25 lutego 2020r Alina Lorczyk (klasa 3a) wzięła udział w półfinale VII edycji Ogólnopolskiego Konkursu Wiedzy o Kanadzie Discover Canada 2020.
Organizatorami konkursu są I Liceum Ogólnokształcące w Żorach i Instytut Kultur i Literatur Angielskojęzycznych Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach.
Półfinał zawodów odbywał się na Wydziale Humanistycznym UŚ w Sosnowcu. Pierwszym punktem tego dnia było spotkanie z panią Jeanette Sautner radczynią ds. politycznych i społecznych w Ambasadzie Kanady w Polsce. Następnie uczestnicy przystąpili do pisania eseju na jeden z wylosowanych tematów (losowano 3 tematy z 7). Alina wybrała następujący temat:
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was established on 2 May 1670 as a joint-stock merchandising company aimed at a fur-trading commerce with the Royal Charter granting the Company a fur trade monopoly for the entire northern coast of the continent, which was named Rupert’s Land. During its first century of operation, the Company, possessing enormous wealth and political power, established trading posts and forts along the routes of Hudson and James Bay. With the increased competition in the late 18th century, it was forced to expand further into the continent with trading posts spanning the continent all the way to the Northwest Coast. For the purpose of trade, the Company, largely dependent on Indigenous trappers, traded European goods for furs that were hunted, trapped and transported to trading posts by Indigenous peoples. When the fur trade faced a steady decline at the hands of Western settlement and the Gold Rush, the Company was forced to shift to retail and transform trading posts into stores with a variety of goods. Simultaneously, the Company’s fur-trading empire drove colonization through vast tracts of Canadian land. Write an essay discussing the role the Hudson Bay Company played in the development of what became Canada. Examine the trading relationships between the Hudson Bay Company and Indigenous peoples in the fur trade. What were the impacts of the fur trade upon Indigenous peoples, their traditional lifestyles and economy? Did the Hudson Bay Company bring peace and stability to Indigenous peoples? How did the European expansion to the West and discovery of gold change the future of the Hudson Bay Company? What were the point blankets and why are they fraught with colonial history? Why were Metis women integral to the fur trade?
Po krótkiej przerwie przewidziany był godzinny test otwarty dotyczący tematyki esejów jak również bieżących informacji kulturalnych i politycznych. 4 marca zostanie ogłoszona lista 12 finalistów. We keep our fingers crossed for Alina. Alinie towarzyszyła p. Joanna Kwiatkowska.