Roland Penner

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Roland Penner
Member of the
Manitoba Legislative Assembly
for Fort Rouge
In office
1981โ€“1988
Preceded byJune Westbury
Succeeded byJim Carr
Personal details
Born(1924-07-30)July 30, 1924
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DiedMay 31, 2018(2018-05-31) (aged 93)
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Political partyNew Democratic Party of Manitoba
Alma materUniversity of Manitoba
Professionlawyer

Roland Penner

QC (July 30, 1924 โ€“ May 31, 2018) was a Canadian political activist and lawyer who became a cabinet minister in the Manitoba provincial government and dean of law at the University of Manitoba.[1]

Education and early career

Penner was born in

LL.B. in 1961. He began working at the University of Manitoba in 1967, and became a professor in 1972. From 1972 to 1978, he was the president of Legal Aid Manitoba, and from 1979 to 1980, he was president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.[1] In 1949, he married Adeline ("Addie") Wdoviak, and in 1982, he married Janet Kay Baldwin.[4]

Political career

Penner's parents and his older brother

communist Labor-Progressive Party.[2] In the federal election of 1953, he ran as a candidate of the party in the predominantly middle-class riding of Winnipeg South Centre. He finished a poor fourth with only 504 votes.[6] He also ran as an LPP candidate for school trustee in the Winnipeg municipal election of 1953
.

Penner left the Labour-Progressive Party in 1961, part of a mass exodus in the years following the

secret speech on Joseph Stalin's crimes. His brother Norman had left in 1957, while his father Jacob remained a party member.[7]
Penner completed law school and practised criminal law for several years before becoming a law professor.

In 1980, he announced that he would seek the nomination of the

Joe Zuken had lost a mayoral election the previous year when his communist politics became an issue. Penner rejected this suggestion, however, saying, "There's a fundamental difference between Joe and myself in that I'm not a member of the Communist Party. I'm a member of the NDP. [...] I was a member of the Communist Party at one time, but that's ancient history. That was twenty years ago. It may be raised but it's not relevant. It would ignore what I've been doing the last two decades."[8] He later chose not to run in St. Johns, and sought another riding. The party wanted him to run against Progressive Party leader Sid Green in the riding of Inkster. He declined and ran instead in Fort Rouge, where he defeated incumbent Liberal June Westbury.[9]

On November 30, 1981,

Consumer and Corporate Affairs.[9]

Penner was easily re-elected in the

Constitutional Affairs and the Liquor Control Act. Following a cabinet shuffle on September 21, 1987, Penner was named Minister of Education, while retaining responsibility for constitutional matters.[9]

The New Democratic Party experienced a significant decline in its popularity between 1986 and 1988, and Penner lost his seat to Liberal challenger Jim Carr in the 1988 provincial election.[9]

As attorney-general, Penner introduced Manitoba's first

Confederation of Regions Party.) As minister responsible for constitutional affairs, Penner also participated in negotiations for what became the Meech Lake Accord.[2]

Although he supported abortion rights, Penner was required to uphold a decision by the Manitoba courts which prevented Henry Morgentaler from opening a private clinic in the province. Penner was also an early champion of including sexual orientation in Canada's human rights code.

Because of his background in communist politics, Penner was for many years forbidden from entering the

McCarran-Walter Act. Special provisions had to be made allowing him to enter America as a cabinet minister
.

After politics

Following his loss, Penner returned to teaching at the University of Manitoba. He taught courses in constitutional law, criminal law, labour law, evidence, and the

New Democratic Party government in Ontario to restrict tenure to professors deemed to hold socially unacceptable views. He retired from teaching in 2009.[1]

In 2010, it was revealed that Penner's name was on a secret list of Communist sympathizers kept during the Cold War; these persons were to be watched by the RCMP and could have been detained at internment camps in the event of a national security crisis.[3]

In 2007, Penner published A Glowing Dream: A Memoir (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing, 2007).

Jack Fainman.[11] He died on May 31, 2018 in Winnipeg.[9][12]

Honours

In 2000, he was named to the Order of Canada.[13] In 2014, he was made a member of the Order of Manitoba.[14]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d "Roland Penner". University of Manitoba. Archived from the original on 2014-03-19. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  2. ^ a b c d e Savage, Donald C. "Former CAUT President Chronicles Long Career in Academe & Politics". Canadian Association of University Teachers. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  3. ^ a b "Former Manitoba AG on secret internment list". CBC News. October 15, 2010. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  4. ^ a b Normandin, Pierre G (1984). Canadian Parliamentary Guide.
  5. ^ "Manitoba History: Review: A Glowing Dream: A Memoir by Roland Penner".
  6. ^ "Winnipeg South Centre, Manitoba (1924 - 1976)". History of Federal Ridings since 1867. Library of Parliament. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  7. ^ Roland Penner, A Glowing Dream: A Memoir (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing, 2007), pp. 171-173.
  8. ^ "Law professor seeks NDP nomination in St. Johns", Winnipeg Free Press, 29 October 1980, p. 13.
  9. ^ a b c d e "MLA Biographies - Living". Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  10. ISBN 0773527907
    . Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  11. ^ "Winnipeg abortion provider talks of sniper attack". CBC News. May 9, 2011. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  12. ^ "Roland Penner". Obit Tree. June 1, 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  13. ^ "Roland Penner, C.M., Q.C., LL.B." Order of Canada. Governor General of Canada. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  14. ^ "FOURTEEN TO RECEIVE ORDER OF MANITOBA". Archived from the original on 2014-08-10.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roland_Penner&oldid=1212989381"