the places we remember
Just Waters
From June 16 to 18, 2025, a group of scholars,students and artists came together for a writing workshop with Kerri Arsenault and Cory Beizer of The Environmental Storytelling Studio (TESS). Just Waters hosted this workshop to support the creation of an Open Educational Resource that brings together perspectives on water and justice from a diverse set of disciplines. Throughout the workshop, we explored the idea of bringing our whole selves to the writing— the act of being un-disciplined, one could say.
A collection of lightly edited writing exercises, this chapbook acts as a series of snapshots— of places, memories, stories and values that the writers shared with each other throughout the workshop.
About the cover
This fish scale floral has been created digitally versus by hand with physical lake whitefish scales. Using macro photography of an individual flat scale and a cone, the flower is created. This practice moves the creation of fish scale art from the physical to the digital form.
Fish scale art on the cover and inside cover by Erin Konsmo (Red River Métis). https://www.erinkonsmo.com/
Violence Against Women Migrants and Refugees: A Podcast
Violence Against Women Migrants and Refugees: A Podcast
February 23, 2026
GBV-MIG Canada Research Program
This podcast explores the experiences of gender-based violence (GBV) by migrant and refugee women in Canada. As a part of the GBV-MIG Canada Research Program, it aims to show how structural and systemic factors such as policies and legislation shape the violence that migrant and refugee women and girls are likely to experience in Canada.
Episode 1: Migration and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Canada with Dr. Lori Wilkinson and Dr. Evie Tastsoglou
In this episode, host Dr. Pauline Tennent speaks with Dr. Lori Wilkinson (University of Manitoba) and Dr. Evie Tastsoglou (Saint Mary’s University) about the GBV-MIG Canada Research Program. In particular, they talk about how the project came to be, and provide important background information about gender-based violence (GBV) experienced by migrant and refugee women in Canada.
Listen now:
Episode 2: Systemic Factors of Gender-Based Violence with Dr. Evie Tastsoglou and Dr. Cathy Holtmann
In the second episode of the podcast, host Dr. Pauline Tennent discusses with Dr. Evie Tastsoglou (Saint Mary’s University) and Dr. Cathy Holtmann (University of New Brunswick) about the underlying systemic factors which shape gender-based violence (GBV) for migrant and refugee women (MRW). Using intersectional feminist and social ecological approaches, this episode explores how inequalities and identities shape the social determinants of health and well-being of MRW..
Listen now:
- Yalcinoz-Ucan, B., Tastsoglou, E., Dawson, M. (2025). Tracing Individual Experiences to Systemic Challenges: The (Re)Production of GBV in Migrant Women’s Experiences in Canada, Frontiers in Sociology, Special Research Topic on Gender and the Continuum of Violence in Migration, edited by Tastsoglou E., Dawson, M., Freedman, J., Holtmann, C. Vol. 10 (Open Access).
- Tastsoglou, E. (2025). Gender-Based Violence in a Migration Context: Health Impacts and Barriers to Healthcare Access and Help Seeking for Migrant and Refugee Women in Canada. Societies, 15(3), 68. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15030068
- Sisic, M., Tastsoglou, E., Wilkinson, L., Dawson, M., Holtmann, C., Falconer, C. (2024). The Continuum of Gender-Based Violence Experienced by Migrant and Refugee Women in Canada: Perspectives from Key Informants. In Special Topic on “Gender and the Continuum of Violence in Migration,” guest-edited by Tastsoglou, E., Dawson, M., Freedman, J., Holtmann. C. In the journal Sociology, Frontiers
- Holtmann, C., Tastsoglou, E., Dawson, M. Wilkinson, L. (2023). Surviving Gender-Based Violence: A Social Ecological Approach to Migrant and Refugee Women’s Settlement. Canadian Ethnic Studies, Special Issue on Gender and Violence in a Migration and Refugee Context: Agency, Resilience and Resistance, edited by Tastsoglou, E. 55(3), 57-77
About the Project
This podcast is a knowledge mobilization initiative from the project, Violence Against Women Migrants and Refugees: Analyzing Causes and Effective Policy Response from the GBV-MIG Canada Research Program. The project is a partnership of four academics and four academic institutions, including Saint Mary’s University, University of Guelph, University of Manitoba, University of New Brunswick.
Funded by the Canada Institutes of Health Research as one of the international partners in the GBV-MIG Project, a winning project of the Gender-Net Plus Consortium.
