Humans, On Rights

When Dr. Lorena Sekwan Fontaine was a child, her aunts and uncles would turn their backs or leave the room whenever they spoke Cree. She thought they were hiding something from her. They were: the language itself, learned the hard way in residential schools, where speaking it meant being hit. That memory sits at the centre of this conversation with Stuart Murray, a wide-ranging look at what Fontaine calls linguicide, the deliberate killing of a language, and what it means for Canada's human rights obligations today.Fontaine, a lawyer and professor and head of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba, traces her path from a childhood split between English at home and Cree overheard in secret, to a legal career built on the realization that Canadian law had no real framework for what residential school survivors had lost. Section 35 of the Constitution recognized Aboriginal and treaty rights, but on language, she says, it was "an empty box." She and Stuart also dig into why the Indigenous Languages Act, which now folds language rights into Section 35, is a real step forward but still leaves Indigenous language rights far weaker in practice than the constitutionally entrenched rights of English and French speakers, particularly in education.We're talking:Why Fontaine resists the term "linguicide" becoming a place where the conversation gets stuck, when the real goal is moving forwardThe gap between Section 35's language protections and the constitutionally entrenched rights of English and French speakersHer own daughter's education, and the choice to enroll her in French immersion when no Cree or Ojibwe option existedWhether Orange Shirt Day is driving structural change or settling into symbolismHer vision for twenty-five years from now: Indigenous languages on street signs and spoken at the counter, not just in the classroomRead Fontaine's book, Living Language Rights: Constitutional Pathways to Indigenous Language Education, and watch the CBC documentary Undoing Linguicide, drawn from her doctoral research.

Winnipeg designer, artist, and storyteller Lennard Taylor joins Stuart Murray to talk about clothing as identity, not just fabric. Lennard traces his path from a soccer career cut short by injury to two decades of painting, sewing, and dressing people out of his studio and boutique on Sherbrooke Street.Lennard pushes back against fast fashion, arguing that most people have lost the basic skill and instinct of dressing themselves with intention. He talks about his "bloodline" signature, a red stripe stitched into many of his garments as a symbol that everyone bleeds the same blood regardless of skin colour or language. He names his pieces after real Winnipeg clients — the Catherine pant, the Brenda Swing shirt — because his designs are, in his words, built from real community relationships, not abstractions.Much of the conversation is about zero waste: free repair workshops that teach basic skills like sewing on a button, turning worn or memory-laden clothing into sculpture instead of landfill, and a longer-term vision for turning textile waste into building material for housing. He closes on why community matters to him as a father, entrepreneur, and artist.We're talking:Fast fashion versus intentional, longer-lasting wardrobesThe "bloodline" signature and its human rights meaningZero waste, repair, and turning old clothing into artConnect with Lennard or find out about his upcoming sustainability events at LennardTaylor.com

Johise Namwira joins Stuart to talk about what it means to bring the National Black Canadian Summit to Winnipeg, and why she sees it as a movement rather than a moment. Namwira came to Winnipeg as a child after her family fled the Congo War, and later studied African studies at Oxford, a path that shapes how she talks about displacement, memory, and who gets left out of Canadian history.This is the furthest west the summit has ever travelled, and Namwira is direct about why: Winnipeg has a rich, historically underrepresented Black community, one with its own layered history most residents don't know. She points to a Manitoba mayor who once told Black migrants moving west that they had to leave, part of a longer story that includes the Underground Railroad and Africville, and one she says has to be reckoned with before "solutions" mean anything. That history runs alongside a present she's proud of: organizations like Black History Manitoba and the Congress of Black Women of Manitoba, which was founded in Winnipeg and went on to spark a national movement.The third summit, held in Halifax, produced a founding document for this whole movement: over 100 calls to action for governments, institutions, and communities, built on three pillars: recognition, justice, and development. It opens with the Sankofa bird from Ghana, a symbol for looking back while still moving forward. Namira calls it required reading before this summit, and this year's panel lineup is built directly on those pillars:Systemic justice and community-based reformHousing barriers facing Black communitiesAI and technology, and the push for anti-bias systemsA session pairing Indigenous and Black leaders in direct conversationNamwira closes with a message aimed squarely at young people: they're not the leaders of tomorrow, they're the leaders of today, and Winnipeg is already proving it, from the African Cup of Nations to local choirs, artist collectives, and creative networks she names one after another.Tickets are free for anyone under 30. There are 150 volunteer spots open across the weekend, and table sponsorships available for the opening ceremony. Whatever your age, check out the summit September 18-20, 2026, at the RBC Convention Centre.Register for the summit here. 

Indigenous Tourism Manitoba's work runs in two directions at once: on one side, indigenous business owners who need support getting market ready, connected to funders, and connected to each other. On the other, a public that often can't name a single indigenous-owned business. As CEO, Holly Spence has spent her career building the links on both sides, work she ties directly to what reconciliation actually requires.We're talking:Holly's own experience learning to walk between two systems, from Peguis First Nation to the city, and what that taught her about the barriers other business owners faceA persistent myth about who pays taxes, and what the numbers actually showTourism as a form of self-determination: who controls the story determines who profits from itHer case for why indigenous-led tourism might be the strongest driver of reconciliation in the provinceHolly also talks about what it took to get here, including a system that wouldn't count $400,000 in business equipment as collateral because it sat on reserve land. But the throughline of the conversation is bigger than her own path: it's about who gets to tell the story of a place, and who profits when they do.Learn more about Indigenous Tourism Manitoba

Kate Sjoberg has been calling for more housing in Winnipeg since long before she became Executive Director of Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY). With over two decades in community development and nonprofit leadership, including prior roles at the Wrench, North Point Douglas Women's Centre, the Spence Neighbourhood Association, and Main Street Project, she's seen the city's homelessness response from nearly every angle.Her assessment of the city's encampment policy is blunt: the map of where people can't go covers nearly the whole city, and the recent sweeps at Main and Logan broke trust in the very place Winnipeg told people to come for help.In this episode, Kate discusses:The city's encampment policy map: nearly all of Winnipeg marked red with places people can't goWhy housing people faster than "the speed of trust" fails, sometimes within four hoursThe recent sweeps at Main and Logan, and why Kate calls them indefensibleHow decades of government pullback built a sector expected to perform miracles on underfunded budgetsFrom the AIDS crisis to the toxic drug supply: the quiet movement keeping Winnipeggers aliveGet involved:Get trained on how to administer naloxone - Nahuen Consultation is running community drug poisoning training sessions this summer.Learn more about the Right to Housing CoalitionSupport Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY)