Roland Penner

Roland Penner (born July 30, 1924) was Dean of Law at the University of Manitoba and a is a former politician and Manitoba Cabinet minister.

Penner was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the son of Winnipeg alderman Jacob Penner (d. 1965). He served in Europe during World War II in the Canadian artillery, and was educated at the University of Manitoba (receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949 and an LL.B. in 1961) and in London, England. He has worked at the University of Manitoba since 1967, and has been a Professor since 1972. From 1972 to 1978, he was the President of Legal Aid Manitoba.

Both of Penner's parents were active in the communist Labor-Progressive Party, and Penner himself was actively involved with this organization in his youth. In the Canadian federal election of 1953, he ran as a candidate of the party in the predominantly middle-class riding of Winnipeg South Centre. He received only 504 votes, finishing a poor fourth. He also ran as an LPP candidate for Winnipeg School Trustee in the 1953 Winnipeg municipal election.

Penner left the Labour-Progressive Party, and explored a career in academia. In 1980, he announced that he would seek the New Democratic Party of Manitoba nomination for St. Johns in the next provincial election. There was some speculation that Penner's communist past would damage his political ambitions, especially as well-known Winnipeg communist alderman Joe Zuken had lost a mayoral election the previous year during a contest marred by red-baiting. 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 to the last two decades."^[1]

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 in the 1981 election. He declined and was elected in Fort Rouge, defeating incumbent Liberal June Westbury.

On November 30, 1981, Penner was appointed Government House Leader, Chair of the Treasury Board and Attorney General. He was also given ministerial responsibility for the Liquor Control Act on March 4, 1982, and stood down as Treasury Board Chair on July 28 of the same year. On November 4, 1983, he stood down as House Leader and received the additional portfolio of Consumer and Corporate Affairs.

Penner was easily re-elected in the 1986 election. He was retained as Attorney General, and given responsibility for 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.

The New Democratic Party experienced a significant decline in its popularity between 1986 and 1988, and Penner was defeated in the 1988 provincial election.

As Attorney-General, Penner brought in the province's first human rights legislation. He also introduced freedom of information legislation and was responsible for implementing legislation requiring French language services after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the province was violating its constitutional obligations. (The latter action resulted in a backlash in some parts of the province, leading to the rise of anti-bilingualism groups such as the Confederation of Regions Party). As minister responsible for constitutional affairs, Penner also participated in negotiations for what became the Meech Lake Accord.

Although a supporter of abortion rights, Penner was required to uphold a decision from 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 United States of America under the McCarran-Walter Act. Special provisions had to be made allowing him to enter America as a cabinet minister.

Following his loss, Penner returned to his teaching profession at the University of Manitoba. He has taught courses in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Labour Law, Evidence and Canada's Charter of Rights. He served as a University Dean between 1989 and 1994. Penner has also authored several works, including a number on the privacy rights of Canadians. In 1993, he openly questioned the attempts of Bob Rae's New Democratic Party government in Ontario to restrict tenure to professors deemed to hold socially unacceptable views.

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

Footnotes