The Court of Queen’s Bench and The Provincial Court of Manitoba issued Practice Directives regarding forms of address for parties and counsel which took effect on September 13, 2021.  The Practice Directives reflect the ongoing and evolving efforts of the Courts to treat all participants with equal dignity and respect.

For those unfamiliar with civil procedure at this stage, the various levels of Court occasionally issue Practice Directives to provide greater direction and clarity on certain issues relating to court practice and procedure. Lawyers and parties to an action are expected to comply with these directives. 

The Practice Directives regarding forms of address set out how parties may introduce themselves and advise the Court, fellow lawyers, and other parties of their preferred form of address and pronouns.  At the start of proceedings, counsel introducing themselves, their client or a witness to the Court by stating each person’s name, title (e.g. “Mr./Ms./Mx./Counsel Jones”) and the correct pronouns to be used for each individual.

An example of a counsel introduction would be: “I am Jane Doe and my last name is spelled D-O-E.  I use the pronouns she/her and can be addressed as Ms. Doe.  I represent the Defendant, Mx. Aaron Smith, last name spelled S-M-I-T-H who uses the pronouns they/them”.

When calling a witness to the stand, an example of that introduction would be: “I call to the stand the Defendant’s next witness, David Jones.  David Jones uses the title Mr. and he/him pronouns”.

In a webinar on September 16, 2021, Chief Justice Joyal of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench and Chief Judge Margaret Wiebe of the Provincial Court of Manitoba, along with representatives from the Manitoba Bar Association, Law Society of Manitoba and practicing bar answered questions and provided additional information regarding the Practice Directives.  The over-riding message was that the simple act of sharing pronouns was an important step towards a more inclusive profession and a safer space for all participants in the legal process, be it lawyers, parties to an action, or witnesses to court proceedings. 

Chief Justice Joyal and Chief Judge Wiebe stressed that, as this is a new practice, the parties involved will make occasional mistakes and that counsel should not worry that simple mistakes would lead to a rebuke from a Judge or a complaint to the Law Society.  With time, this practice of setting out forms of address and preferred pronouns will become second nature.

The Law Society discussed how they are taking steps within their organization to let others know their pronoun preferences, such as updating website bios and adding preferred pronouns to their email signatures and Zoom display names.  They also suggested that parties be mindful when addressing groups of people and that phrases such as “Welcome everyone” or “Hello Colleagues” be encouraged rather than “Hello Ladies and Gentlemen” which would exclude non-binary members of the crowd.

Practicing member of the bar Eli Milner (Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP) said they hoped this practice direction would have a “trickle down” effect on the profession and make people more cognizant of not misgendering individuals.  Eli also suggested that people consider not writing “Dear Sir” in a letter if you do not know someone’s preferred pronoun and, when in doubt, instead write “Dear Counsel” or “Dear John Doe”.

For both up-and-coming members of the legal profession as well as current practicing members of the Bar, it is encouraging to see the Manitoba Courts taking steps to make the courtroom experience more welcoming and safer for all participants in an what can sometimes be an intimidating environment.

This funding will support 55 research teams across the country that will tackle the specific mental health and substance use crisis response needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the strategies to contain and mitigate its impact.

One of the teams receiving funding is led by Dr. Rusty Souleymanov in the Faculty of Social Work, which will be receiving $175,000 to study mental health and substance use impacts of COVID-19 on sexual and gender minority men in Manitoba.

Dr. Rusty Souleymanov

Souleymanov says: “Very little is known about the consequences of socio-physical distancing in response to COVID-19 on the mental health and substance use behaviours of two-spirit, gay, bisexual, queer, and other men who have sex with men (2SGBQM), including cis- and transgender men.”

He adds: “Access to mental health and substance use services, as well as screening and referrals provided by health care professionals, is crucial to prevent and treat 2SGBQM’s health concerns. It is less clear to what extent Manitoba 2SGBQM’s mental health and substance use behaviours are affected by COVID-related consequences, or how this population’s access to mental health services and substance use/harm reduction programs across Manitoba is impacted by COVID-19.”

