May 14, Day 5, Visiting the Canadian National Museum of Human Rights

Viola Desmond, Canadian Civil Right Pioneer

We started today by ordering breakfast in the room and then taking our time to go out for the morning. We planned to visit the Canadian National Museum for Human Rights, a 10-minute walk from our hotel. This is a photo of the downtown map showing the relative location of the Fairmont Hotel (circled) and the Museum for Human Rights (lower bottom, right brown icon near the river).

On our way to the museum, we passed Winnipeg's baseball park, Blue Cross Park, home of the Winnipeg Goldeyes. The Goldeyes are now an independent team that is part of the American Baseball Association, and not affiliated with Major League Baseball that most Americans are familiar with. However, in their previous life, decades ago, the Goldeyes were a minor league team for the St. Lous Cardinals and then the Kansas City Royals. This team has disappeared. The newly revived team decided to keep the name of the old team, even though there is no corporate or historical connection between the two.  Here are photos of a golden eye fish, the team logo and the park.

Before entering the museum, we went to a nearby pedestrian suspension bridge, The Esplanade Riel, and to an adjacent park, the Forks Park. Both of these elements are important in the history of Canada’s human rights struggles, along with the museum. The Esplanade Riel is named after Louis Riel, a prominent Métis (French, pronounced “meh-Tee”) leader, who led the movement for the rights of the Métis people. He also negotiated the entrance of Manitoba into the Canadian confederacy; thus, Manitoba was the only province to join Canada under aboriginal leadership. (Later, there will be an explanation of the distinctions between the Métis, the First Nations, and the Inuit.)

The Forks Park, as well as the museum site, are where tribes of Indigenous peoples gathered to trade, socialize, and/or settle disputes and wars. This place was sacred and traditional for hundreds of years, before the arrival of European explorers and settlers. The park is now a park supported by the city and province due to its historical significance. Markers on both sides of the Esplanade, the park and bridge are intended to explain the connections between the peoples of Winnipeg. The park symbolizes the real historical connection of First Nations peoples living on either side of the river; the bridge symbolizes the connections between English-speaking (Anglophone) Winnipeg (park side) and French-speaking (Francophone) St. Boniface (the opposite side): all connected to the Red River, which has been the metaphorical lifeblood for all local residents throughout history.

Here are photos of the Provencher Bridge (for vehicles), the Esplanade Riel (for pedestrians and cyclists), the park, and the Museum for Human Rights. There are also a few photos of a local prairie dog community and a small flock of geese added for the obligatory "cuteness" factor.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is a marvel in itself. For anyone interested in the history of and ongoing struggles for justice and human rights, I recommend a trip toWinnipeg for this reason alone. It will be worth the pilgrimage. Even though we spent two hours there, one could easily make it a 2–3-day visit. The museum is an 8-story architectural statement, with Levels 1 to 7 devoted to different aspects of human rights history, and Level 8, the Israel Asper Tower, reserved as a viewing platform for a wide, almost 360-degree view of the city of Winnipeg. Israel Asper is the Canadian who conceived of and proposed the museum in 2000. It opened in the fall of 2014.

We started at Level 1, which housed a temporary exhibit dedicated to the rights and struggles of 2LGBTQ+ people in Canada. We moved to Level 2, First Nations, Métis and Inuit stories, as well as the Canadian Journey of Rights. Then Level 3, Protecting Rights in Canada (the evolution of the country's legal system in the history of the Canadian human rights struggles.)  After this, we took a coffee break on level 5. After our break, we moved on to Level 7, Inspiring Change and joined the conversation. Patrise looked through the exhibits on this floor, while I climbed to level 8, the Israel Asper Tower to enjoy aerial views of the city and to take pictures. When I rejoined her on Level 7, each of us filled out a card to add to the conversation board. Here’s what we wrote separately, without realizing what the other had done.

There are so many stories to take away from this visit, but I don't have time to tell them in this forum. Here are a few of them, to offer a sample. First story. This was the first time I saw or heard about the term "2LGBTQ+", the "2" being what was new to me. The 2 represents Two-Spirit people and represents the history, nature, and struggles of queer First Nations people. Apparently, among many First Nations tribes in North America, sexuality was accepted as more fluid and not as the strict binary concept that was later imposed on them by Christianity. Not all Indigenous peoples were Two-Spirit, but the prevalence of Two-Spirit people was widely accepted and acculturated, as part of the "normal" spectrum of human sexuality among them.  The exhibition also showcased the history of anti-queer discrimination in Canada caused by the spread of Christianity, the two world wars, the Cold War, and external pressures from the United States. It described the trauma experienced by queer Canadians, as they were forced to leave the military, leave jobs in public service, leave the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and forced out of or prevented from participating in other institutions. It also detailed the struggles to restore the rights of 2LGBTQ+ people from the 1970s to the current decade. Here are some photos of this exhibition.

