Episodes

Simple and to the point. It was the statement put out by the University of Brandon when Brandon School Division trustees heard from a local delegation’s call to remove 2SLGBTQ+ and sexual education resources from the school libraries. Our Humans, on Rights podcast guest, Ellen Bees is a middle school teacher and is a member of People for Public Education who believe that public education should be universally accessible, be publicly funded and free for families, provide equal opportunities for students, engage in public decision making and serve the public interest. Ellen Bees talks about her passion to become a teacher because a teacher had a profound impact on her life as a young student. It was at that moment Ellen realized that teaching and helping others was her professional calling. She created a blog called teacherbees.ca where she reviews books and posts lessons for other educators. So, you can appreciate and understand her deep disappointment when a delegation proposed a ban …

Sally is a proud member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and so eloquently reminds us that “we all have a voice, find your voice, and use it. Your silence won’t protect you.‘’ And Jordan, who is a trans woman clearly articulates that “a lot of people don’t like people who are different from themselves. We need to have honest communication, there needs to be honest communication between both sides to understand each other” The Rainbow Resource Centre in partnership has launched an exhibit called “If These Walls Could Talk” which is a 50-year retrospective of 2SLGTBQ+ activism in Winnipeg. The exhibit is powerful, honest, and is an affirming statement that the 2SLGBTQ+ people have always been a part of Winnipeg society. They have a history and it’s a history that needs to be told with their voice. Please visit the Manitoba Museum and see this most important educational, emotional, and challenging exhibit.Twitter: @ManitobaMuseumInstagram : ManitobamuseumManitoba Museum- YouTube…

Melissa Stone woks at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata and is the coordinator for Astum Api Niikinaak and Amoo wig amig. Astum Api Niikinaak means “come sit at our home”. This project which offers affordable housing for people facing key barriers such as being unsheltered and addictions, alongside a communal lodge with culturally sensitive support services is the result of organizations End Homelessness Winnipeg, the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre, Eagle Urban Transition Centre and Thunderbird House coming together. In this episode of Humans, on Rights Melissa Stone shares her passion for helping people and how she became involved with the Astum Api Niikinaak project. She contrasts the fact that at the end of her work day she can go home to her house with heat and food and a bed with those unsheltered who spend their entire life on the street searching for those bare necessities. Melissa believes that she and her team have created homes for folks who are going to start their healing jo…

Millions of people are forced to leave their home country to find work. Each individual journey is filled with hope to rebuild and have a better life, but once they settle in their new home, the hardship doesn’t always stop there. Migrant workers face a much higher risk of vulnerability to exploitation in the workplace in large part because of their limited access to information and support networks, networks not just in social networks within governance framework, but networks that we take for granted like our relatives and friends.On this Humans, On Rights episode, Stuart meets with Diwa Marcelino. Diwa is a community organizer with Migrante Manitoba, a Canadian grassroots organization that advocates for the rights and welfare of migrant workers.“We need to take a look at the unjust laws that allow migrant workers to come to Canada with a precarious status which leads to exploitation. The rights that we've had for hundreds of years, migrant workers still don't have many of them.…

“The way to preserve a language is to start the lessons at home. And listen to your elders.” Elder Mary Houle When it comes to giving voice to language, Rebecca Chartrand, the President & CEO of Indigenous Strategies has a voice. A very strong voice. Rebecca whose leadership style is based on Indigenous ways of teaching and learning, which orient towards holistic perspectives and contributions strives to ensure” we are all paddling the same canoe towards a common goal.” Rebecca shares her story ...

Devon Clunis solidified his place in history in 2012 when he became the first Black chief of police in Canadian history. Clunis immigrated from Jamaica with his family in 1975 at age 11 and he began his career in law enforcement with the Winnipeg Police Service in 1987.

"Where are you from?” I would be asked. “Oh, I’m from here” would be my response. Simple enough, right? Nope. During Black History Month, Winnipeg’s Rhonda Thompson-Wilson says cultural organizations play an important role in helping preserve connections and the uniqueness of cultures. Manitobans celebrate the diversity and commonalities of the community during Black History Month in February. On this episode of Humans, on Rights Rhonda Thompson-Wilson talks about the importance of Gospel Music ...

