Youth

Youth Leadership in Human Rights Project

The 2010 MARL Youth Leadership in Human Rights Project had a very successful launch on November 4 at the Collège Universitaire de Saint-Boniface. There are nine schools participating in this year’s program. They are : Collège Jeanne Sauvé, Kildonan East Collegiate, Munroe Junior High, Pinawa Secondary School, Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau, Gimli High School, Garden City Collegiate, St.Norbert Collegiate and Argyle Alternative School.

2009 Sybil Shack Human Rights Youth Award

The recipient for the 2009 Sybil Shack Human Rights Youth Award is Anna-Celestrya Carr.  She is creative youth leader who has focused her energy and dedication on her Aboriginal roots, and on advancing the rights of Aboriginal Woman.  Anna-Celestrya has worked with many organizations and institutions to promote the rights of Aboriginal women, including the University of Manitoba when she was vice president of the University’s Aboriginal Students Association. 

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Unity Group at Maples Collegiate

A WYREZ Feature

"It's important that students are speaking up, because adults do that all the time, but when people see young people speaking out, it makes a difference."

The Organization –

The Unity Group has been a feature of Maples Collegiate for 13 years.  It was initiated, according to teacher Chuck Duboff, when a federal politician made racist remarks about East Indian people. Many students at Maples Collegiate were upset by this and wrote letters about it.  The responses they received were “generic”. When they spoke to Mr. Duboff about this he suggested, “If this were the ‘60’s we’d be out there with signs demonstrating.” Thus, the Unity Group was born.

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Youth Against Hate

The program consists of workshops designed to help students deal with an increasingly intolerant school environment: the racial, homophobic and sexist jokes, hate graffiti and casual put-downs that have become a part of their daily experience. The Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties (MARL) believes students can take a leading role in responding to hate. It is the everyday actions of students that will prevent hate from flourishing. These workshops focus on empowering students to be responsive bystanders.

Under 18 Handbook Online

Reproduction of these materials is permitted on the condition that due credit is given to the author and the Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties

Funded by Department of Justice Canada and The Manitoba Law Foundation.

PDF versions of the full handbook and each chapter are available for download.

Dr. Sybil Shack Memorial Human Rights Youth Award

From the Newsletter

At a luncheon on December 9, 2005, the inaugural Dr. Sybil Shack Memorial Human Rights Youth Award was presented to the Maples Collegiate Unity Group.

In 2004, we were saddened by the passing of Dr. Sybil Shack, a woman who won national recognition as an educator, writer, and broadcaster and was active in the promotion of human rights all her life.

A remarkable and committed educator, Dr. Shack never confined her interests to the school system. The boards and committees she has served on are too numerous to list here. The Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties is fortunate that she devoted so much of her time to its activities, having served as a board member, a vice-president and co-convenor of the Legislative Review Committee. We are fortunate, too, that her commitment to the organization took the form of a bequest upon her passing.

In order to honour the life of Dr. Sybil Shack and her commitment to educating youth and to human rights, the Board of Directors of MARL decided to use her generous gift to recognize the work of young people that has had an impact on the advancement of rights and freedoms in Manitoba. With our partners, the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, we agreed to rename the Manitoba Human Rights Youth Award as the Dr. Sybil Shack Memorial Human Rights Youth Award.

The Maples Collegiate Unity Group has been recognized for its long term commitment to human rights and equality both in their school and in the community. Formed in 1994 by students who wanted to respond to racist comments they heard around them. Since then the group has grown from 11 to 50 members. They have played a key role in bringing diverse groups of students together in their school and they continue to bring the community's attention to human rights issues through their annual Unity March and presentations at conferences with community leaders.

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Human Rights and Holocaust Studies Program

From the Newsletter

We are pleased to report that MARL has completed the fifth year of participation in an outstanding human rights education program. Titled The Asper Foundation Human Rights and Holocaust Studies Program, this educational project is funded by both The Winnipeg Foundation and the Asper Foundation. Working together with the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada (JHC) as program administrators, MARL is the home base for the program coordinator for grade nine students who enroll in the program through their schools. Creation of this program originated with the JHC where a Holocaust study program for the Jewish community began six years ago. In 2001 the program was implemented to include the broader community and general human rights issues and MARL was brought onboard as an administrator. In 2003 the two programs were merged to create a fully integrated program for human rights and holocaust education. We just completed the third year of the integrated program with 115 students traveling to Washington in April and graduation at the end of May.