada.
*I think that my first Canadian winter felt like it was the coldest winter of my life. Even though the following winters were even colder, it still felt as if the first winter was the coldest because I wasn't used to cold winters, since Lebanese winters aren't that cold. The least temperature it ever went to in Lebanon in my life was probably -10, which is nothing compared to the temperature here. Lucky for us, my mom's cousin and aunt lived here for a long time and had a lot of experience in Canada's extremely cold weather. They taught us how to deal with the cold weather and also what to wear.
*That is it for assignment #5. I hope you enjoyed it.

*Almost forgot, here are the links to the websites I visited that helped me on this assignment.
- The Kid's Site On Canadian Settlement.
- The Canada Page
- Immigrating to Canada
- The Canadian Encyclopedia-Pioneer life
- The Pioneer Homestead
I also got some ideas from Helena's Blog. Here is a link to it.
Helena's Blog on Assignment #5

Assignment #5: It's Really Cold! (Part:1)

*It has been really cold these days that it feels like as if it is even under the -20s, but I am sure that the early Canadian settlers had a harder time living in the extremely cold Canadian winters.
A long time ago, when the Europeans found North America, a lot of people have immigrated here to Canada. Some of the reasons why they immigrated were:

- They were not allowed freedom of warship.
- The Government had control over their way of life.
- There were no jobs or their jobs were low paying jobs.
- Farmers wanted their own land.
- Men were forced to serve in the army.

The Europeans thought that they would have a better life there because they would be free in Canada.

*Now living in the cold winters of Canada was pretty hard but the trip to Canada was also hard. For the Europeans to come here to Canada, they had to take a trip on a ship first to North America. Some of the poorer families couldn't afford a cabin so they had to sleep below in the steerage with hundreds of different families. It was cold, damp, crowded and noisy. There was also no fresh air to breathe. People fell ill because of the cold and the dampness in the steerage. Diseases spread among the passengers. Some did not survive the voyage. Crossing the ocean took anywhere from ten days to a month depending on the weather and the type of ship.

*After the ships finally arrived in Canada, they were given medicals and their travel papers were checked over. During this time, the immigrants stayed in large buildings called immigration halls. Their next journey was by train to the prairies. The journey to the prairies by train took from four to six days. When they finally arrived at a town close enough to their homestead, they unloaded their belongings and got a wagon or Red River cart. They also bought food, clothing, seed, tools, a plow, lumber and farm animals.

*Now there were many main problems for the the early settlers on how to handle the cold. As Helena said "first, their houses weren't very strong and were usually made of wood and field stone or sod". Glass windows were for the rich, so most windows then were holes in the walls. Also, back then, there wasn't very heavy and warm clothes so they had to wear extra clothes.

*The early Canadian settlers probably had some help from the Aboriginals because they knew the Canadian winters and how to handle them. The Aboriginals probably supplied the Europeans with animal fur to use as clothing. Now this only happened when the Europeans became friends with the Aboriginals.

*End of Part 1

Christopher Moore's Blog

Hey guys. I think you should see Christopher Moore's blog. It talks about how the world changed every 100 years and more. It is really cool. To see it, click this.

Welcome to my Blog

-Welcome to my blog. I am a student in grade 7 learning Canadian history with my teacher Ms. Pollock. She has a blog too. If you want to check it out, click this. She is the person that gives me the assignments that I will write about in my blogs. I am a little nervous because this is the first time i use the internet to put my assignments on but it might be fun also. I hope you enjoy my blog.

Assignment # 4

This is a blog entry from assignment #4, Linking Back To Your Peers. What I'm supposed to do is read 3 of my friend's blogs and write about them in a positive way in a blog entry, then put a link to there blogs.

-Hello. I have read Hasan's blog on what the world will look like in 100 years. I think it was pretty good. I liked his ideas a lot. My favorite was this one "maybe they'll find a cure for cancer", which I hope they do as they have been trying that for so many years without getting into a solution. He also did put in more ideas on what might happen in a hundred years which are " students will stop using textbook and use blogs instead. Maybe scientists will find a solution for global warming, or maybe we will be able to live on other planets like mars. " Over all he did a good job. Here is a link to his blog

- The second blog entry I check was Andrew's. I think he did a good job. He had some really great ideas such as " we will use garbage for fuel like in Back to the Future 2." This will solve the problem of using less fuel. As we know, fuel is going to get scarce very soon. He also did say that a lot of diseases would be cured and a lot of inventions would be invented but I think he could have been more specific on which ones he meant. He also did say that Batman will beet Spiderman in the annual superhero contest, which in my opinion is correct. To see his blog, click this.

-Finally, I checked out Emily's blog on what she think the world will look like in 100 years and it is great. She had a very good list of logical things that could happen. Here is my favorite from her list: " Live on Mars, since rumors indicate that apparently there has been a form of life on Mars". A really interesting point she came up with is " Someday, a person will invent water-powered car that doesn't cause pollution." which is really cool. This as I mentioned before will solve the issue of running short of fuel shortly. To check out her blog, click this.

This is my assignment # 4. Hope you like it ( especially you Ms. Pollock )

Assignment #3: Canada 100 years later.

*For this assignment, I was supposed to read Christopher Moore's blog and answer his question which is: what do you think Canada will look like in a hundred years?

*I have just finished reading Christopher's blog on To the Nines: reviewing the centuries. I think that his blog was good. He used a lot of information to tell us about the centuries from before. To answer your question Christopher, here are some ideas on what I think might happen in a hundred years.

* First of all, I think that the technology in the world will be very advanced. For example, robots would be made for things like doing house work to doing very difficult surgeries. Many people wouldn't have to go to work because they would be using the computer to work and at the same time they would be saving the environment because they wouldn't be using a lot of fuel to get to work. I also think that men and women would be able to visit Mars in very advanced and fast space shuttles. Also, people might not use cars to travel but instead flying machines. Travel would be much more faster, easier, and relaxing due to the invention of very advanced air crafts.
Genetic science would be much more advanced all around the world in a hundred years. Fuel is probably going to run out so people will go into finding other energy sources for all uses such as solar energy and nuclear energy.

* Other than advanced technology, I think that Canada will have a higher population for the following reason. Canada's temperature has been increasing in the past years which mean that in a hundred years, the temperature would be very good for people from around the world to enjoy due to increasing spread of deserts to many regions of the world. That would make some places in Canada that has no people in it populate. Therefore population might grow from 25 million to 500 million people.

* Since Barack Obama is now the first African-American president in history, I think that racism would decrease in the world. Minorities will have better chances in possessing important posts in Canada and around the world. Less wars would start and the wars will end sooner. Hunger will decrease in poor countries due to increase intervention of richer countries.


Hope you enjoyed it.