Innocents Behind Bars: Systemic Racism and Wrongful Convictions

Join a panel discussion bringing attention to wrongful convictions, and the intersections of racism and colonialism

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

This event has passed.

An simple illustration of a white hummingbird picking the lock of a door and opening it. The door is in a row of doors. Partially obscured.

By: Peter Collins

Event details

Cost:
Free
Location:
MTS Classroom, Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Language and Accessibility:
This event will be presented in English. ASL interpretation will be available.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Centre for Human Rights Research (University of Manitoba), and the Faculty of Law (University of Manitoba) are co‐organizing and co‐sponsoring "Innocents Behind Bars: Systemic Racism and Wrongful Convictions."

We look forward to welcoming:

  • Amanda Carling, CEO, BC First Nations Justice Council
  • James Lockyer, Founding Director, Innocence Canada
  • Alice Kim, Director of Human Rights Practice, Centre for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture
  • Gregory Banks, Torture Survivor and Learning Fellow, Chicago Torture Justice Center (joining virtually)
  • Facilitated by Dr. Niigaan Sinclair, Indigenous Studies, University of Manitoba

This event is inspired by the recent release of Allan Woodhouse and Brian Anderson who were wrongfully imprisoned for a murder they did not commit and spent almost fifty years fighting to clear their names.

The panel will bring leaders of the police torture justice/reparations movement in Chicago, into conversation with those working on demanding justice for Indigenous and racialized peoples wrongly imprisoned here in Canada.

The panel discussion will take place on November 28, 2023 from 12 noon‑1:30 p.m. CT at the MTS classroom at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The event is a free panel and open to the public.

We strive to be as accessible as we can. ASL interpretation will be available.

Information on accessibility features around the Museum are available at: https://humanrights.ca/visit/accessibility#section_1

For more information on this event, or accessibility needs relating to this event, please email chrrman@umanitoba.ca.

The art featured in this event poster is titled “Hummingbird” (2015), and is an unfinished painting by Peter Collins, that he was working on in the final days of his life. Peter Collins was a Canadian artist and activist who was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 22. During his time various prisons around Kingston, Ontario, Peter was an ardent activist for those living with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C in prisons. He was a tireless advocate for reform calling attention to systemic racism and injustice, both inside and outside the prison environment, through his artwork and writings. Denied compassionate leave to spend the end of his life with friends and family, Peter died in prison at the age of 53. For more about Peter and his art, please see Lockdown Galleries: Art and Voice of Peter Collins.

© Robert Collins

Wrongful Convictions and Systemic Racism

In this guide you will find links to resources related to wrongful convictions and the impact of systemic racism and discrimination on the justice systems in settler colonial contexts such as Canada, the United States and other countries around the world.

An exterior view of the Museum.