A second story was (is) that of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples of Canada. First Nations or “Indian,” Métis, and Inuit peoples are recognized in Canada’s constitution, as three distinct “aboriginal” groups. First Nations folks (rather than the more offensive term “Indians”) are those living in the parts of Canada below the Artic Circle, who were encountered by European explorers and settlers. They suffered many acts of discrimination and abuse, including horrors of having children removed from families and forced into reform schools and foster homes. These forced relocations inflicted scars upon these people, which are still the source of many of today’s traumas and social ills. The Inuit are the indigenous peoples in Canada, who live near and above the Artic Circle. Inuits have distinctly different histories, cultures, and languages from indigenous tribes in the lower parts of the country. Métis are peoples, who were the result of mixing between Indigenous peoples and early (mostly French) explorers, hundreds of years ago. They developed such distinctly different culture, traditions, and dialect that they are not accepted by First Nations and white Canadians alike. So they also suffered rampant discrimination and abuse at the hands of Canada’s European settlers and descendants. However, not all Canadians of mixed-race ancestry are considered Métis.

As I mentioned earlier, the very ground that the Canadian Museum of Human Rights is located on is a part of the historical Four Forks grounds. Hanging in the museum is a breathtaking art installation by a First Nations artist, Rebecca Belmore. The piece called Trace strings together “beads” of clay from the soil under where the museum now stands; and each “bead” was made by having Native children squish the clay in their hands to form imprints of their hands. The concept for the piece was a brilliant one and the size of the piece is enormous, symbolizing the depth of and importance of the history this land has been to the local indigenous tribes. Here is a photo of the piece and an explanation of it. Other aspects of the injustices done against First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples were on full display, along with Canada’s efforts in recent years to acknowledge its history of abuse and multiple efforts to effect reparations for these many historical harms. Here are some photos from a small portion of this extensive series of exhibits.

A third and final story from the museum visit is that of Viola Desmond, a black Nova Scotian woman who is at times compared to Rosa Parks. To save time in telling her story and because it is so late at night at this point, I will quote from the Wikipedia entry about her. It reads…

Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Canadian civil and women's rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre. For this, she was convicted of a minor tax violation for the one-cent tax difference between the seat that she had paid for and the seat that she used, which was more expensive. Desmond's case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.[3]

Patrise and I learned about the history of blacks in Nova Scotia, when we went there are a part of our 62-day RV trip in 2022. (See “RVing in 2022”, scroll down to and open “Day 38, May 23, Halifax, Nova Scotia.” Scroll through the photos and stories, until you see the cover of the book “Blacks in Nova Scotia.” Then, read the story of how we found this book in a map shop and bookstore on the Halifax wharf.) However, even after learning this history in 2022, we did not learn of Viola Desmond’s prominence in Canada’s civil rights history, until our museum visit today. Her memory is honored today by having her photo on the Canadian $10-bill, which is displayed at the beginning of this blog entry. She was recently granted a full pardon, posthumously by the first African Canadian woman Lt. Governor of Nova Scotia.

For me (Doug), there are some things which are very clear from our visit to the Canadian National Museum of Human Rights. (1) I could not explain the breath and depth of that facility in this blog. (2) It should be seen by as many people as possible, especially Americans, who still to this day, refuse to confront our own ugly histories with the oppressions of First Nations peoples, Alaskan indigenous tribes, native Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, Guamanians, and Samoan peoples; and we refuse to examine and discuss our ugly and unique enslavement and apartheid-like treatment (Jim Crow laws) of African peoples and their descendants. (3) Canada could never be our 51st state. Despite their many problems and flaws – and there are many of them; we should not romanticize Canadians and gloss over their issues. – still, they are light years ahead of Americans in their willingness to confront their ugly past. And as we all know, 50% of solving a problem is to acknowledge that it exists in the first place. We Americans are far from solving anything, since we can’t even own up to the fact that our ugly history is also our current story. After the wonderful visit to the museum, we walked to a nearby food hall, the Four Forks Market. Patrise enjoyed a wonderful lunch of split pea soup and a tuna salad sandwich, while I waited eternally for a Philly cheesesteak. The cheesesteak was actually quite fresh and good, but it took so long to prepare, that I only got a couple of bites in before we needed to leave. I took the rest back to the room and never finished it, since it had grown cold on the return trip.

Upon returning to the hotel, I crashed for a long nap, while Patrise read a book in the other room. After I awakened, we took a taxi to a nearby laundry and washed and dried our dirty clothes from the first four days of the trip. We have a history of seeking out neighborhood laundries, while traveling and have had wonderful stories emerge from those moments. In this case, while I stayed with the clothes, Patrise wandered the nearby streets, found a Nigerian restaurant, and returned with fish and jollof rice dinners for each of us. I took photos of the food and some of the people passing through the neighborhood. It was clear that this district was one where first and second generation-immigrant families from African and southeast Asian nations had settled.

We caught an Uber back to the hotel with the clean laundry, then settled down for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we will take a formal tour of Winnipeg, since we do not go to the train station until 8pm tomorrow.

Here are more photos from the food hall visit, the walk back to the hotel, and the laundry experience.