PRIME
MINISTER HARPER ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT TO CREATE THE CANADIAN MUSEUM FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
WINNIPEG
– Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that Canada’s New
Government has reached an agreement with four public and private sector
partners to establish the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.
The
museum, which would be the first national museum built outside the
National Capital Region, will portray, promote and celebrate the history
and evolution of human rights in Canada.
“Rights
only flourish in free, democratic societies like Canada, where the
principles of fairness, pluralism, and justice are embedded in the history
of the country and the values of its people, as well as the laws of their
governments,” Prime Minister Harper said.
The
Government’s partners in the project are the Province of Manitoba, the
City of Winnipeg, the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and
the Forks Renewal Corporation. The federal commitment of $100 million is
contingent on its partners raising $165 million towards the cost of the
museum.
“Never
before has there been a collaboration of this scale to develop a national
museum, but if ever there were a Canadian cultural institution suited for
a private-public partnership, it is this one, because human rights can
never be the exclusive preserve of the state,” added the Prime Minister.
The
Canadian Museum of Human Rights, the vision of the late I.H. “Izzy”
Asper, will be established in downtown Winnipeg at the Forks of the Red
and Assiniboine Rivers, which has long been renowned as a place where
Canada’s diverse First Peoples traditionally met to resolve their
differences peacefully.
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