Humans, On Rights

As we move into Pride month, Ralph Bryant returns to Humans, On Rights. This time, the Rainbow Resource Center's Manager of Stewardship sits down with Stuart to dig into The State of 2SLGBTQ+ Communities in Manitoba 2026 — the first report of its kind in Manitoba.

This report surveyed 623 queer Manitobans alongside 1,000 members of the general public. It provides, for the first time, a true snapshot of the experiences, needs and priorities of queer Manitobans, as well as the state of allyship among straight Manitobans.

The findings paint a picture of a community that is resilient and connected — but still navigating serious gaps in mental health, safety, and acceptance.

We're talking:

• Why mental health ranked as the number one issue facing 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Manitoba by a wide margin, and what's driving it
• What it means that 54% of Manitobans believe gender ideology has "gone too far"
• The striking gap between soft and strong support for 2SLGBTQ+ legal protections
• The candid "In Their Own Words" section of the report, where queer Manitobans name systemic exclusion within queer spaces themselves
• The single data point Ralph most wants to see change when the survey is done again

The full report — including key findings and complete data — is available at rainbowresourcecentre.org/reports

Get Involved:

• Download and share the State of the Queer report
• Connect with Rainbow Resource Centre's Learning and Change department if your organization wants to work toward a more authentic and inclusive culture
• Volunteer with Camp Aurora (sleepaway camp) or Spirit Day Camp
• Attend or support Rainbow Resource Centre's community programs and social groups

Following Red Dress Day earlier this month, Stuart sits down with KC Adams, a Cree and Anishinaabe relational maker, curator, writer and educator based in Winnipeg, whose work uses photography, installation and public art to explore identity, cultural reclamation and the ongoing impacts of colonialism.

KC brings both lived experience and creative practice to a rich conversation about Red Dress Day, the evolution of Jamie Black's iconic installation at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and what it really means to make art as an act of advocacy and community uplift.

We're talking:

• Why national recognition of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Two Spirit people, and men matters so deeply
• Why KC prefers the term "relational maker" over "artist," and how Western art terminology fails to honour Indigenous ways of knowing, creating and being in relationship
• The story behind the reimagined Sky Woman installation at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and how KC and Jamie Black collaborated to shift the conversation from awareness toward action and ceremony
• What meaningful allyship looks like, and why KC believes moving forward requires bringing people into the circle, not pushing them away

Learn more about KC Adams and her work at kcadams.net

Learn more about the Red Dress Project by Jamie Black

Visit the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to see the Sky Woman installation in person.

Adrian Alfonso has been building trails in Winnipeg since he was a kid ripping around on a BMX bike in South Osborne. Today, he's a cyclist, trail builder, Indigenous advocate, and founder of Clear Paths, a program that uses cycling routes and green spaces as a framework for Truth and Reconciliation education. Stuart sits down with Adrian to talk about what trails can teach us, what it means to be a contemporary First Nations person in Winnipeg, and why the land beneath our wheels has a lot more to say than most of us realize.

We're talking:

How Adrian's childhood on the "monkey trails" became the foundation for a life of advocacy

What Clear Paths is, and how it leads participants through a guided experience of language, relationship, and reconciliation

The idea that a good trail connects the best places together, and how that philosophy shapes his approach to community building

His concept of "my truth plus your truth equals reconciliation," and what active listening actually looks like in practice

Connect with Adrian on Instagram

Connect with the Clear Paths program on Instagram

Stuart Murray sits down with Winnipeg writer, filmmaker, and environmental advocate Erna Buffie. After more than two decades producing science documentaries for CBC's The Nature of Things, Erna has turned her attention closer to home — documenting why Winnipeg's urban forest is in crisis, and what it will take to save it. Her book Out on a Limb makes the case that trees aren't a civic amenity. They're essential infrastructure.

We're talking:

• Why Winnipeg — despite its iconic canopy of elms — scores among the lowest of major Canadian cities for greenness, and what's driving that decline
• The health benefits of urban trees and the argument for treating trees as infrastructure: for every $1 invested in a tree, the city sees $6 in benefits
• Why "we'll just plant more" isn't the answer — and why it takes a minimum of 10 years for a sapling to deliver even a fraction of what a mature tree provides
• The case for a private tree bylaw — why more than 700 cities have passed them, and why Winnipeg has been reluctant to follow

As Erna puts it, trees aren't just a pretty way to beautify a city. They cool the air, capture pollutants, absorb rainwater, support biodiversity, and help us build the kind of climate resilience we're going to need. The science is clear. What's missing is political will.