The research team will use an online survey to gather data on demographics, health and social disparities, mental health, and substance use behaviours, and the use of/access to mental health and substance use/addictions/harm reduction services and support programs. They will also conduct interviews to get a better understanding of the survey findings and implement a capacity training program called ‘Investigaytors’ to build young 2SGBQM leaders in Manitoba.

Souleymanov explains: “This project will inform mental health services and harm reduction interventions, and educational campaigns, as well as online/virtual healthcare and support program delivery for 2SGBQM in Manitoba.”

The funding for this research is provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR), the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation (NBHRF), the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (OMHLTC), and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF).

This investment is made possible through the COVID-19 and Mental Health (CMH) Research Initiative, a collaboration between CIHR, Health Canada, the Mental Health Commission of Canada, and the Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction.

Decades later, Campbell [LLB/08] has turned this schoolyard discovery into a legal career which has taken her from Robson Hall to Oxford. Now, as a lecturer in law at the University of Birmingham, she is exploring how the international human rights system can best respond to gender inequality and poverty.

To mark Canada’s inaugural Gender Equality Week, UM Today spoke to Campbell from across the pond.

UM TODAY: WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO ENGLAND TO STUDY AND THEN TEACH?

CAMPBELL: When I graduated from Robson Hall, I worked as a lawyer for the Province of Manitoba. Then I started to get intellectual itchy feet. As a lawyer, you have to play by the rules—and this can require a lot of ingenuity and creativity—but as an academic lawyer you can think deeply about the rules are constructed and propose new rules. 

I decided to do an LLM at the University of Edinburgh for the adventure of studying overseas. I really enjoyed taking a comparative perspective on gender equality and wanted to continue with my studies. I decided to apply to University of Oxford, so that on my death-bed, I would know that at least I had tried to go to one of the foremost universities. I was incredibly fortunate to be accepted to do a DPhil at the University of Oxford under the supervision of professor Sandra Fredman.   

Meghan Campbell.

HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN GENDER EQUALITY?
 
My interest started early when my parents encouraged me to do well in math and other subjects at school and only in reading did I realize that the world was deeply structured around gender power imbalances.
 
At law school, we were taught Gosselin v Quebec, where the Supreme Court of Canada held that drastically reducing social assistance benefits to those under 30 was not in violation of the right to equality in The Charter. This seemed intuitively wrong. Human rights are for everyone, not only the wealthy and the privileged. The interpretation and understanding of human rights needs to account for different experiences, including how poverty acts as obstacle to equality. The professors at Robson Hall were incredibly supportive and encouraged me to follow this intuition into legally sophisticated arguments.   
 
I initially wanted my doctoral studies to focus on the role of the right to equality in redressing poverty. Professor Fredman channelled this idea to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. And this sparked my career in studying gender equality and international human rights law.
 
THOSE ARE BOTH VERY BROAD AREAS. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF HAVING ONE INFLUENCE THE OTHER?
 
A good example is the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). A majority of the world’s states have committed CEDAW so at the international level, states have a legal obligation to eliminate discrimination and achieve women’s equality in broad areas of life including civil, political, economic, social and cultural. The UN human rights accountability system develops the legal obligations and provides best practice guidance to the world’s state. The Committee that monitors CEDAW has been influential. It’s guidance on gender-based violence has been adopted by apex courts all over the world including India and the European Court of Human Rights.
 
Unlocking the potential of CEDAW to redress women’s poverty therefore provides a blue print that can influence states all over the world and marks a path forward for using human rights to tackle women’s poverty.  
 
YOUR RECENT RESEARCH HAS FOCUSED A LOT ON THIS AREA; CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE AVENUES YOU’RE EXPLORING ON THE ISSUE OF WOMEN’S POVERTY?
 
