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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
Karen Busby in 2010, when she was the subject of a profile in the Free Press. The lawyer, author and art lover was a renowned champion of human rights.<\/p>\n
But above all, Busby always had time for her family, both born and chosen.<\/p>\n
That meant time, along with her wife, Jan Lederman, to throw legendary dinner parties that brought people from across her diverse social world into community together. Time to make everyone in her life feel special and seen. Time to take her then-blossoming young artist niece, Jessie Jakumeit, to the WAG, where they\u2019d share deep conversations about art.<\/p>\n
Even as she endured the deteriorating effects of Parkinson\u2019s disease in her final years, she found time to teach her nephew Joey Broda the precious family vinarterta recipe she\u2019d inherited from her mother, showing him how to infuse it with the sort of love you can\u2019t find in the instructions.<\/p>\n
And in the days after Busby died July 23, at age 67, as friends and colleagues across Canada paid tribute to all that she accomplished, many took their own time to reflect on her vast and influential life, and wonder. How did she manage it all? Where did she get that strength, those convictions and that determination?<\/p>\n
A good part of it, at least, came from her mother. She was born in Edmonton in 1958, the third of Dave and Norma Busby\u2019s children and their first daughter. In 1971, Dave was arrested for bank robbery; Norma, undaunted, left him and moved her family back to her home province of Manitoba, determined to build a new life as a single mother of seven.<\/p>\n
At first the move to Winnipeg was a shock. The family had to get by on Norma\u2019s income as a nurse, working in Indigenous health. Despite that burden, their mother was a rock, and a trailblazer in her own right: in 1978, she led a national nurses strike to demand equitable pay, travelling frequently to Ottawa to face down the federal government \u2014 and win.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Submitted<\/p>\n Karen (left) with her mother, Norma, and a family quilt Karen crafted as a gift for her.<\/p>\n Norma\u2019s example left a deep impression on Karen, her sister Dawn Busby says. Karen, by then a burgeoning teen feminist, had a close bond with their mother; they shared a vision of what it meant to work for equality and challenge the status quo.<\/p>\n That spirit would soon light her path into law school. As a teen, Karen excelled at most things she did: she was a star athlete and outstanding student. While in high school, she debated between pursuing a career in economics or law. She chose the latter, in part because of her zest for delving into the roots of concepts, ideas and opinions.<\/p>\n \u201cKaren could be very soft and gently assertive, but she was persistent,\u201d Dawn says. \u201cShe was more about the conversations she had with people to explore different opinions. You didn\u2019t have to have the same opinion, but hopefully you could have a discussion about the differences.\u201d<\/p>\n Once in university, Karen soared with the same focus she\u2019d had as a teen. She earned her law degree, studied a year in Paris, finished her master\u2019s degree at Columbia University, then worked for a Winnipeg law firm and the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa before accepting a professor position at the U of M when she was just 29.<\/p>\n For her, the work was something of a dream. Of everything Karen did, friends say, her deepest passion was her teaching.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was an extremely dedicated teacher,\u201d says friend and fellow law professor Debra Parkes, who worked alongside Karen at the U of M until 2016. \u201cShe was always wanting to teach her students\u2026 to be aware of what role they could have in trying to change unjust laws, but doing so in a way that was thoughtful that legal changes are only part of broader social change.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Submitted<\/p>\n Karen Busby (seated, centre) with wife Jan Lederman (centre right), her six siblings and their spouses at their final dinner before the trailblazing legal scholar died on July 23.<\/p>\n And much of the social change Karen experienced through her own life, she helped directly to create.<\/p>\n When Karen entered the world of legal education, it was a very different time. She didn\u2019t come out as lesbian until after she was granted tenure in the mid-1990s; before that, Dawn says, she worried that her orientation \u2014 and their father\u2019s criminal record \u2014 would make her uphill battle as a rising feminist scholar in a male-dominated academy even steeper.<\/p>\n After she helped break down those barriers, others soon followed. When Parkes joined the faculty in 2001, she did so as an open lesbian. Karen welcomed her right away, she says, inviting her to dinner parties and including her in collegial events. In fact, Parkes soon met her own partner of 24 years through Karen.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that I am really grateful to her for is her courage, doing the feminist work she did,\u201d Parkes says. \u201cIt opened up space for people like me.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t only within the university that Karen\u2019s visibility helped change the world. As her scholarly career grew, she became a fixture in local and national media, in part because, no matter how late or urgent a reporter\u2019s call, she always answered the phone.