Your Charter 2022 Winners

A creative arts contest, Your ChARTer invites Ontario students to submit original pieces of work that represents the core principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and what it means to them.

As an online competition, Your ChARTer is making opportunities to consider the Canadian Charter accessible to more students and classrooms across the province.

In its inaugural year, over 100 elementary and secondary school students from across Ontario participated by submitting creative art pieces in response to the theme: “How I live the Charter.”  This year, students were invited to submit pieces in response to the theme:  “What freedom and equality under the Charter look like to me…”.

Thank you to Art Gallery of Ontario who shared their expertise on the different mediums of art and provided educational videos last year and allowed us to use them again this year.  An additional thank you to the lawyers of the OBA Law Day Committee who took the time to view and evaluate the submissions and then cast their votes for the winners

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSSECONDARY SCHOOLS


ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS


FIRST PLACE

Student Name:Yin Yin Tai
Grade: 7 
School:River Oaks Public School
City: Oakville
Teacher: Moses Ibrahim
Submission Type:Written Submission

View Submission

Poem

Title: Helicopter Seed

A creative written to talk about the meaning of right and freedom in Canada.


SECOND PLACE

Student Name: Tim Chi Tai
Grade: 5 
School: River Oaks Public School
City: Oakville
Teacher: Katie Denomey
Submission Type: Visual Arts (Photograph, Drawing, Painting, etc)

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Image

Title: All Colours

A drawing regarding everyone deserved to be treated equally



SECONDARY SCHOOLS


FIRST PLACE

Student Name:Kimberly Galang
Grade: 11 
School:St Joan of Arc
City: Toronto
Teacher: Luisa Fracassi
Submission Type: Visual Arts (Photograph, Drawing, Painting, etc)

View Submission

Image

Title: A Canadian Freedom

The Charter is the basis of why Canada is a free and democratic nation. It gives us the power and privilege to be protected as a citizen. In this artwork, titled A Canadian Freedom, I used the concept of puzzle pieces. Four people assemble these puzzle pieces: the judge, police, and the two citizens. The way they put together the puzzle pieces symbolizes the relationship between Canadian citizens and their government. It signifies how the Canadian government negotiates its rights to their people. The yellow box and the symbols of the puzzle pieces symbolize the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Much like puzzle pieces, our rights are complicated. It is because our rights change over time. The puzzle pieces are painted blue to symbolize our unity, while the purple represents our dignity. The colour green is used to express hope in the background. It shows that our Charter encourages optimism for the future


SECOND PLACE

Student Name:Khadija Ahmed
Grade: 11 
School:St Joan of Arc
City: Toronto
Teacher: Luisa Fracassi
Submission Type: Visual Arts (Photograph, Drawing, Painting, etc)

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Image

For my Charter Art, I decided to do an animation. In this animation, the charter is being blown by(invisible) wind, then morphs into a hijab and lands on the head of a girl. This represents the freedom of religion that the charter provides to us. I decided to use islam to show freedom of religion because 1. I’m a Muslim and 2. Because in many countries around the world, muslims are not allowed to outwardly express their religion (including in Quebec), and I wanted to show that the charter is against oppressing religious expression. In the background of the animation ina masjid, or mosque, which is where Muslims go to pray (it’s like a church but for muslims). I put that there because it connects to the muslim girl standing there and to the theme of “freedom of religion”. We’re allowed to build mosques and places of worship in Canada because we’re provided with the freedom of religion, which I’m grateful for.


THIRD PLACE

Student Name:Pabitha Chandramohan
Grade: 11 
School:St Joan of Arc
City: Toronto
Teacher: Luisa Fracassi
Submission Type: Written Submission

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Image

This is a poem of what the Charter means to me.