Love and crime--tradition!(SCHOOL'S in Tradition!)

• Author: Mildon, Marsha

This issue of LawNow explores developments in criminal law and marriage. Unfortunately, crime and marriage--indeed families in general--go together entirely too often. Statistics Canada tells us that of 47,000 cases of convictions for violent crime between 1997/98 and 2001/02, 35% involved spouses, 32% involved friends or acquaintances, 21% involved strangers, and 8% involved other family members (The Daily, Tuesday, July 6, 2004). StatsCan also tells us that "91% of infants [who were murdered], 85% of children aged 1-to-6 years, and 76% of children aged 7-to-11 were killed by family members. (Family Violence In Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2004).

Given this unfortunate connection between family and violent crime, we are going to take a look at some of the problems of love, marriage, and family violence--using movies and a recent British Columbia murder case as the material for our exploration. In these examples, we will not focus on the violence. Instead we will look at the way that the traditions or community values that hold for one generation are changing for the next. It is often the uneasy transition between the older tried and true ways of life to the newer approaches that create problems in families and, also, create difficulties in the process of developing and amending our laws in ways that reflect community values. While these fictional and real cases will provide materials that can be used for learning about adult and youth court procedures, the two primary objectives are to explore the ways traditions and laws affect each other and to look for ways of solving family problems other than by using violence.

Tools and Information Available in LawNow

* "Add Students and Stir: Recipe for a Mock Trial" LawNow 26:2, Oct/Nov 2001 provides basic material for developing mock criminal trials, including Role Cards for all the trial personnel. Those cards can provide the starting place for any of the trials suggested in this issue.

* "Youth Justice Mock Trials" LawNow 28:2, Oct/Nov 2003 provides information about the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) and mock trial cards that give information on the principles of the YCJA and alternative measures to prosecution. These will be useful in examples where those involved are between the ages of 13 and 18.

* Crime and the Crown LawNow Volume 27:1 Aug/Sept 2002 provides five theme articles on the role of Crown attorneys in Canada's justice system.

* Crime and Defence LawNow 26:2 Oct/Nov 2001 explores the role of the defence lawyers in the justice system.

Discussion and Mock Trial Possibilities

A teacher may wish to use the following materials for mock trials, discussion groups, or debates on topics such as 'how much involvement should parents have in their children's choice of spouse?' and 'how much should community traditions affect our behaviour or our laws?'

If you can to spend a few classes discussing the way community traditions affect behaviour and law, I would suggest beginning with Fiddler on the Roof, a relatively gentle introduction to the subject.

Fiddler on the Roof

This movie tells the story of Tevye, a poor milkman, his wife Golde, and their five daughters. The film opens with Tevye talking about "Tradition" as the thing that holds everything together. One of the important traditions is that of a matchmaker organizing marriages for the girls of the village; the father of the bride and prospective husband agreeing on the marriage; and the daughter marrying the man who papa has chosen.

One by one, Tevye's daughters break this tradition, presenting Tevye with the problem of how to deal with the broken traditions and his family. He is a man who loves family, his Jewish religion, and has a personal--and quite talkative--relationship with his God.

When his oldest daughter Tzeitel refuses the match he has agreed to, and Motel the poor tailor asks for permission to marry her, Tevye debates the issues, but gives in to the obvious love between Tzeitel and Motel fairly easily. When his next daughter, Hodel, and the radical Perchik announce to him that they are engaged, but ask for his blessing, Tevye has a harder time. These two didn't even honour the tradition enough to ask...