The Canadian Museum for Human Rights

I have a new series of posts coming out on this blog detailing my time in Manitoba. I spent most of my time in Winnipeg but I did get to travel to Lake Winnipeg (which you will hear about in a future post). One of the biggest attractions in the city was the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which is the newest national museum established in 2008. This museum focuses on human rights and explores human rights issues in the past, present, and future from both a Canadian and a global perspective.

Before I even talk about what is inside the museum, it is worth talking about the building itself. I think the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen in Canada. It has this wrapped glass exterior like a warm blanket, with a lookout tower springing out of the middle. The building is so large and imposing, and it is a complement to the Winnipeg skyline.

I pay my $23 admission fee and head inside. The first parts of the museum detail what human rights are, and there are also these small exhibits that show different past human rights issues in Canada, such as the internment of Japanese-Canadians during World War II, and the fight for women’s voting rights in Canada, to give some examples.

One quick note: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is fully accessible, which is great. Because the building is so big, you are constantly walking up these long ramps to get to each floor of the museum, which can get quite tiring.

The next level of the museum highlights the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime in Germany under Adolf Hitler. There is quite a lot of information to read here, and some of the accounts of what happened are quite traumatic, but necessary to tell.

Walking further along, one art installation I want to highlight is known as “The Witness Blanket” which highlights the atrocities of the residential schools system in Canada through hundreds of artifacts taken from former schools and government buildings.

There were two other exhibitions on display while I was at the museum, including the dispossession of homes and items from Japanese-Canadians by the Canadian Government during World War II, and the persecution and dismissal of LGBTQ+ public service by the Canadian Government (called the LGBT purge).

Lastly, you can take an elevator up to the top of the tower where you can get a 360-degree view of Winnipeg and the surrounding area.

Overall, I think the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is incredibly informative and is an excellent attraction for the City of Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba. It is worth going to see if you happen to be in Winnipeg for some reason like I was.