Hate Sites

A) Subject: Global Issues: Citizenship and Sustainability Media

Level/Grade: Senior 4
Lesson Topic: Hate Sites Inquiry Lesson Date: Feb 21st, 2017
B) Context
1. LEARNERS
Students will have extensive experience with social media and internet navigation by senior 4. However,
they may not be aware how hate sites exist within different forms and the negative impact these sites
may have on those around them.

2. CURRICULUM: Description
The internet provides access to multitudes of worldviews and ideologies. However, some of these sites
infringe upon human rights and are illegal under the Criminal Code of Canada. Because of this, many
hate sites use misinformation in order to disseminate these ideas among the general public. Moreover,
this can be extended to how media sources used biased language depending upon their ideological stance
in order to convey perceptions to media consumers.

3. MATERIALS/RESOURCES
SMART Board
Computer lab
Criminal Code of Canada Handout (online resource if unavailable)

4. ARRANGEMENTS/GROUPINGS OF STUDENTS & EQUIPMENT

Classroom will be arranged in table groups, set up for both class discussion and small group discussion.

C) Learning Expectations
Students will learn how to identify the bias within a source by looking at contrasting examples,
as well as being aware that the url does not always directly translate to a legitimate news source.
Students will also be able to identify strategies in dealing with hate sites and bias in media.
D) Instructional Strategies for Teaching & Learning
1.Activate
Students will participate in a word wall activity on the SMART Board, writing down
what could constitute a hate site. After writing them down, students will be asked to come to a
group consensus about whether these sites are illegal under the Criminal Code of Canada and
will move the websites into the categories based upon group consensus.
2.Acquire
Students will explore the handout of the Criminal Code of Canada, (sections 318, 319,
and 320) to look for the definition and what could legally be constituted as hate propaganda. The
key ideas under the Criminal Code of Canada are: 318 (1) Every one who advocates or
promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding five years. (using APA, 2017, p. 373), identifiable group means any section of
the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual
orientation, or mental or physical disability (2017, p. 374), and 319 (1) Every one who, by
communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group
where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace (2017, p. 374).
Students will then in pairs research and identify ways individuals and organizations have
combatted hate sites and hate propaganda. One example you can use as an exemplar is the
Google bombing of the hate site www.martinlutherking.org (a disguised hate site from a
member of the KKK). Google bombing is the posting of legitimate links designed to remove hate
sites from the top hits on search engines like google (Barack, 2007, p. 20). Students will post
their findings in the Todaysmeet page: https://todaysmeet.com/HatesiteStrategies
3.Apply
After students have compiled different strategies, Students will develop a fictitious
example of a website, blog post or article that will be posted to
https://todaysmeet.com/Fictitiousarticle; incorporating media bias they have discussed in
previous lessons. They will pick an article from another classmate and develop a strategy for
responding to this hate site, and in one to two pages or a multimedia format, describe what their
plan of action would be, referencing one or more strategies on the compiled list.

E) Assessment
As an exit slip, students will get the opportunity to move or add any additional
information to the SMART Board word wall activity. Their article response will be graded
holistically based upon meeting the criteria agreed upon for the rubric. Things to include are: at
least one strategy is used and described, the level of detail of the response (i.e. if it is a letter to a
webhost, then there should be a written/typed component).

Terms:
Genocide
Hate site
Hate group
Hate propaganda
Criminal Code of Canada
Identifiable group
References

Barack, L. (2007). A change is gonna come: Bloggers "google bomb" veiled hate site. School

Library Journal, 53(1), 20. Retrieved from

http://uml.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.uml.idm.oclc.org/docview/620

48362?accountid=14569

Consolidated federal laws of canada, Criminal Code. (2017, February 09). Retrieved February

24, 2017, from http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/

Harris, F. J. (2003). Hate and deception on the web: What's a school library media specialist to

do? Knowledge Quest, 32(1), 35-36. Retrieved from

http://uml.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.uml.idm.oclc.org/docview/62

171556?accountid=14569

Hate speech laws in Canada. (2017, January 31). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_Canada

Social Studies, Education and Training. (n.d.). Area of Inquiry: Social Justice and Human Rights

Retrieved February 24, 2017, from

http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/global_issues/social_justice.pdf