“Out on a Limb” is out now. There will be a book launch event on Wednesday May 20, 7:00 pm, at McNally Robinson in Grant Park

Check out Out on a Limb

Learn more about Trees Please Winnipeg 

On this episode of Humans, On Rights, we sit down with Suzanne Winterflood, Program Manager of WISE Kinetic Energy — Manitoba's largest STEM outreach program. What started over 35 years ago as a small group of professors working to bring more girls into science and engineering has grown into a province-wide initiative reaching over 43,000 young people a year.

And yet, Suzanne is the first to admit: the needle hasn't moved nearly as far as it should have. This conversation gets into what equitable access to STEM education actually looks like — and what keeps getting in the way.

We're talking:

• Why early exposure to STEM matters most, and why grades 8 and 9 are such a critical turning point for girls
• The barriers specific to Black and Indigenous youth in accessing STEM education and careers
• Why WISE Kinetic Energy is building toward land-based, culturally specific programming for Indigenous youth
• The role of undergraduate students as near-peer role models — and why that model works
• How AI hype is pulling government funding away from the foundational, youth-focused work that actually builds the next generation of workers

WISE Kinetic Energy website

On this episode of Humans, On Rights, we sit down with Bruno de Oliveira Jayme, a Brazilian-born artist, educator, and community arts practitioner who has spent 25 years making Canada his home. Now a full professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, Bruno brings together curriculum theory, arts-based research, and a deep commitment to social justice. His work explores what happens when art stops being decoration and starts becoming dissent.

Bruno introduces us to the concept of "artivism" — the intersection of art and activism — and makes the case that creative expression is not a softer substitute for protest, but a distinct and powerful tool for surfacing stories, building collective identity, and opening space for conversations that more traditional forms of advocacy often can't reach.

We're discussing:

• How Bruno's upbringing in Brazil during the end of a military dictatorship first opened his eyes to art as a political force
• The roots of community art and artivism in the social movements of the late 1960s and '70s — from the Black movement and second-wave feminism to the landless movement in Latin America
• Why art is uniquely capable of addressing difficult issues "in a light manner" — and why that accessibility matters for movements like environmental justice
• His advice to aspiring artivist students: start with what you know, what you're struggling with, what you're hopeful for. Bring that to your community, and think together, collectively, about what you can do next.

Bruno's website (edited) 

At 21 years old, Divya Sharma has already led a $16 million student organization, represented Manitoba at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, and is writing her honours thesis on the human rights implications of artificial intelligence. Her story is a reminder that age isn't a barrier to meaningful change — and that the most powerful advocacy often starts right in your own community.

We're talking:

• Her COVID-19 project that started with a few micro-grants and grew into 16,000 care packages for frontline workers across Canada — recognized by the United Nations as one of the top stories of the pandemic
• Her path to becoming the 100th and youngest president of the University of Manitoba Students' Union (UMSU)
• Advocating for international students' access to healthcare as a human right, and the successful push to expand bursaries and bring menstrual products into university washrooms
• Her take on the biggest human rights challenge facing Canadians today: literacy, in every sense of the word

If you want to know what the next generation of Winnipeg changemakers looks like, Divya's a pretty good place to start.

Get Involved:

Manitoba Council for International Cooperation:

Provincial press releases:

Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba email list:

For our second Black History Month episode, we're going beyond celebration and into accountability. Stuart Murray sits down with Janet James, Edmonton entrepreneur and leadership strategist, whose journey from growing up as one of the only Black families in Lancashire, England to becoming a corporate executive and business owner is both a personal story of resilience and a lens on who gets access to power, capital, and opportunity.

Janet is the founder of Janet James Growth Leadership, and has been involved with the National Black Coalition of Canada, Black History Manitoba, and leadership events for Indigenous youth — work that reflects her belief that real progress is about closing gaps, not checking boxes.