As the Founder and CEO of Make Music Matter, Darcy Ataman, M.S.C., O.M. has dedicated his life’s work to bringing an alternate form of music therapy to survivors of sexual violence, conflict and trauma. Working in partnership with Nobel Laureate, Dr. Denis Mukwege, Darcy developed the Healing in Harmony program where patients become artists to begin the healing process by writing, recording and professionally producing songs about their emotions and experiences simultaneously engaging in therapy and developing their own musical artistry. Participants emerge as confident artists and advocates publicly disseminating their music via local radio, community concerts, social media, and major streaming platforms, helping to reduce stigma surrounding sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, poverty, mental illness, displacement/refugee status, and more.To highlight the human cost of war, music producer Darcy Ataman and photographer Jason Willheim travelled to Lviv, Ukraine to connect with musicians and…

February is when the proud Black History Manitoba organization invites the whole community to come together to Remember, Recognize and Educate. To quote the BHM President Nadia Thompson, “February is the month in which we bear witness to the progress, richness, and diversity of the achievements and contributions of Black people in Canada and around the world.”

Learning. Teaching. Education is a human right.When exploring education as a human right in this episode of Humans on Rights, Mitchell DeFehr, education coordinator for MARL, discusses the importance of human rights learning when we reference the “other”. He shares his views about how systems developed by those of privilege are systems that oppress the “other”. And he explains how to use education as a human right from an “inside out” approach as well as an “outside in” approach to change those systems.

"I wanted to be more than just a screamer!" - Yvonne Peters. To acknowledge World Braille Day, Humans On Rights spoke with Yvonne Peters. Yvonne practiced as a human rights lawyer in Winnipeg for over 30 years. During this time she served as legal counsel and advisor on a number of equality test cases involving disability rights and women’s rights. Her work also included serving as a legislative consultant on the implementation of regulated midwifery in Manitoba and acting as project manager for the development of a free-standing birth centre in Winnipeg, the first of its kind in western Canada. Yvonne has served on numerous boards and committees at the local, national and international level. Most notably, she was the Chairperson of the Manitoba Accessibility Advisory Council and the Chairperson of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission. A highlight of Yvonne’s community work occurred in 1980 when she chaired the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilit…

Advocate. Community Engagement. Community Organizer.

Alex Lytwyn is an astonishing person. Alex has Cerebral Palsy and is in a power chair. Listening to Alex is not easy. First it is not easy because Cerebral Palsy, the most common lifelong physical disability, has affected Alex’s speech. He works work really hard to get his words out. You have to listen. And secondly, it is not easy to listen to Alex because when he shares his story, it is unacceptable how society has treated him.

World Children’s Day is celebrated on the 20th November to commemorate the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. To acknowledge World Children’s Day, Dorota Blumczynska shares her personal story as witnessed through the eyes of a refugee child. Since secretly fleeing Poland as a child, Dorota’s life has centered on survival. Surviving displacement, migration, poverty, the loss of a parent, becoming an orphan, a ward of the child welfare system, and violence. Because Dorota wears her heart proudly on her sleeve, she does not hold back when she emotionally shares these stories. Heart wrenching but filled with hope.

“I would rather be a little nobody than an evil somebody” – Abraham LincolnSchool violence and bullying including cyberbullying is widespread and affects a significant number of children and adolescents. On this episode of Humans, on Rights Clifford Weekes, anti-racism team lead for the Seven Oakes school Division shares his personal experiences on how, at a young age, he was bullied at school. He explains that when he was called the “whitest black guy we know” everyone laughed, and he laughed also because he thought that is what he needed to do to fit in. Contrast that with Clayton Thomas Müller who wrote in his book Life in the City of Dirty Water, “I understood, at 5 years old that having fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes would mean my life would be easier”….at 5 years of age!!

Brent Bellamy is a Winnipeg architect and public advocate who shares his vision on how to create a sustainable city based on building and human focussed design. He writes passionately about this subject, challenging the conventional perception of architectural and urban form. His thoughtful and provoking columns, always anticipated, have appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press since 2010.

Al Wiebe went from earning $120k a year and driving a new Mercedes to living for 26 months in a 40-year-old wrecked Mercedes in the back lane behind an auto wrecker. After losing his $120k a year job, Al Wiebe was rocked by the trauma of job loss and suffered from unchecked clinical depression. Al attempted suicide numerous times. On one of his suicide attempts, Al plunged into the Assiniboine River, only to be rescued and finding help from a Doctor at St. Boniface Hospital. Today Al has a message of hope for those who are struggling and dealing with homelessness. He recently led a campaign to name a stretch of Henry Street in Winnipeg “Hope Ally”. Henry Street was the place Al Wiebe passed countless times to different shelters and resource centres when he was homeless. Today Al uses his lived experience as a homeless person to become a 24/7 advocate for the homeless and those in poverty. This episode of Humans on Rights is a glimpse into Al Wiebe’s story. See Privacy Policy at ht…

