Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Location	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, at the historic Forks
Website	www.humanrightsmuseum.ca

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is a national museum currently under construction in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at the historic Forks where the Assiniboine and Red Rivers meet. The purpose of the museum is to increase understanding and awareness about human rights, human rights issues and challenges, promote respect for others, and encourage reflection, dialogue, and action.

Established in 2008, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) was the first national museum created in Canada since 1967, and it is the first national museum ever to be located outside the National Capital Region.

History

The CMHR was the dream of CanWest founder Izzy Asper as a place where students from across Canada could come to learn about human rights. He also saw the CMHR as an opportunity to revitalize downtown Winnipeg and increase tourism to the city. Asper launched the CMHR as a private initiative on April 17, 2003, the 21st anniversary of signing of Charter of Rights and Freedoms. After Izzy’s death in 2003, his daughter Gail Asper became the main proponent of the project.

On April 20, 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the Government of Canada’s intention to make the CMHR into a national museum, the first national museum created in over 40 years. Then on March 13, 2008, Bill C-42, An Act amending the Museums Act and making consequential amendments to other Acts, received Royal Assent in Parliament, with support from all political parties, creating the Canadian Museum for Human Rights as a national museum . December 19, 2008 marked the Groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the CMHR, and official construction on the site began in April, 2009. Construction is expected to be completed in 2012.

Funding

Funding for the capital costs of the CMHR is coming from three jurisdictions of government— the federal Crown, the provincial Crown, and the City of Winnipeg— as well as private donations. The total budget for the building of the exterior of the CMHR and its contents is $310 million.

To date, the Government of Canada has allocated $100 million, the Government of Manitoba has donated $40 million, and the City of Winnipeg has donated $20 million. The Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, led by Gail Asper, have succeeded in raising over $115 million in private donations from across Canada so far. An additional $35 million is still needed to reach the fundraising goal. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights has requested an additional $35 million in Capital funding from the federal government to cover shortfalls.

Once the CMHR is open, the operating budget will be provided by the government of Canada, as the CMHR is a national museum. The estimated operating costs to the federal government are $22 million annually.

Building

In 2003, the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights launched an international architectural competition for the design of the CMHR. 62 submissions from 21 countries worldwide were submitted. The judging panel chose the design submitted by Antoine Predock, a world renowned architect based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

His vision for the CMHR is a journey, beginning with a descent into the earth where visitors enter the CMHR through the ‘roots’ of the museum. Visitors are led through the Great Hall, then a series of vast spaces and ramps, before culminating in the Tower of Hope, a tall spire protruding from the CMHR that provides visitors with an amazing view of downtown Winnipeg.

Antoine Predock’s inspiration for the CMHR comes from the natural scenery and open spaces in Canada like trees, ice, and northern lights, First Nations peoples in Canada, and the rootedness of human rights action. He describes the CMHR in the following way:

“The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is rooted in humanity, making visible in the architecture the fundamental commonality of humankind-a symbolic apparition of ice, clouds and stone set in a field of sweet grass. Carved into the earth and dissolving into the sky on the Winnipeg horizon, the abstract ephemeral wings of a white dove embrace a mythic stone mountain of 450 million year old Tyndall limestone in the creation of a unifying and timeless landmark for all nations and cultures of the world.”

Construction of the building is currently underway. Throughout the foundation work of the CMHR, medicine bags created by Elders at Thunderbird House ,in Winnipeg, were inserted into the holes made for piles and caissons to show respect for mother earth. Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, unveiled on 3 July 2010 the building's cornerstone, which bears the Queen's royal cypher and has embedded in it a piece of stone from the ruins of St. Mary's Priory, at Runnymede, England— where it is believed the Magna Carta was approved in 1215 by King John. The CMHR website has two webcams available for people to watch the construction as it progresses.