We're talking:

• Why representation alone isn't enough, and what economic equity actually looks like in practice
• The concept of "dark work" — the inner work nobody sees that makes everything else possible
• How the word "woke" got weaponized, and what it actually means to the people who've always used it
• What performative allyship looks like up close, and how to redirect it without coming from a place of anger

Janet's path took her from suppressing her identity in an almost entirely white town in England, to finding community and courage in Edmonton, to rising through corporate ranks and eventually building her own business. Along the way, she ran DEI programs, spoke publicly about racism at a time when she feared it would cost her her job, and led leadership training for Indigenous youth in Winnipeg — drawing the through-line between different communities' shared experiences of being told what they can't do.

As Janet puts it: "In order to grow yourself, you must know yourself first."

Janet James' Website

Black History Month isn't just 28 days in February—it's a year-round commitment to education, connection, and celebration. We sit down with Nadia Thompson, chair of Black History Manitoba, to discuss the 2026 theme "Rooted in Legacy: Honouring a Century of Black History" and the organization's 45th anniversary milestone.

Nadia shares the evolution from the Black History Month Celebration Committee to Black History Manitoba, a shift that signals their year-round presence in the community. What started as two or three events in 1981 has grown to over 45 events in the first week alone—a testament to growing community engagement and awareness.

We're talking:

• Why Black History Month is like a birthday celebration—recognizing that while the struggle exists every day, February offers a dedicated time to highlight pride and achievement
• The Craig Block and Pilgrim Baptist Church as forgotten pieces of Winnipeg's Black history, including their role in supporting railway porters and creating safe spaces for Black travellers
• The explosion of youth-led programming through Black Student Unions across Manitoba schools
• The importance of volunteerism and how just one hour a week can make a meaningful impact
• Moving beyond February: Emancipation Day in August, Kwanzaa in December, and year-round education

Nadia reminds us that diversity in Manitoba schools has skyrocketed since she was young, when she and her twin sister could count Black faces on one hand. Today's youth are more engaged, more connected, and more empowered to continue the legacy of those who fought for a seat at the table—or better yet, brought their own table.

As Nadia puts it: "We struggle every day. But in February, the world has given us an opportunity to highlight the pride of being Black in this world."

Find out more about Black History Manitoba and how you can get involved (in February and year-round): https://www.bhmwinnipeg.com/

When we picture zero waste, we often think of recycling bins or reusable coffee cups. But Helga Jacobsen sees something bigger: behind every piece of waste is a human story — someone who made it, someone who handles it, and communities who live with its impact.

As Sustainability Coordinator at The Forks, Helga Jakobson is turning one of Winnipeg's most beloved gathering places into a living example of how community spaces can practice real sustainability. From her background as a transdisciplinary new media artist to her current work transforming coffee grounds into de-icer, Helga brings creativity and data together to communicate what's happening with our planet in ways people can actually understand and act on.

We're talking:

- Why protecting the earth and protecting people are the same conversation

- How The Forks operates in a circular economy instead of the "produce, consume, throw away" linear model

- Why setting "zero" as a goal matters even if you don't quite reach it

Helga reminds us that sustainability work doesn't require perfection or pushback. Sometimes the most innovative solutions come from conversations with tenants over coffee, listening to Indigenous voices and water protectors, and staying hopeful even when the news feels overwhelming.

As she puts it: "Everyone has the ability to create impact around them. So speak up."

Learn more about the Forks' "Target Zero" project.

More on Helga:

Helga Jakobson is the Sustainability Coordinator at the Forks and is a Transdisciplinary Artist. In 2017, she received an MFA from AKV St. Joost (The Netherlands) in conjunction with courses in the Transdisciplinary New Media program at the Paris College of Art (France). She has exhibited, lectured and participated in residencies across North and South America and Europe. She was selected for the Emerging Excellence Award by the Manitoba Arts Council in 2019, has mentored through Creative Manitoba, Video Pool and, currently, MAWA. She lectures on material ecologies, eco-feminism, and sustainability in art. Her art practice often focuses on how to live on a damaged earth and how to make tangible the almost invisible and inaudible losses that are occurring all around us, from an environmental perspective.

As CEO of a bourgeoning recycling business (REDO Waste), a Butterflyway Ranger for the David Suzuki Foundation and former Executive Director of ArtsJunktion (a creative reuse depot), Helga brings to her role as Sustainability Coordinator wide spanning experiences that help her to promote sustainability, with waste diversion and composting at the Forks.

When she’s off duty, she can be found hiking and camping, gardening and cuddling her foster fail dogs; Wednesday and Huginn.