The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR)

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) is a national museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is located adjacent to The Forks. The purpose of the museum is to "explore the subject of human rights with a special but not exclusive reference to Canada, in order to enhance the public's understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue." It held its opening ceremonies on September 19, 2014.

Established in 2008 through the enactment of Bill C-42, an amendment of the Canadian Museums Act, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the first new national museum created in Canada since 1967, and it is the first new national museum ever to be located outside the National Capital Region.

On 17 April 2003, the 21st anniversary of signing of Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the establishment of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights was announced as a joint partnership between the Asper Foundation, the Government of Canada, Province of Manitoba, City of Winnipeg and The Forks North Portage Partnership. The Asper Foundation donated $20 million.

Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper, OC OM QC known as Izzy Asper, is credited with the idea and vision to establish the CMHR. He was a Canadian lawyer, politician and founder of the now-defunct media conglomerate Canwest Global Communications. 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. increase understanding and awareness of human rights, promote respect for others, and encourage reflection, dialogue, and action. After Izzy's death in 2003, his daughter Gail Asper spearheaded the project.

At its opening in September 2014 there were ten permanent galleries, described by "Jodi Giesbrecht, acting manager of research and curation, and Corey Timpson, director of exhibitions and digital media" for Edmonton Journal's Dan Barnes.

1. What are human rights?

2. Indigenous perspectives

This includes a "circular movie about First Nations concepts of rights and responsibilities to each other and the land." 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 "expose the traumatic history and ongoing violence against Aboriginal people."

3. 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.

4. Protecting rights in Canada

5. Examining the holocaust

The gallery on genocide includes the five genocides recognized by Canada, the Holocaust, the Holodomor (the Ukrainian famine), the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide and the Bosnian ethnic cleansing.

6. Turning points for humanity

7. Breaking the silence

8. Actions count

9. Rights today

10. Inspiring change

Several agreements have been reached between the CMHR, and various educational institutions and government agencies, to enhance the quality and depth of information provided by the museum, as well as to broaden the educational opportunities for the museum. This is a tentative and evolving list of those organizations that have partnered with the museum:

·        University of Manitoba

·        University of Winnipeg

·        National Museum – "Memorial in Commemoration of Famines' Victims in Ukraine" (Kiev, Ukraine)

·        Canadian Association of Statutory Human Rights Agencies

·        Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Canada (Netherlands Embassy)

·        Library and Archives Canada

·        The Manitoba Museum

·        Manitoba Education (the Province of Manitoba)

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