NOTE: During my conversation with Alex Lytwyn, I mentioned that he had one brother. In fact Alex has two brothers. 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,...
Dec 08, 2022•54 min•Ep. 50
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 pro...
Nov 24, 2022•59 min•Ep. 49
“I would rather be a little nobody than an evil somebody” – Abraham Lincoln School 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 ...
Nov 10, 2022•39 min•Ep. 48
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. He explores the connection between design and economic growth, environmental sustainability, civic competitivene...
Oct 27, 2022•54 min•Ep. 47
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 messa...
Oct 13, 2022•28 min•Ep. 46
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 ...
Sep 22, 2022•34 min•Ep. 45
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”...
Sep 08, 2022•34 min•Ep. 44
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 ...
Aug 25, 2022•31 min•Ep. 43
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 men...
Jul 21, 2022•41 min•Ep. 42
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 aim...
Jun 30, 2022•47 min•Ep. 41
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 ta...
Jun 23, 2022•42 min•Ep. 40
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 ...
Jun 09, 2022•47 min•Ep. 39
What do Heavy Construction and being a mother have in common? What about stone crushing and breaking a glass ceiling…what do they have in common? To answer those questions and more, I spoke with Nicole Chabot, the Vice President of L. Chabot Enterprises Ltd. In her own words, Nicole said “I am a woman, I have an Indigenous background. I am a wife, and I am a mother. And I am very proud to work in the heavy construction industry.” As the Chair of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association Board ...
May 19, 2022•35 min•Ep. 38
Shannon Sampert is a political analyst and media specialist who serves as a bridge between th academy and the community. As a former journalist, she explores the intersections of media, politics, and gender. Sampert is a sought-after media commentator during Canadian elections and for her expertise in areas such as political communications and sexism. She cut her teeth in media at the tender age of 15 while working for a radio station in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. From there she got into producing doc...
May 05, 2022•33 min•Ep. 37
Those were the words Karyn Lazareck said to the medical profession when they had doubts about her intuition of her son Jordan’s autism. On this episode of Humans, on Rights, Karyn talks about how she and her husband Mel raised three amazing boys who are now all men. And how one of the boys, Jordan led her to mobilize a community to create a place where anyone with a disability could find a safe and respectful place in that community. By using her leadership skills and love of her autistic son Jo...
Apr 14, 2022•39 min•Ep. 36
This week, we welcome Clan Mother Jamie Goulet to the Humans on Rights podcast. Jamie is a co-founder of Clan Mothers Healing Village, a beautiful lodge whose mission is to help women and girls with an array of different issues, from environmental issues to human trafficking and sex slavery and so much more. As they expanded, they took on the name Clan Mothers Healing Village and Knowledge Centre to honour the mission of carrying on knowledge of elders and the stories of those who pass through t...
Mar 24, 2022•34 min•Ep. 35
Water…we use water form everything from cooking to bathing. There is hardly anything we can do without water. We live in a culture where take perhaps certain things like water for granted. Water…it’s a good thing right? But what happens from a mental and physical perspective when a human made flood forces people, families, entire communities off their land. In this episode Dr.Myrle Ballard talks about how, as a young girl growing up on Lake St Martin First Nation, she witnessed, through human ma...
Mar 10, 2022•34 min•Ep. 34
It has been said that a continued engagement with history is vital because it helps give context for the present. Black History Manitoba (@bhmwinnipeg #BlackHistoryManitoba) and Black History Month (#BlackHistoryMonth) is an opportunity to celebrate Black History going beyond stories of racism and slavery to spotlight Black achievement. On this episode, Ms. Valerie Williams, the Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the Rady Faculty of Health Science talks about what it was like to grow...
Feb 24, 2022•42 min•Ep. 33
Ogo Okwumabua is a Winnipeg-based entrepreneur and co-owner of Zueike, an athleisure clothing company that designs and manufactures premium athletic apparel for all lifestyles. The meaning of Zueike is "to relax, to become more calm and happy, to slow down and unwind". The brand/company is built around community; the team at Zueike believe that we are all one people and one village. Every person can make a difference in their own way and the team hopes to slowly make an impact locally and around...
Feb 12, 2022•28 min•Ep. 32
Jeremy Maron was in Grade 8 when he went to a screening of the film Schindler’s List. It was a very emotional experience that was made that much more powerful when Holocaust survivor Philip Weiss shared his personal story as a Holocaust survivor. Today Dr. Jeremy Maron is a curator of Holocaust and genocide content at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (@CMHR_News) and he shares the remarkable story of how a seemingly ordinary blue leather wallet that was purchased in 1940 at a market in a sma...