Connect with us
- Email: gbv-mig@smu.ca
- Website: https://www.smu.ca/gendernet/welcome.html
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/GBV_MIGCanada
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gbv-mig-canada.bsky.social
Abortion in Manitoba: A Feminist Community-Based Approach to Abortion Access Research
Abortion in Manitoba: A Feminist Community-Based Approach to Abortion Access Research
January 28, 2026
Hannah Belec
In collaboration with the University of Manitoba Faculty of Arts, the Centre for Human Rights Research hosted Dr. Lindsay Larios and Emma Cowman for a lecture titled ‘Abortion in Manitoba: A feminist community-based approach to abortion access research’. The lecture was held on Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at the University of Manitoba – Fort Garry Campus.
This seminar is a part of our annual Critical Conversations seminar series. This year, the seminar series focuses on feminist research methodologies, exploring various ways research is done within feminist and anti-oppressive scholarship.
Watch the lecture below.
Aadizookaan: Winter Storytelling Gathering
Aadizookaan: Winter Storytelling Gathering
Just Waters
On a wintery Tuesday in January 2026, nearly 150 people gathered at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People at The Forks for Aadizookaan: Winter Storytelling Gathering, envisioned by Knowledge Keeper Ramona Milliea and hosted by Just Waters with support from the University of Manitoba Faculty of Arts. In a dark, cozy theatre scented with sage and warmed by the crackle of a replica campfire, storytellers Jason Bone, Elder Margaret Lavallee, and Jason Parenteau—guided by MC Rylee Nepinak—shared Anishinaabe teachings in English and Anishinaabemowin with a diverse audience that included secondary students and immersion learners. Through the Anishinaabe Creation Story and other narratives such as Why Bear Has A Short Tail and Why Rabbit Has Long Ears and Feet, the gathering offered moral and ethical principles grounded in natural law, relationships, and respect for water. Rooted in winter as the season for stories across Turtle Island, Aadizookaan also supported Indigenous language revitalization and holistic learning by honouring oral tradition as a living way to carry memory, strengthen community, and pass teachings across generations. Mi’ iw.
Abortion in Manitoba: An Overview of Care – Community Report
Abortion in Manitoba: An Overview of Care - Community Report
January 21, 2026
Emma Cowman, Lindsay Larios, O. Thomas, and Melanie Paterson
Although abortion is legally treated as a standard medical procedure in Canada, the landscape of abortion access in Manitoba remains shaped by social, political, and geographic realities. People across the province continue to encounter barriers such as long travel distances, limited appointment availability, lack of local providers, abortion an stigma, among other challenges. Collectively, these challenges shape access to abortion care in Manitoba as fragmented, inconsistent, and highly dependent on context.
The Abortion in Manitoba project was developed to document the realities of those who have sought access to abortion care in the province. Drawing on survey responses and narrative interviews, the community report highlights key barriers, sources of support, and gaps in care across all stages of the abortion experience. The findings and recommendations aim to inform policy, healthcare practice, and community advocacy, and to support more equitable, accessible, and just abortion care in Manitoba.
Bordering on Age Discrimination: A social age analysis of Canada immigration policy
Bordering on Age Discrimination: A social age analysis of Canada immigration policy
December 1, 2025
Angela Ciceron
On November 20, 2025, the Centre for Human Rights Research and the Department of Sociology and Criminology (Faculty of Arts) at the University of Manitoba hosted Dr. Christina Clark-Kazak for a lecture titled “Bordering on Age Discrimination: A Social Age Analysis of Canada’s Immigration Policy.”
In this lecture, Clark-Kazak draws from her forthcoming work on Age and Immigration Policy in Canada: Toward an Equitable Approach (UBC Press, 2026) where she uses a social age analysis to understand how Canadian immigration policies can discriminate on the basis of social age. Her analysis covers a broad range of immigration policies, from the points system to refugee settlement, as well as related areas such as immigration detention.
Watch the lecture below.
Investing for ourselves, and those downstream
Investing for ourselves, and those downstream
November 24, 2025
Jocelyn Thorpe and Adele Perry
Adele Perry and Jocelyn Thorpe respond to a City of Winnipeg Report outlining the importance of completing the final phase of the new North End Water Pollution Control Centre (NEWPCC) in a Winnipeg Free Press article published November 24, 2025.
We have invested large sums of money in infrastructure before.
You don’t often hear Winnipeggers complaining about the results: soft, clean drinking water thanks to the Shoal Lake aqueduct and flood protection thanks to the Red River Floodway.
A new city report outlines the importance of upgrading Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant, which is responsible for treating 70 per cent of the city’s wastewater and all sewage sludge. The report focuses on the upgrades’ potential benefits to the city, including increased capacity to build new homes and businesses, and related economic growth.
It briefly mentions that upgrades to the plant are necessary in order to meet environmental regulations designed to protect waterways from the discharge of harmful materials that compromise the health of the Red River and Lake Winnipeg.