I just finished an article advocating that rural and northern life should be included as a ground of discrimination under The Charter. This could have a significant impact on women in Canada and around the world, as the empirical evidence shows that rural women are more disadvantaged than urban women and urban and rural men. Including rural and northern life as a ground of discrimination can empower rural women to hold the government to account for laws and policies that perpetuate rural disadvantage.
 
My next research project is focusing on how the duty of cooperation contained in core UN human rights treaties can redress the extraterritorial aspects of poverty. The acts and omissions of states can perpetuate poverty far beyond their borders. There is very little accountability for this cause of poverty. States have agreed to cooperate to realize socio-economic rights but this legal obligation has been overlooked in the evolution of human rights law. As women disproportionately rely on socio-economic rights, understanding how the duty of cooperation can strengthen their protection, this project has strong implications for the future protection of women’s rights.
 
GIVEN CANADA’S HISTORICAL TIES TO ENGLAND, HAVE YOU FOUND THAT THERE ARE SIMILARITIES IN THE WAY GENDER INEQUALITY IS BEING ADDRESSED BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES? ARE THERE DIFFERENCES?
 
There are marked similarities between the two countries as both are grappling with women’s disproportionate amount of unpaid care work, unequal pay, gender-based violence and high rates of poverty. Both countries have an active civil society committed to improving women’s lives and the governments in both countries are pursuing innovative methods to redress these inequalities including mandatory pay transparency and inquiries into violence against women.
  
The biggest differences between the U.K. and Canada in protecting women’s rights are due to the different constitutional structure.  The U.K. does not have a codified constitution. The constitution is spread among different pieces of legislation and constitutional conventions. As a result, the courts do not have the power to strike down legislation. Instead, the UK courts declare that the legislation is incompatible with the human rights legislation and the impetus then shifts to Parliament to correct this incompatibility. In Canada, the right to equality is entrenched in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and courts can strike down laws that violate women’s rights to equality. So the biggest differences are more in terms of legal structure and judicial review of women’s rights than the substantive content of gender equality. 

Lee Airton.

Speaking on the theme, Toward a Gender-Expansive Teacher Education: The Implications of Gender Identity and Gender Expression for Professional Practice, Airton’s lecture draws on work over 10 years involving hundreds of teacher candidates to increase a sense of belonging and to encourage participation of students of all genders and sexualities.

Airton has worked as a researcher, blogger, advocate and speaker, focusing on developing welcoming environments for gender and sexual diversity in everyday life. Airton founded They Is My Pronoun blog where the audience reads responses to questions posed about gender-neutral pronoun usage. In recognition of No Big Deal Campaign, a social-media initiative supporting transgender peoples’ pronoun-usage rights, Airton received a 2017 Youth Role Model of the Year Award from the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity.

Among the journals publishing Airton’s scholarly work, include Sex Education, Curriculum Inquiry, and Teachers College Record.  Partnering with Dr. Susan Woolley, they are currently editing a collection of lesson plans on gender diversity for K-12 teachers. 

The event includes a panel discussion, organized in collaboration with Manitoba Education and Training, Manitoba Teachers’ Society, and Rainbow Resource Centre. Panel speakers include:

• Muhammed Ahsan, education program coordinator, Rainbow Resource Centre;
• Greg Daniels, assistant superintendent of schools, River East Transcona School Division;
• Jackie Swirsky, speech-language pathologist, author, public speaker and parent of a gender-diverse child, and
• Beck Watt, teacher candidate, LGBTQ representative, Education Student Council.

The lecture marks the first of Ed Talk Series 2018, themed “Sustain the Dialogue: Supporting Transgender & Gender Diverse Students in Schools.”

What: Toward a Gender-Expansive Teacher Education: The Implications of Gender Identity and Gender Expression for Professional Practice

When: Monday, Jan. 8

Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Where: Room 224 Education Building, University of Manitoba, Faculty of Education (Fort Garry Campus)

• Open to graduate students, university faculty, school partners and the public.
• Admission is free, and
• light refreshments will be served. 

Funded by the Faculty of Education Endowment Fund and Project Q.