Registration Now Open: Public Interest Law Conference

Making Rights Matter Poster and Registration

Registration is now open for the “Making Rights Matter” public interest advocacy conference, taking place on May 30, 2025.

Throughout the day, you’ll have the chance to attend various panels and keynote presentations led by legal practitioners and advocates in the field. Topics will include the use of evidence in public interest advocacy,  multi-tool campaigns and public interest remedies to systemic problems. The keynote speaker will be Professor Margot Young, an expert on constitutional and social justice law from University of British Columbia. Contributor to the paper collection Litigating Equality and co-editor to the  collection Poverty: Rights, Social Citizenship and Legal Activism, Professor Young was also Co-Principal Investigator of the Housing Justice Project. She will speak about the strengths and pitfalls of public interest litigation. Registration for this event is free, however, donations are being graciously accepted at: legalaid.mb.ca/pilc/donate. Please register at mrm-conference.eventbrite.ca.

13th Annual DeLloyd J. Guth Visiting Lecture in Legal History featuring Dr. Barrington Walker

Robson Hall presents the 13th Annual DeLloyd J. Guth Visiting Lecture in Legal History featuring Dr. Barrington Walker

Dr. Walker will be speaking on: “Inchoate Citizens: Black Canadians, Law and the Racial State.”

Abstract
This presentation draws from published work and works in progress. It explores the Canadian racial state formation, law and the Black Canadian experience over time. The talk will begin with a discussion of slavery, law and the question of freedom. It will move to a discussion of Black Canadians and citizenship in the post slavery era and the law’s role in both supporting the conditions of Black unfreedom and providing an avenue for contesting it.

About Dr. Walker
Dr. Barrington Walker is a Professor in the Department of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. He is Associate Vice-President of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in the Office of the Provost and VP Academic.

In his biography, Dr. Walker describes his research as follows:

“A historian of Modern Canada, my work focuses on the histories of Blacks, race immigration and the law. It seeks to illuminate the contours of Canadian modernity by exploring Canada’s emergence as racial state through its histories of white supremacy, slavery, colonization/immigration, segregation and Jim Crowism. Much of my work considers how these practices were legitimized, and in some instances contested, by the rule of law and legal institutions.”

Register for this event here.

Please note: The library will be closing early on Thursday, April 17th at 11:00AM for a special event.  Regular library service will resume Tuesday, April 22nd at 8:30AM.

The Winnipeg Court Complex will be closed April 18th and April 21st. Manitoba Law Library staff will not be onsite during the holiday, but will be available by email on Monday, April 21st. Regular library service will resume Tuesday, April 22nd at 8:30AM.

Please note: The Winnipeg Law Courts will be closed April 18th and April 21st. The Library is closed Friday. Manitoba Law Library staff will be available by email on Monday, April 21st. Regular library service will resume Tuesday, April 22nd at 8:30AM.