But nowhere does the report mention that Indigenous communities located downstream from Winnipeg are the ones bearing the brunt of Winnipeg’s sewage treatment shortcomings. Last year, in response to a sewage spill that resulted in over 228 million litres of sewage flowing into the Red River, 10 First Nations situated around Lake Winnipeg sued municipal, provincial and federal governments for the violation of their treaty rights, ongoing pollution of the lake, and its effects on the health and well-being of First Nations citizens.
Refusing to Harness a River: A Study of Dryland Farmers Resisting Irrigation in mid-20th Century Saskatchewan
Refusing to Harness a River: A Study of Dryland Farmers Resisting Irrigation in mid-20th Century Saskatchewan
October 30, 2025
Shannon Stunden Bower
On October 30, 2025, the University of Manitoba’s Just Waters project, Institute for the Humanities and Department of History hosted Dr. Shannon Stunden Bower for a talk titled, “Refusing to Harness a River: A Study of Dryland Farmers Resisting Irrigation in mid-20th Century Saskatchewan.” This talk focused on dryland farmers from Saskatchewan’s Outlook-Broderick area in their efforts to resist the Saskatchewan government’s attempts to compel them to irrigate. Drylander resistance illuminates key features of this agricultural community in the mid-20th century: the importance of the ideals of rights and democracy; the significance of women’s roles, and the persistence and creativity of those who sought to protect their own ideas of how best to make good lives and good livings. Watch a video of the talk below.
History in the Hot Seat: Colonialism and the Knowing and Teaching of Canada’s Past – A Final Report
History in the Hot Seat: Colonialism and the Knowing and Teaching of Canada’s Past - A Final Report
2024
Hannah Belec, Katja Buchholz, Jamie Nienhuysen, Adele Perry, Sean Carleton, Jocelyn Thorpe, and Pauline Tennent
In recent years, we have witnessed a sustained questioning of how we understand, remember, and celebrate Canada’s past in light of ongoing histories of colonization, dispossession, and systemic racism. In conventional scholarly publications, grey literature, and popular media, we can see a reconsideration of Canada’s past and how it should be taught, understood, and marked within and beyond academia. This reckoning with imperial and racial pasts is global in scope but has had a particular trajectory and impact within the context of Canada. Canada’s past has been in the hot seat. The History in the Hot Seat Knowledge Synthesis project identifies and assesses the state of current English-language knowledge in Canada that has been produced since History in the Hot Seat works to provide knowledge that will be valuable for academics, public history professionals and organizations, educators and others working to develop and sustain visions of Canada’s past that recognize the role of colonization, dispossession, and systemic racism in Canada’s past.
History in the Hot Seat is part of the 2024 Knowledge Synthesis Grant Competition, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in partnership with Canadian Heritage, Genome Canada, and UK Research Innovation’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (UKRI-AHRC). The theme of the 2024 Knowledge Synthesis Grant Competition, “Evolving Narratives of Cultures and Histories,” aims to assess and mobilize the existing knowledge on how factors such as globalization, war, colonization, racism, slavery, climate change, technology, social media, and more have shaped or changed cultural and historical narratives.
Winnipeg, Wastewater & Environmental Racism Postcards
Winnipeg, Wastewater & Environmental Racism Postcards
November 4, 2025
Cameron Armstrong, Angela Ciceron and Sarah Deckert
On September 22, 2025, we met at the Assiniboine and Red Rivers to discuss how Winnipeg’s wastewater reflects and perpetuates environmental racism and colonialism. Dr. Kathy Bird spoke about the interconnectedness of the waters and reminded us that what we do to the waters in Winnipeg impacts our neighbours downstream. With profound insight and storytelling, she called us to a deep respect for the waters, both in spirit and in action. Dr. Jocelyn Thorpe shared about the reality of sewage that flows into the rivers not only when pipes break but when we have a heavy rainfall and the combined sewers overflow. Finally, Councillor Brian Mayes brought our attention to the need for federal support for the North End Sewage Treatment Plant upgrades, which would greatly reduce the amount of nutrients that flow into Lake Winnipeg.
We provided the postcards below as a way for attendees to advocate for the waters, and for our neighbours downstream. Please feel free to print these postcards and send to your MPs, MLAs and city councillors with a personal message about your connection to and hope for the waters. Below the postcards we have provided a few additional resources, including links to help you find your MP, MLA and city councillor, and some prompts for writing an effective letter.
Contact Us
We’d love to hear from you.
442 Robson Hall
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3T 2N2 Canada
204-474-6453
Quick Links
Subscribe to our mailing list for periodic updates from the Centre for Human Rights Research, including human rights events listings and employment opportunities (Manitoba based and virtual).
Traditional Territories Acknowledgement
The University of Manitoba campuses are located on the original lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anisininewuk, Dakota Oyate, Dene and Inuit, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis.
Centre for Human Rights Research 2023© · Privacy Policy