During a House of Commons debate on the bill establishing the rebranded Canadian Museum of History, Moore also repeated assurances that curators will have full independence to decide on the museum’s content.
But while Green Party leader Elizabeth May declared she was prepared to “take a leap of faith” and support the bill, New Democrat MPs said they didn’t trust the Conservative government and accused it of trying to transform Canada’s most visited museum into a “wax museum” of heroes and prominent figures.
Moore announced the $25-million name and mandate change last October and introduced a bill amending the Museum Act to establish the new history museum a month later.
Moore, who led off the debate on second reading of the bill Wednesday night, said Canada needs a national institution that will tell the stories of Canada, “that celebrates our achievements and what we have accomplished together as Canadians.”
Many of those stories are told in the 2,500 local and regional museums across Canada, he said. “Yet Canada does not have a national institution that connects all of these local museums across the country.”
To ensure the new history museum “reaches out across the country and connects Canadians,” it will build partnerships with local museums, he said, noting that it has already signed its first memorandum of understanding with the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria.
As a result, that museum and others will have access to 3.5 million items currently in the civilization museum’s collection. About 90 per cent are in storage “because we do not have a network to move these items across the country and share our history,” Moore said.
The partnerships with the new history museum will change that, he said. “In a sense, this is all about greasing the skids so we can get stuff moving around the country.”
The Museum of Civilization hasn’t been updated in more than 20 years, Moore said. “It is a museum that needs to be updated and needs to be improved upon, and that is what we are proposing.”
NDP heritage critic Pierre Nantel said his party opposes the bill creating the new history museum “strictly because we do not trust the Conservatives.”
“This government has done more to hinder people’s knowledge and understanding of Canadian history and to undermine research into our history than any other government,” Nantel said.
Through cuts to Parks Canada, he said, the government is “abandoning fragile historic sites across the country.” As well, it has “destroyed” Library and Archives Canada, the guardian of Canada’s archives for 140 years.
Nantel said the “generic narrative” the government favours for Canada’s history “marginalizes the stories and life experiences of the individuals and groups who anonymously built our country’s history from the ground up. It gives the impression that the government is not looking to create a history museum, but a wax museum.”
Nantel also noted the government’s “dubious desire to intervene and obliquely meddle in Canadian history and to rewrite our history.”
But Moore said the Museums Act “creates a barrier” that makes it impossible for politicians to tell a museum what it can or cannot do on a daily basis.
He said the government chose the name Canadian Museum of History — rather than Museum of Canadian History — to be “inclusive of all the narratives of those who today call themselves Canadian.”
“We chose that language deliberately to give the museum the independence to design their narrative such that it is not just the political one that begins with the Constitution Act of 1867.”
May said she was convinced that Moore “is offering a genuine opportunity to energize our discussion of history.” Despite some misgivings, she said she would support the bill. “I am prepared to take that leap of faith based on what I see before me in the legislation.”
But Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel, whose riding includes the museum, was not persuaded. The approach set out in the bill “does not leave any room to showcase important developments in our shared history, such as gender relations, colonization and First Nations, and environmental changes.”
The debate adjourned without a vote and will resume at a later time. Once the bill passes second reading, it will be referred to committee for further study.
Original Article
Source: calgaryherald.com
Author: Don Butler
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