The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR; French: Musée Canadien pour Les droits de la persona) is a Canadian Crown corporation and national museum located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, adjacent to The Forks. The museum’s purpose is to “explore the subject of human rights with a special but not exclusive reference to Canada, to enhance the public’s understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue.”
Established in 2008 through the enactment of Bill C-42, an amendment of The Museums Act of Canada, the CMHR is the first new national museum created in Canada since 1967, and it is Canada’s first national museum ever to be located outside the National Capital Region. The Museum held its opening ceremonies on 19 September 2014.
The Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the charitable organization responsible for attracting and maintaining all forms of philanthropic contributions to the Museum.
History
The late Izzy Asper—a Canadian lawyer, politician, and founder of the now-defunct media conglomerate Canwest Global Communications—is credited with the idea and vision to establish the CMHR, having first come up with the concept on 18 July 2000 to build the museum. Asper hoped it would become a place where students from across Canada could come to learn about human rights. He also saw it as an opportunity to revitalize downtown Winnipeg and increase tourism to the city, as well as to raise understanding and awareness of human rights, promote respect for others, and encourage reflection, dialogue, and action. Working on his idea for three years, Asper had a thorough feasibility study conducted by museum experts from around Canada.
Exhibit
The CMHR worked with exhibit designer Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) from New York to develop the museum’s inaugural exhibits. RAA indicated that the galleries throughout the CMHR would deal with various themes, including the Canadian human rights journey, Indigenous concepts of human rights, the Holocaust, and current human rights issues. Accordingly, the CMHR’s team of researchers worked with RAA to develop the inaugural exhibits.
Galleries
This includes a “circular movie about First Nations concepts of rights and responsibilities to each other and the land.” Finally, curator Lee-Ann Martin described contemporary installation artist Rebecca Belmore’s “Trace,” a 2+1⁄2-storey “ceramic blanket” commissioned by the CMHR. This blanket is part of a series by Winnipeg-based Anishinaabe artist Belmore that “exposes the traumatic history and ongoing violence against Aboriginal people.” Bed Bug Exterminator Winnipeg
- Canadian journeys. This includes “prominent exhibits” on residential schools, “missing and murdered aboriginal women,” “forced relocation of Inuit,” as well as Japanese during World War II, disabilities from Ryerson University, Chinese head tax, the Underground Railroad, Komagata Maru, and the Winnipeg General Strike.
- Protecting rights in Canada
- Examining the Holocaust and other genocides. The gallery on genocide includes the five genocides recognized by Canada: the Holocaust, the Holodomor, the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and the Bosnian ethnic cleansing.
- Turning points for humanity
- Breaking the silence
- Actions count
- Rights today
- Inspiring change
Indigenous issues are addressed in each gallery but are prominent in the ” Canadian Journeys Gallery” and the “Indigenous Perspectives Gallery.”
Address: 85 Israel Asper Way, Winnipeg, MB
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