Jan 27, 2022•48 min•Ep. 31
Ashley Nemeth is totally blind. She is a proud mother of three grown children, an entrepreneur, a manager of CNIB programs for Manitoba but it was during her high school years that Ashley discovered that despite her vision loss, she was very good at wrestling. So good in fact she became a provincial wrestling champion! Ashley Nemeth has worked at CNIB ( www.cnib.ca ) for 5 years. She has seen some technical advancements that have assisted people who are blind or partially sighted but in this epi...
Jan 13, 2022•45 min•Ep. 30
Dr. Noralou Roos is the co-director of the Get Your Benefits! project , which works to help Manitobans identify and access the benefits and programs they are eligible for. Dr. Roos is also the founding co-director for the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and a professor emerita in community health sciences at the University of Manitoba. She is known for helping create Canada's first data laboratory and for her work with Health Canada, implementing a research network that monitors post-market dr...
Dec 16, 2021•43 min•Ep. 29
The best way to protect yourself and others from HIV transmission is to be informed about prevention methods. For most people, taking PrEP ( PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis) is the best way to reduce the risk of HIV contraction. On this episode Mike Payne (he/him) the Executive Director of Nine Circles Community Health Centre talks about HIV, the stigma attached to those in our community with HIV, and why education continues to be one of the biggest challenges in advancing the true unde...
Dec 09, 2021•48 min•Ep. 28
Micaela Crighton (She/They) and Leah Wilson (They/Them) are the Co-Chairs of Advocacy for the Institute for International Women's Rights -Manitoba and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence. They both discovered their passion for human rights at an early age and have played significant roles in organizations such as the World Federalist Movement, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Make Poverty History Manitoba plus others. On this episode they share their concer...
Nov 26, 2021•34 min•Ep. 27
Elizabeth Sellers is a paediatric endocrinologist and Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba. She is also a Clinician Scientist, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. As a clinician and clinical researcher, her primary focus has been the epidemiology, pathophysiology, complications, treatment and support of youth with type 2 diabetes with a particular interest in Indigenous populations. Click here for a transcript of this episode. See Privacy P...
Nov 18, 2021•45 min•Ep. 26
James Kornelson is the Public Engagement Manager at Canadian Foodgrains Bank. He is passionately involved in the production of education and advocacy resources on global hunger, recently aimed at mobilizing Canadians to advocate on Canada’s international climate finance commitments. Big job! Oh and he has a love affair with Winnipeg. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Click here for a transcript of this episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Pri...
Oct 21, 2021•41 min•Ep. 25
Ayn Wilcox is the Executive Director of Klinic Community Health. In this conversation she connects the dots between her life learning at the Manitoba Agriculture Museum in Austin Manitoba and her current role as Executive Director at Klinic Community Health. Her life journey has been filled with a passion for learning and appreciating the importance of community. When it comes to understanding and de-stigmatizing mental health, Ayn firmly believes we are all in this together. Ayn believes if we ...
Oct 07, 2021•43 min•Ep. 24
Is World Peace possible? My guest on this episode thinks so. Dr. Charlotte Enns, the Director of the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice believes if you can listen to other peoples stories, if you can understand other peoples points of view, that is the pathway to peace, and that is the way we are going to get to world peace even if that is an abstract concept. Dr. Enns explains the need for peace and justice is absolute before fundamental human rights can be achieved. Through our conve...
Sep 23, 2021•37 min•Ep. 23
According to Crisis Services Canada for every suicide death there are an estimated 20-25 attempts. An average of 275 people attempt suicide in Canada everyday. Aly Raposo had suicidal ideation, When you look at the number of awards and the high level of recognition Aly has learned it has to bereave that she contemplated suicide. In this episode of Humans, on Rights my guest Aly Raposo talks candidly and openly how she has dealt with being diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, borderline ...
Sep 08, 2021•45 min•Ep. 22
The head archivist at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has an enormous and important task. Raymond Frogner and his team have to take 4 million documents, 7000 interview statements, tens of thousands of photographs and maps, make these records searchable, available and usable to educate Canadians about the residential school system. Raymond believes that the country is going through a period of mourning but that as a country, we are at a point where we can choose to learn about pa...
Aug 26, 2021•48 min•Ep. 21
