Canadian Museum for Human Rights

10/21/2026

Asian Heritage Symposium for High School Students 📚✨

The Asian Heritage Society of Manitoba and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (.ca) are co-presenting a full-day Asian Heritage Symposium for high school students.

Students will explore Asian Canadian history, tour Asian-focused exhibits, hear from career panelists, participate in Q&A sessions, and take part in engaging workshops.

📅 Wednesday, April 28, 2027
🕘 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
📍 Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Teachers and educators: register your classroom for the in-person session, or access online Asian Heritage Month resources for your students.

🔗 Link in bio to register — space is limited, so sign up early!

https://www.asianheritagemanitoba.com/high-school-symposium/

Know an inspiring Asian professional in Manitoba who would be a great addition to our career panel? We’d love to hear from you — details are also in the link in bio.

10/21/2026

Every October we recognize the third Wednesday as International Pronouns Day - a day that seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace.

Check out performing "We Bop", a fun song about pronouns set to the tune of "She Bop", by Cyndi Lauper.

Comment below if you know any other songs that communicate the importance of pronouns.

10/18/2026

October 18 is Persons Day - a day to commemorate women being legally recognized as "persons" who could be appointed to the Senate of Canada.

In 1927, five women petitioned the Supreme Court of Canada and argued that women met the definition of "persons." These women - Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy and Irene Parlby - are now known as The Famous Five.

Their petition was denied, so they appealed to the Privy Council of England. Two years later on October 18, 1929, the Council declared that the definition of "persons" in the British North America Act did include women.

The “persons” decision meant certain women were no longer excluded by definition from serving as senators. While this was an important step in granting women increased participation in public and political life, the right was only given to some women.

The decision also did nothing about the requirements for land ownership, wealth, and citizenship that effectively continued to exclude many - including women of Asian descent in 1948 and Indigenous women, who couldn't vote until 1960.

10/17/2026

Get your tickets here: https://bit.ly/3Tlu0LG

10/16/2026

What would you risk to protect the rights of others?

Armin T. Wegner was born on this day, October 16, 1886. His brave actions broke the silence and led to much of what we know about the Armenian Genocide.

When the First World War began in 1914, Wegner, a pacifist, enlisted in the German army as a medic. In April 1915, his unit was deployed to what is now Türkiye.

Wegner witnessed the persecution of Armenian people and took hundreds of photographs. At great risk to his own safety, through a series of safe routes and diplomatic connections, he smuggled the photographs of the horrors he witnessed to German and American sources.

This was not his only act of conscience: Wegner would later become one of the earliest German voices protesting the Nazi's persecution of Jewish people in Germany - an act that would lead to his torture and incarceration.

"Acts of Conscience" is a short documentary narrated by award-winning filmmaker Atom Egoyan. It follows Wegner's journey sharing the horrors of the Armenian Genocide with the world.

What does it mean to stand up for human rights? Read the story of a medic who risked his own safety to document the evidence of atrocity.

10/14/2026

What is the daily threat we face from nuclear weapons? And how should we respond?

Join us on October 28 at 6 p.m. to explore these questions during a film screening of the documentary An Ordinary Insanity, directed by Oscar‐nominated filmmaker Judith Ehrlich, followed by a panel discussion.

Providing a stark, compelling look at global nuclear dangers, An Ordinary Insanity features interviews with renowned whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg is primarily known for his release of the top‐secret Pentagon Papers, an action that helped bring an end to the Vietnam War.

This all‐ages event is held as part of the annual Youth Nuclear Peace Summit. It is presented in partnership with Rotary Club of Winnipeg , Rotary District 5550 World Peace Partners, Conflict and Resilience Research Institute Canada Conflict and Resilience Research Institute Canada ,and the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba Robson Hall, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba.

https://bit.ly/4dyIxKQ

Film screening and panel discussion on the threat of nuclear weapons.

10/11/2026

Today is the International Day of the Girl Child! We're celebrating some inspiring young women who have created and shared their human rights projects for the Museum's Upstander Showcase.

An upstander is someone who uses their passions and skills to take a stand for human rights. From equality in sports and education, to ending gender-based violence and child marriage, these young women are tomorrow's leaders!

Want to learn how you or a young woman in your life can be an upstander? Check out the Be an Upstander program today. https://bit.ly/4yLOsog

10/08/2026

Join us on Tuesday, November 3, for the next lecture in our Democracy in Peril series featuring Michael Ignatieff.

How does Canada maintain its democratic independence in a world order dominated by powerful predatory states? What price are we prepared to pay to remain true to who we are? And how do we ensure a future for our children when state predators control the technologies of tomorrow?

A world-renowned voice on human rights and the defense of liberal democracy, Ignatieff will address these important questions on November 3. His career spans academics and politics, building his reputation as a public intellectual. His academic appointments include positions at the Harvard Kennedy School, UBC, U of T, King's College London, Oxford, and the Central European University where he served as President and Rector, leading it through its forced move from Budapest to Vienna. He holds 14 honouary degrees, including most recently from Cambridge University. He is the author of 18 books, including 2021's "On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times."

This lecture in the Democracy in Peril speakers’ series is organized by the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of Manitoba, in partnership with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Register for free here: https://bit.ly/3Tlu0LG

10/08/2026

We were honoured to welcome Her Excellency the Right Honourable Louise Arbour to the Museum! Her Excellency's work on human rights is shared in several galleries in the Museum, and we are grateful she took the time to visit.

Together, we stood before the Witness Blanket to talk about Canada's commitment to truth and reconciliation, and explored Love in Dangerous Time: Canada's LGBT Purge to celebrate the human rights defenders who fought back and ended the Purge.

10/05/2026

A powerful new piece of history has been added to the Examining the Holocaust gallery.

At first glance, it may look like a simple leather wallet. But a closer look reveals a devastating reality: it is made of a looted and desecrated Torah scroll.

The Torah is the most sacred textual object in Judaism. During the Holocaust, the N***s and their collaborators not only targeted the Jewish people for eradication; they also destroyed Jewish places of worship and religious texts.

In some cases, they used the materials of sacred texts to create commercial items, like this wallet. The creation of this wallet aimed to erase the Jewish significance of the Torah, as part of the N***s’ genocidal efforts to destroy the Jewish people.

However, on the face of the wallet, faint traces of Hebrew lettering can still be seen. With guidance from members and spiritual leaders in the Winnipeg Jewish community, we were able to discern that the portions of the Torah that made up this wallet came from the Book of Exodus and the Book of Numbers. The guidance that we received also stressed that even though the Torah that made up this wallet was desecrated, it is still sacred.

This reverence represents a fundamental reality: that the attempt to destroy this Torah and its meaning failed. Just as the ongoing presence of the Jewish people is evidence of the failure of the N***s' efforts at genocidal eradication.

We are grateful for those members of the Jewish community that engaged with us to reflect on this item and ensure it is endowed with the respect that it deserves.

For more information about the story of this sacred object, you can read "Undoing Cultural Erasure and Reclaiming Heritage," a chapter in "Objects of Atrocity" published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Purdue University Press. https://bit.ly/3TzUBEO