<\/p>\n Through countless radio, print and television interviews, she offered strong and nuanced advocacy for equality and justice. She once told Dawn that it was a conscious decision: if she taught it, she said, she felt a responsibility to speak for it in the eyes of the whole world, as well.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t WAYNE GLOWACKI \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n Pride Day 2001 rally Karen Busby , Legal Expert on Bill 41 and same sex adoption issue speaks to crowd in front of the Manitoba Legislative Bld. . . June 10 2001<\/p>\n That view tracked with how she saw the role of law as a whole. To Karen, a legal career wasn\u2019t an end in itself; it was a tool through which one could understand, and build, a far more expansive concept of justice.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat really surprised me, when I got to know her better, is that she wasn\u2019t particularly interested in a traditional academic career, where the object was the publication of research for the purpose of evidencing scholarship,\u201d says Lederman, her wife of 15 years. \u201cShe was interested in using research as a tool for improving the lives of people.<\/p>\n \u201cShe always thought first about who was being harmed,\u201d she continues, quoting one of Karen\u2019s friends. \u201cWhether it was a harm that the law recognized, or whether the harm was being caused by the existence of a law, or the absence of a law or social policy, that\u2019s what engaged her in a topic.\u201d<\/p>\n In Lederman, Karen had the perfect partner to help explore those questions. Lederman is also a lawyer; while the two long knew each other through the profession, they connected more deeply after Lederman joined a book club Karen attended, in part to get to know Karen better.<\/p>\n The two shared a love of art, and spirited, intellectual debates about law, society and ideas. In 2011, they were married.<\/p>\n \u201cThey bonded on this higher level,\u201d Dawn says. \u201cTheir relationship was really built on a mutual respect for each other, and a real appreciation for the lives that each of them came from, and how they brought that together. Karen would always say she truly found her soulmate and greatest companion.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t LINDA VERMETTE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n Karen Busby (Far Right) with Gay Pride Choir.<\/p>\n Yet along with that joy, Karen was facing a new challenge. Shortly before she and Lederman married, Karen, then 51, was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s. For many years, she carried on with her teaching, writing, and community life. But over time, the disease began to take a deeper toll.<\/p>\n Over the last two years, she found she couldn\u2019t focus enough to read; to find a new outlet for her boundless mind, she took a gleeful interest in mahjong. Still, as her quality of life ebbed away, Karen began to think about where she wished to draw the line. Earlier this year, she made the decision: she would end her life through Medical Assistance in Dying.<\/p>\n While some of her loved ones struggled with the decision, Dawn says, all of them respected it. Karen had always chosen her own path and known her own mind; this moment was no different. And for those closest to her, the last few months before her death were a blessing, Karen\u2019s final gift of time.<\/p>\n In December, she gathered her whole family to recreate a cherished childhood photo. She and Dawn met weekly to talk for hours. Dozens of loved ones came to visit, cherishing her company one more time. Over 100 people sent cards and letters, giving her a chance to hear directly how she had affected them or changed their lives.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t On Monday, hundreds of Karen\u2019s family, friends, colleagues, and former students came together to share in a celebration of her vast and joyful life. When it was over, some of her 10 beloved nieces and nephews turned to each other and, in slightly bemused amazement, asked: \u201cSo what new thing about Auntie Karen did you learn from all the speeches?\u201d<\/p>\n Now, as Manitoba mourns one of its finest trailblazers for human rights, we can see how she left us one more lesson.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n 080710 Karen Busby is constitutional lawyer and gay and women\u2019s rights activist. See Profile story by Mary Agnes Welch<\/p>\n As long as we\u2019re alive, we have time. Time to listen, learn and raise our voice to champion what we believe in. Time to make the world a better place; one that\u2019s safer, more just, more equitable. But most preciously of all, no matter what demands and challenges we face, we always have the time to be kind.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was a genuinely kind person who cared about people,\u201d Lederman says. \u201cWhether you were a friend, a colleague, any situation, she would sit down with you and ask about your life, and she was genuinely interested. She always remembered the details of people\u2019s lives and experiences \u2026 She was just that kind of person.\u201d<\/p>\n melissa.martin@winnipegfreepress.com<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Melissa Martin Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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Reporter-at-large
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