Human Rights and/or Market Logic: Neoliberalism, Difficult Knowledge, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

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Notes

Neoliberalism is a complex and somewhat contested term. For the purposes of my analysis, I use the term neoliberalism to describe a set of global economic shifts that have occurred over the past 40 years that are characterized by economic deregulation, privatization, and the dismantling of the welfare state. However, far from being just an economic theory, neoliberalism has also facilitated significant cultural changes, characterized by, among other things, a belief that individuals must look out for themselves rather than having a social or ethical responsibility for the collective good. For a comprehensive introduction to the economic, political, and social dimensions of neoliberalism, see A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey (2005).

It is important to note that not all public responses to the CMHR have been negative. Brent Bellamy and Dan Lett have written numerous editorials for the Winnipeg Free Press in support of the museum. Peter C. Newman has also registered his support for the museum in the form of numerous editorials, and, more recently, in his co-authored book The Miracle at the Forks: The Museum that Dares to Make a Difference (2014). In December 2014, just over 2 months after the official opening of the museum, the Winnipeg Free Press published a Prairie Research Associates Poll that indicated eight out of ten Manitoban's are proud of the museum. (However, this same poll also found that the majority of Manitobans do not plan to visit the museum; only 55% of Winnipegers and 23% of Manitobans living outside of Winnipeg intend to visit the museum; Singh 2014).

The Holodomar is a term that refers to the forced starvation of Ukrainians by the Soviet Republic in 1932 and 1933 that resulted in the death of several million Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has argued that the Holodomar should be featured more prominently in the CMHR.

This article attracted several hundred comments. I have selected these specific comments because they are representative of the overall tone and tenor of the commentary. I have not altered or corrected spelling and punctuation.

Colin Craig is the prairie director of the Canadian taxpayer's federation, an organization that describes itself as “a federally incorporated, not-for-profit citizen's group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government” (Canadian Taxpayer's Federation).

As of April 27, 2011, the City of Winnipeg had contributed more than $23 million in funding to the CMHR and the Government of Manitoba had contributed $40 million (see “Council Grants More Money to Rights Museum” 2011).

Tom Brodbeck, the author of the majority of Winnipeg Sun editorials critical of CMHR spending, also penned anti-Occupy Wall Street editorials during the Fall of 2011, including “Hard to Take Occupy Winnipeg seriously” (Brodbeck 2011a) and “We Want our Park Back” (Brodbeck 2011b).

Indeed upon entering the “What are Human Rights” gallery, visitors are confronted with a timeline that offers 100 “selected moments in human rights history throughout the ages and around the world” (http://humanrights.ca/exhibit/what-are-human-rights") suggesting a linear, progressive narrative of human rights compatible with lovely knowledge.

When this controversy erupted in Spring 2014, CMHR CEO Stuart Murray issued a press release stating that although the museum would not use the word genocide in the title of its exhibit on residential schools, the word would be mentioned in the content of the exhibit. I visited the Canadian Perspectives gallery of the CMHR to see its exhibit on residential schooling and could not find the word genocide anywhere in the exhibit.

For a detailed account of this controversy, see “Female Historian Says Human Rights Museum Censored Her” 2014.

As this article goes to press, the museum's eleven galleries are all finally open. Upon visiting the museum in December 2014, I saw this exhibit, which is included in the Canadian Perspectives gallery. The entire exhibit on gay rights is devoted to the theme of same-sex marriage and the wedding-cake photo montage is the primary exhibit in the display.

There is some LGBTQ content in other galleries in the CMHR. The “Protecting Rights in Canada” gallery includes an interactive activity that allows participants to “vote” on significant human rights cases that have gone before the Supreme Court; one of these cases involves an Alberta man who had been fired from his job as a college teacher at a Christian college in the 1990s because he was gay. The “Turning Points for Humanity” gallery contains a very brief narrative by a gay rights activist and the “What are Human Rights?” gallery includes, as one of several short vignettes projected onto a wall, a statement by a women proclaiming the common humanity of all people regardless of sexual orientation. This gallery also includes a reference to the Stonewall Riots on its human rights timeline. None of this content is particularly detailed, nor can it be said to facilitate an encounter with difficult knowledge.