Speech

From the Prime Minister's Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)

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PRIME MINISTER HARPER ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT TO CREATE THE CANADIAN MUSEUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

April 20, 2007
WINNIPEG

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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, Joy Smith, for that kind introduction and for the persistent efforts you and the other members of our Manitoba caucus have made to advance this project.

It's a pleasure to be here in Winnipeg with Minister Oda and my fellow parliamentarians, and with fellow leaders Premier Doer and Mayor Katz, who have been critical to this effort. Gary, in particular, we should all acknowledge, kick-started this thing a couple of times when it looked like it might stall.

But I'd especially like to acknowledge the members of the Asper family who are with us, because it is the vision of their father, the late Izzy Asper, that has ultimately brought us together today.

He imagined that one day a Canadian Museum for Human Rights would rise in the heart of this great Western Canadian city, this crossroads of the Canadian Prairies, where, at the forks of the magnificent Red and Assiniboine rivers, it is said that, for thousands of years, Canada's diverse first peoples met to resolve their conflicts peacefully.

We're here today to honour that tradition of peaceful co-existence among people from many cultures.

It is a fundamental characteristic of Canadian society, and it is reflected in Canada's singular commitment to human rights.

Why our society evolved this way is a question for social scientists and philosophers.

But fortuitous accidents of history are surely part of the answer.

Our British and French forefathers were among the first in the world to develop the ideas and the political and legal institutions that recognized and protected human rights.

And in their relations with Canada's first peoples, troubled though they've been, all sides exercised more civility than occurred almost anywhere else during the colonial era.

The founders of our confederation adopted a constitution that enshrined linguistic, cultural and religious rights in our federalist system, along with the democratic rights that are part and parcel of responsible government.

It's true that Canada hasn't always lived up to its highest aspirations – and this museum will document our failures as well as our successes,

Yet throughout our history, wave after wave of immigrants fleeing oppression, persecution and tyranny have found sanctuary, freedom and justice in the true North, strong and free.

Canada's concern for human rights intensified as a result of our country's experiences in the wars of the twentieth century, in the struggles against military imperialism, communism and fascism.

In particular, throughout the civilized world, people wanted to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust would never be repeated.

We came to understand that either rights belonged to everyone, or they protected no one.

And we agreed that our borders must always be open to refugees from persecution abroad.

John Diefenbaker, the great Prairie populist who made his reputation in the courtroom as champion of the little guy, was at the forefront of the postwar rights revolution in Canada.

He was horrified by human rights abuses at home and abroad.

His convictions helped carry him to the Prime Minister's Office, where he brought women into Cabinet for the first time, extended the franchise to Native people, pushed for a fairer immigration system, and passed his ground-breaking Bill of Rights.

I believe that John Diefenbaker's passion for these ideals was fuelled by his experience as an outsider, Canada's first prime minister not born into privilege or the political establishment.

Like the Famous Five who fought for women's rights, like the great Prairie chiefs Big Bear and Crowfoot, who fought for the rights of their people, like the Francophones who fought for minority language rights in Manitoba, and like the workers who fought for labour rights in cities across the West, including here in Winnipeg.

Diefenbaker didn't seek to tear down our system or our history: in fact, he believed intensely in our values and our traditions, but he had the courage to see injustice, and he had the conviction to do something about it.

So it's appropriate that a national institution for human rights be erected here, in Winnipeg, the historic gateway to our Prairies, where so many of the Canadian battles for rights were fought and won, and it's why I'm so proud to be here today, to announce an agreement that will make the Canadian Museum for Human Rights a reality.

Our partners in this agreement are the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Province of Manitoba, the City of Winnipeg, and the Forks Renewal Corporation.

All the partners are making generous contributions to the project.

And so have more than a thousand individual Canadians, who have made their contributions through the Friends.

This project marks the first time a province and a city have joined with Ottawa and private donors in the creation of a national museum.

But if ever there was 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.

In fact, wherever and whenever the state has claimed a monopoly over human rights – as in the Soviet Union – they have withered and died.

Human 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 in the values of its people, as well as in the laws of their governments.

This museum, the realisation of Izzy Asper's vision, will celebrate and promote awareness of human rights in Canada.

It will bring Canadians and international visitors to Winnipeg, so they can see and hear the Canadian human rights story.

Today is an important step, though not the final step, because there is some fundraising that still has to be done, but I know that the Friends, this community, and their supporters are up to the task.

Congratulations to everyone who has helped bring the museum project this far.

Thanks to your generosity and passion for the cause, we are well on our way to our goal: a national tribute to the noble tradition of human rights in Canada.

Thank you.

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The Prime Minister's Office - Communications
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