Teacher, artist, massage therapist, and certified yoga instructor, Catharine Mains was raised in the Northwest Territories, has studied in Winnipeg, New Mexico, the Bahamas and Northern Ireland, and is an international traveler.

She has a broad range of teaching experience ranging across the arctic and southern regions of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, in various positions. Through her volunteer experience in Sierra Leone with the Canadian Teacher Federation’s (CTF) Project Overseas she discovered that working for social justice with teachers in developing nations deepened her sense of professional and global solidarity. 

Hello, my name is Cindy Murdoch and I am pleased to be joining MARL as the new ED. In the brief three weeks that I have been working here I have been catching up on all of the hard work MARL does through committees, community events and educational programs.

I am pleased to provide my annual report at the end of another busy year for MARL. As in years past, I am reminded just how important organizations like MARL are to those who hold dear our fundamental human rights and civil liberties. This year, we focused our energy on a wide range of topics including the misuse of tasers, drug testing in schools, the right of mature minors to consent to medical treatment, video surveillance in public places, religious exercises in public schools and the scanning and storage of personal information by private businesses.

We are very pleased to announce that Cindy Murdoch has joined MARL as our new Executive Director, starting on June 1, 2009.

Cindy is a history graduate from the University of Winnipeg and has taken courses in both the Political Science and Human Rights and Global Studies programs. She has been very active in the community, volunteering with the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council, the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation. Her volunteer experience has provided Cindy with a strong understanding of human rights and civil liberties as well as the challenges facing disadvantaged groups. Cindy is passionate about educating and advocating for human rights and civil liberties.

Welcome to the premier edition of WYREZ, a new feature e-magazine of the Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties - Youth and Education Program (MARL-YEP).  WYREZ is dedicated to discussions about human rights and civil liberties.  We hope WYREZ will be a home for debate about human rights and social justice issues. It is intended to be informative and thought-provokng, with an emphasis on youth and education.