Canadian Museum for Human Rights opens amid controversy

VIDEO: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is declared open Friday after stones from the four points of the compass are placed in a circle, with Winnipeg at the centre.

WINNIPEG – Mary Courchene’s feelings about the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights holds much of the conflict that has surrounded the national museum’s creation.

Courchene is concerned about how fairly her experiences as an aboriginal residential school survivor will be portrayed at the $351-million museum, but she’s nevertheless glad they’re included.

“Stories like mine need to be told,” Courchene said ahead of the museum’s grand opening.

VIDEOS: Winnipeg museum offers human rights ‘journey’

The grand opening of the only national museum outside the National Capital Region takes place this weekend, with an opening ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Friday live streamed here.

Protesters demonstrating for everything from indigenous to Palestinian rights and abortion could be heard shouting from outside the ceremony as the museum was declared open just after noon.

The weekend includes a free concert on Saturday night, free events and activities in and around the museum at Winnipeg tourist attraction The Forks, and 9,000 people have received tickets for a free tour of the four galleries that will be ready on the opening weekend.

READ MORE: Canadian Museum for Human Rights opening weekend schedule

But the museum, first pitched to the federal government in July 2000 by Winnipeg media magnate and philanthropist Israel “Izzy” Asper, has hit a number of bumps on its way to becoming a reality.

Asper’s dream almost died with him on Oct. 7, 2003, but his daughter, Gail Asper, decided she had to try to bring her dad’s dream to reality.

READ MORE: Canadian Museum for Human Rights: A decade of building

First estimated to cost approximately $200 million, the museum has been criticized as a white elephant and an eyesore. Fundraising brought in $147 million in private sector donations to help pay for construction, as the federal government refused to contribute more than $100 million towards ballooning costs.

INFOGRAPHIC: Canadian Museum for Human Rights by the numbers

Curatorial decisions also have met criticism from numerous groups, most significantly by aboriginal groups who feel it should label their peoples’ treatment by the Canadian government as genocide, and by Ukrainian Canadian groups who feel the Holodomir – the Soviet Union’s intentional starvation of millions of Ukrainians – is inadequately represented.

The museum was recently subject to a boycott call by descendants of Canadian First World War internees.

Indigenous musical act A Tribe Called Red was originally scheduled to open the Canadian Museum for Human Rights Concert on Saturday night but cancelled their appearance on Wednesday out of concern about how indigenous peoples are portrayed at the museum.

Courchene is one of those who feel the experiences of First Nations Canadians should be labelled genocide, but she has no plans to boycott the museum.

“It’s not a perceived genocide for me; it is indeed a cultural genocide,” she said.

“You know, my grandchildren don’t even understand their language or their grandma’s way of being … and my children don’t … That hurts. That really really hurts.”

But she plans to take those grandchildren to the museum that houses her story, because no matter what it’s called, the story of what happened to Canada’s First Nations needs to be told, she said.

“It’s there for educational purposes. That’s how I see it,” she said about the museum.

“I would like my children to know that there was a time when everything was good … and then a time when it wasn’t.”

VIDEO: The opening of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights takes place this weekend, but it’s not without some controversy.

FULL COVERAGE: Canadian Museum for Human Rights