Winnipeg’s Human Rights Museum “A Shrine to Canadian Hypocrisy”

In an open letter to Antoine Predock, Architect of Canada’s new Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Shoal Lake #40 First Nation Chief Erwin Redsky points out the glaring contradiction of a Human Rights Museum that features water whose diversion has resulted in “ the denial of fundamental human rights,” to the First Nation according to Amnesty International.

“He says his building celebrates the healing properties of water. Ha! I invite Mr. Predock to come to our community and see for himself what 100 years of human rights violations over water really looks like,” Chief Redsky said. “While he’s here, maybe he can talk to the young mom and the 70 year old elder who fell through the ice this spring. Maybe he can explain to them all about the ‘healing properties’ of the water he’s using in his reflecting pools because it almost killed them.”

The unresolved injustice of Shoal Lake #40’s forced isolation on a man-made island has been a matter of public record for many years.**

The community is cut off by the City of Winnipeg’s water intake which was imposed on the reserve by Canada one hundred years ago. Despite being a short distance south of the busy Trans Canada Highway at the Manitoba/Ontario border, Shoal Lake #40 First Nation remains without secure road access, is denied normal economic opportunities and has been on a boil-water order for over 17 years.

A number of lives have been lost as a result of the man-made water-isolated conditions.

The Council of Canadians supports Shoal Lake 40 in their demands for secure road access to and from their reserve lands, a share in the benefits that the City of Winnipeg gets from the pure water taken from the reserve lands and a proper water treatment facility for Shoal Lake 40.