The Chair of the Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Glenn Michalchuk is convinced that the War in Ukraine could have been averted but was not. In this episode Glenn explains his strong belief that this war in not based on anything of substance but more on political fanaticism. And that Canada has played a roll, wrongly in his view, of advancing that political fanaticism.Active in the peace and anti-war movement since 1980, Glenn has used his involvement with the union movement as a natural connection to his activity involving social justice. Glenn articulates his disappointment that the mainstream media is more interested in providing sound bites rather than factual, in-depth, research about how the peace process gets derailed in favour of violence and war. Thoughtful, educational and very unconventional, Glenn Michalchuk is worth a listen.www.facebook.comhttps://www.peacealliancewinnipeg.caSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://…

Lifelong learning champion Stacey Bradley was asked to “just come to one meeting”. She did and that is how she became the President of the Manitoba Reading Association. September 8th is International Literacy Day and on this episode, Stacey talks about the incredible appetite young children have when they start to learn to read, but she also talks about the challenges of losing interest in reading as children get older. In her words, sometimes “we start to lose them as they get to middle school”...

If I asked you what country comes to mind when you hear the words, Jim Crow. The Ku Klux Klan. Enslaved persons, I bet you a US dollar that you would say ’the United States of America.” While you are not completely wrong, you may be surprised to learn how my guest Laurelle Harris educates the listener on how those terms of racism are also very much a history of the place we call home – Canada. Laurelle shares that one of Canada’s most prestigious universities is named after a well-known man who personally owned enslaved persons and his business interest were intrinsically intertwined with the slave trade. Anyone guess Montreal businessman James McGill?As she says in this episode “it’s not comfortable for people to remember the uncomfortable parts of their own history, so we simply don’t think about or talk about those things.” On this episode with Laurelle Harris, we definitely talk about those things and more.Laurelle Harris’s resources on Black History in Canada:The Cana…

Racism is a mental health issue because racism causes trauma. Every day, the BIPOC Community are exposed to far more trauma than those whose lives have not been devalued. On this episode of Humans, on Rights, Kyla Bernardo, M.Ed, CCC, CGE, CGP addresses the challenges that the BIPOC Community has getting help when faced with mental health issues. Through her deep knowledge of mental health and front-line work Kyla, who operates Purposeful Counselling, shares her family’s personal story about mental health and how the BIPOC Community can find meaningful resources without having to suffer financial hardship. You can find the resources Kyla mentioned below:Brene Brown on Shame:Author Bessel van der Kolk: The Body Keeps the ScorePaul Denniston - grief yoga website: https://griefyoga.com/free-resources/David Kessler’s website: https://grief.com/10-best-worst-things-to-say-to-someone-in-grief/Nine Circles Community Health Centre: https://ninecircles.caSee Privacy Pol…

Ininew Public Speaker. Author. Host. Community Organizer. Advocate for Children, Youth & Families. Michael Redhead Champagne inspires every time he speaks to an audience or brings his pen to the page. His storytelling connects communities across North America and around the world. Michael’s commitment to action and solutions comes from his experiences growing up in Winnipeg’s North End, his identity as a member of Shamattawa First Nation and his connection to the child welfare system. He aims to...

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) states that we are approaching over 100 million displaced peoples world-wide. In this episode of Humans on Rights, the Executive Director of IRCOM (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba) Shereen Denetto shares her passion of about working with and supporting newcomers to Winnipeg. She has seen first-hand the incredible talents and knowledge these newcomers bring when they arrive in our community. Located in the heart of inner-city Winnipeg, the talented IRCOM team, led by Shereen provide transitional housing and wrap-around settlement supports to newcomer families. While overseeing the successful completion of a second housing complex which effectively doubled their operations, Shereen is also overseeing the 30th Anniversary of one of Winnipeg’s most important family organizations -IRCOM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

From working in a four generations family owned and operated grocery store in the inner city of Winnipeg to receiving 2020 Terry G. Falconer memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Research Award, Dr. Natalie Riediger has been either working in or researching about food security. Natalie walks us through the Four Pillars that describe food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. In her capacity as assistant professor of food and human nutritional sciences in the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Agricultural and Food Services, Natalie is driving discovery in understanding how to effectively address nutrition-related health inequities among oppressed populations. Natalie speaks to the importance of advocating for policy as World Food Safety Day approaches on June 7, 2022.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.