Whose human rights museum?

Winnipeg -- A $270 million Canadian Museum for Human Rights conceived by the late Israel (Izzy) Asper, founder of CanWest Global Communications Corp., as a way to "celebrate" Canada's Charter of Rights, is moving closer to reality in the Manitoba capital. The museum, with a scheduled opening date of 2008 or 2009, will be the largest such centre in the world, documenting the experiences of various groups--including aboriginals, women, the disabled and the labour movement--and will include a section devoted to the Jewish Holocaust. It will be built and operated through federal, provincial, civic and private support.

The Canadian Jewish News reported that the museum might include an international think tank on human rights, which would play into Prime Minister Paul Martin's ambition to have Canada play a bigger role on the world stage. The Globe and Mail's Lisa Rochon said the museum will also offer the opportunity to honour the "work" of figures such as Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour.

Comment:

The fact that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights proposes to celebrate the Canadian Charter of Rights--which has been utilized to impose a host of social changes diametrically opposed to Catholic ethics and morality--and honour figures such as Louise Arbour, is alarming in and of itself. One wonders whether the Catholic understanding of natural law rights--which exists under a rule of conduct prescribed to us by the Creator in the constitution of the nature with which He has endowed us--will be presented.

One also wonders whether the persecution that Catholics have undergone, and continue to undergo, throughout the world, will be documented. It is known that in the 20th century, more Catholics lost their lives as martyrs than in any previous century in the history of the Church.