Byron Williams

Title: Director - Public Interest Law Centre
Phone: 204.988.7196 (messages)

Biography:
Expertise: Bachelor of Law - University of Manitoba

Byron specializes in human rights, environmental and poverty law. He serves as the director of the Public Interest Law Centre which represents groups and individuals on matters of broad public interest. Byron has successfully led legal challenges which:

- enhanced the rights of internationally trained medical graduates to practice in Manitoba;
- broadened the definition of family for the purpose of compassionate care benefits under the Employment Insurance Act;
- allowed for the return to the community of wrongfully institutionalized persons with intellectual disabilities; and,
- overturned exclusionary zoning provisions that discriminated against persons with intellectual disabilities.

Byron has taught Poverty and the Law in the UICS for 6 years. He regularly presents at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law on matters such as administrative and public interest advocacy.

In 2013, Byron was the first recipient of the Richard J. Scott Award, which is given annually to an individual who advances the rule of law through advocacy, litigation, teaching, research or writing.

Courses:
Co-Instructor: UIC 3040(3) - Poverty and the Law