At the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic (Clinic), a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace is one where all employees and volunteers, whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or disability, feels valued and respected. We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal opportunity in all of our work and programs. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard.

We recognize that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of many Indigenous Nations throughout Manitoba and in Canada. We are committed to modeling diversity and inclusion for those we serve, and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all. While we see Indigenous heritage as part of diversity and inclusion, we also recognize that Indigenous peoples have distinct history and distinct ongoing rights, title and governance rights. In all of our work, programs and relationships, we aim to acknowledge, recognize and learn about these rights and the different Indigenous peoples and Indigenous lands we are working within and to do our best to contribute to the ongoing journey of reconciliation in Canada.

To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, our Clinic strives to:

• See diversity, inclusion, and equity as connected to our mission and critical to ensure the well-being of all participants and the people as well as communities we serve.
• Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within activities.
• Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
• Advocate for and support thinking about how systemic inequities impact our work, and how best to address that in a way that is consistent with our goals.
• Help to challenge assumptions about what it takes to be a strong leader and to provide leadership.
• Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions.
• Commit time and resources to expand diversity and inclusiveness in all we do.
• Lead with respect and tolerance. We expect all working with the Clinic to embrace this notion and to express it in interactions and through everyday practices.

Our Clinic will help promote diversity and inclusion and:

• Pursue cultural competency by creating learning opportunities.
• Generate and aggregate quantitative and qualitative research related to equity to make incremental, measurable progress toward the visibility of our diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts.
• Improve our cultural leadership pipeline by creating and supporting programs and policies that foster leadership that reflects the diversity of our society.
• Pool resources and expand offerings for underrepresented constituents by connecting with other organizations committed to diversity and inclusion efforts.
• Develop and present sessions on diversity, inclusion, and equity if requested to provide information and resources to the community and industry.
• Be intentional and conscious of biases.
• Advocate in what we do for public and private-sector policy that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity. Challenge systems and policies that create, reproduce or entrench inequity, oppression and disparity.