New $10 banknote launches in Winnipeg Monday

Canada’s new $10 banknote will officially enter circulation Monday morning at a ceremony in Winnipeg.

The new note – Canada’s first vertically-oriented bill – features a portrait of late civil rights activist Viola Desmond on the front and Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum for Human Rights on the back.

The national launch of the new banknote takes place at the museum’s Canadian Journeys gallery at 10 a.m. Monday.

Desmond, who replaces John A. Macdonald on the note, is the first Canadian woman to be profiled on a regularly circulating banknote, and the second woman after Queen Elizabeth II.

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Desmond is famous for refusing to leave the ‘whites-only’ section of a Nova Scotia theatre in 1946. The gallery where the event is being held features the story of her fight against racial segregation.

Desmond’s sister, Wanda Robson, will be on hand to talk about her sister’s legacy, and to officially make the first purchase – at a special kiosk in the museum – with one of the new bills.

Robson will be joined by Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz, as well as other museum and government officials.

WATCH: New 10 dollar bill features Canadian Museum for Human Rights

4:36 New 10 dollar bill features Canadian Museum for Human Rights