The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg

I returned to Winnipeg last week, a city I lived in during my formative years. 

Having been born and raised in the cosmopolitan city of Montreal, moving to Winnipeg in my early teens was a huge let down. My father thought it would be romantic to travel by train to our new home. He seemed to forget that it was it was the dead of the winter. There wasn’t much to see and our poor small dog had to stay in an unheated rail car.

This was our first site upon arrival!

I had no friends for the first few months.  I came home one Friday from school to ask my parents if I could attend a rumble. I recall my father looking at me incredulously asking:  “A rumble? I haven’t heard that word since the 50s!”

But I survived. I went to high school as well as graduated with a degree from the University of Manitoba. I made lots of friends and through my first marriage, gained a family, with whom I am still in touch.

Winnipeg hasn’t really changed much.

My father still lives there. He and I visited The Canadian Museum of Human Rights.  It’s the only national museum outside of Ottawa. The architecture alone is stunning but the 7 floors and tower with a view of the famous ‘Muddy Waters” is filled with stories of the diversity of human rights issues in Canada and elsewhere.

St. Boniface Cathedral 

As I read and interacted with the exhibits, it struck me how many times while growing up in Winnipeg I faced a human rights issue.  Whether working with marginalized aboriginal youth, helping my gay friends to conceal their sexuality, sitting beside two older couples at Winnipeg Beach and noticing that both men had numbers tattooed on their forearms - survivors of the holocaust; or the racism my father-in-law faced as a Canadian-born person of Chinese descent, especially being married to my mother-in-law who was not Chinese.  

The Redress Project  - Engaging people about Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women 

In fact it was because of the FLQ Crisis in Montreal, and the resulting War Measures Act, that my family relocated to Winnipeg in 1973.

The museum educates its visitors on human rights struggles, and challenges us to action.  I was inspired and hopeful that the world has changed and is moving towards respect for all peoples, regardless of race, religion, colour or sexual preference.  

I intend to do my part to protect human rights.  

Hope

I forget that people read and even enjoy my blog until someone reminds me I haven’t blogged in a long time.

So here goes.

I was in Toronto last week for a conference and to visit some colleges.

Living in Victoria, the flashy skyscrapers, hustle and bustle and wealth of Bay Street have become foreign to me. 

In contrast to the opulence, Toronto is the place where social democrat Jack Layton started his political career as a City Counsellor before he went on to be the leader of the federal NDP and official opposition and who knows, had fate not intervened, probably the next prime minister.

I met Jack when he was in Edmonton on the campaign tour in 2011, a couple of months before he died.

He was short in stature, charismatic, smart, focused on restoring social programs, ensuring equitable wealth distribution, appropriately taxing corporations and helping the middle class.

Here is a photo of me (and Jack) at a memorial to him which says “Jack's Got your Back”. 

 

 

 

When he died most of the country felt that we’d lost hope.

But hope was restored this week when Rachel Notley swept Alberta to a majority NDP government. Some of the adjectives I used to describe Jack also describe Rachel.

And her victory speech was reminiscent of Jack. 

 

As Jack said: “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.”

I am optimistic!