Exhibits

The CMHR is working with exhibit designer Ralph Appelbaum and Associates (RAA) based out of New York to develop the inaugural exhibits of the museum. RAA has indicated that the galleries throughout the CMHR will deal with various themes including the Canadian human rights journey, Aboriginal concepts of human rights, the Holocaust, and current human rights issues. The CMHR has a team of researchers working with RAA to develop the inaugural exhibits.

As part of the content development process, the CMHR did a cross-country story gathering tour called ‘Help Write the Story of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.’ From May 2009 to February 2010, the CMHR visited 19 cities and talked to thousands of people about their human rights experiences and what they want to see in the museum. This consultation process was led by Lord Cultural Resources based out of Toronto. The stories heard will help inform the content of the CMHR.

Controversies

Concerns about an aboriginal sacred site

The proposed museum has come under criticism, including criticism that the site selected is one of the richest sites in Manitoba for aboriginal artifacts. Retired Manitoba archeologist, Leigh Syms stated that the excavation done prior to construction did not go far enough. A spokesperson for the museum pointed out that the museum had consulted with native leaders prior to excavation. In addition, the museum is continuning to evaluate the site through construction. The area where the museum is being built has been an area of increased development over the past few years, including a skate park, a hotel, and a parkade. All of which are south of what is believed to be a part of the Aboriginal Graveyard.

The CMHR has responded to the criticisms put forward by Leigh Syms, arguing that they have followed all necessary guidelines prior to and during the archaeological digs and excavations and have consulted and continue to consult Aboriginal Elders and others within the Aboriginal community about the project as it moves forward.

There have been suggestions that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and much of the Forks in general, is located on an Aboriginal burial ground. An impact assessment and management plan prepared for the Forks Renewal Corporation prior to the beginning of construction of the Forks Market in 1988 outlines the concerns about burial grounds expressed by the archaeologists. Several archaeological digs in the area done between 1989-1991 as well as the archaeological digs completed by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in 2008 and 2009 did not find any human remains. These digs show that while the site was used for a variety of land uses, it has never been a burial ground.

The Forks is located in the flood plain of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. Before the flood way was built in 1968, the location of the Forks was prone to flooding when accumulated winter snow rapidly melted in the spring. One of the largest of these floods, in 1826, destroyed the original Fort Garry. The Red River rose three metres (nine feet) in one day. It created a lake that remained for months and washed away nearly every building in the settlement. Due to recurring flooding, the Forks site was used as a transitional camp.

Over 50 separate projects involving excavation have been undertaken at the Forks since 1950, enabling researchers to provide an accurate reflection of the various uses of the Forks over the past 6000 years. Despite the above stated concerns, none of these projects indicate that the Forks site was ever used as a burial ground.

Concerns over the proposed museum content

Starting in December 2010, controversy erupted over the plans for assigning two permanent galleries: one for the Jewish suffering during the Holocaust (Shoah) and another for the injustices experienced by the Aboriginal peoples in Canada while all other communities' experiences are going to be placed in subordinate venues. Organizations like the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), Canadians for Genocide Education, the German-Canadian Congress, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) and thousands of other Canadians have been protesting this elevation of the suffering of one or two communities above all others. Most recently the UCCLA and Friends published a full page notice in The Hill Times (31 January 2011) calling upon MPs, Senators and others to review the proposed contents and governance of this publicly funded national museum. Opposed are those who insist the Shoah and aboriginal stories deserve privileged, permanent and prominent galleries of their own, therefore relegating other genocides and crimes against humanity to a "Mass Atrocities" zone, i.e. lumping together the Holodomor, the Rwandan, Armenian, Chinese, Cambodian genocides, and many other crimes against humanity, a proposal those communities have rejected, even as they insist that all genocides, including the Shoah, be treated in one comparative, thematic and inclusive gallery - "Genocides," while other themes, such as "Canadian Internment Operations" can likewise have their own zone. Aboriginal issues, it is more commonly agreed, being Canadian at the most fundamental level, should probably be afforded their own gallery.

External links

• Official website
• Friends of the CMHR
• Canadian Heritage