Current and former employees of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg say its management would sometimes ask staff not to show any gay content on tours at the request of certain guests, including religious school groups.
The employees say the practice was common for at least two years and in one case a staff member from the LGBT community was asked to physically block a same-sex marriage display from a passing group.
Late Thursday, after this story was originally published, museum CEO John Young said he would not be seeking reappointment when his term ends in August. He made the announcement to staff in an internal email that was obtained by CBC News.
The email addressed this story and said the idea the museum has been intentionally hiding LGBT content is painful.
“While this is not the museum’s policy, clearly there have been instances that are at odds with our ‘come and see approach.’ That is a failure on our part, and as the head of the museum, accountability for these shortcomings at the museum lie on my shoulders, and I acknowledge the consequences that follow from that.”
Gabriela Agüero, a former program developer and tour guide, had gone public to CBC News with allegations of censorship. She said she was told by her superiors at times to not show the same-sex display.
“When I complained about it, [management said], ‘Well, that’s what we request and we have to honour the requests from the schools because they pay us for those tours,'” said Agüero.
“It was horrendous because then I had to go sit with my gay friends on staff and tell them I did that. It was a horrific sense of guilt and very painful.”
The museum confirmed that from January 2015 until the middle of 2017, schools and classes could make a request for content to be excluded. That included stories about diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.
“We no longer adapt any of our education programs at the request of schools,” said CMHR spokesperson Maureen Fitzhenry.
Gabriela Agüero, a former program developer and museum tour guide, said staff sometimes wouldn’t comply with a request made in a morning meeting to not talk about same-sex marriage and would verbally mention it during a visit. (Lyza Sale/CBC)
Agüero worked at the national museum in Winnipeg from September 2017 until June 2019.
A current employee says LGBT tour guides were among staff who were asked to not speak about gay content.
The staffer said the organization stopped requesting employees shield homosexual content following an internal uproar after a staff member from the LGBT community was asked to physically block an alcove in the Canadian Journeys exhibit that has photos of same-sex couples displayed in the shape of a cake and items from two same-sex weddings.
“The staff member was outraged. And there was a lot of outrage within the team,” said the current employee, who CBC has agreed not to identify because the staffer fears losing their job for speaking out.
“There [was] a lot of upset that they would ask somebody to do that and especially … somebody [who] did identify that way as an LGBT person.”
WATCH | A current CMHR employee speaks out about frustrating workplace culture:
Current and former employees of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights are speaking out about a workplace culture they say is homophobic and racist. 1:00
The staff member said the practice was done with groups of all ages, including high school students from Hutterite colonies. “It was definitely an erasure thing rather than a worry about young children.”
The employee said that after the museum stopped allowing requests for gay content to be hidden, school staff members started standing in front of the alcove to block it from students.
The staffer said it’s not just school groups that would request certain content be omitted from a tour.
“These special visitors could be diplomats, they could be donors.
“There have been people in our communications department that have said things like … ‘all groups are special, some groups are just a bit more special and there are some things that shouldn’t be put on paper. So we have to meet in person to discuss what guides can say to these special visitors.’ “
Agüero said sometimes staff wouldn’t comply with a request made in a morning meeting to not talk about same-sex marriage and would verbally mention it to visitors.
Photos of same-sex couples in the shape of a cake are shown at a display inside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. (Teghan Beaudette/CBC)
“We would sometimes cheat and say there is other people who have a different sexuality and love other people in different ways and we would point at [the same-sex wedding display]. That was breaking the rules.”
Former employee Liam Green started working at the museum in 2016 and left in 2018. The programming assistant said it was well-known internally that adjustments would be made on certain tours to exclude gay content.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t surprised because it was in line with everything else that I saw that the museum was doing, which was trying to make money,” he said in a phone interview from Victoria.
“It felt very disingenuous. It felt unfortunately like just their way of operating.”
The Canadian Journeys exhibit, which has a same-sex marriage display, is seen from above in the days before the museum opened in 2014. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
Museum CEO John Young declined to be interviewed for this story.
Fitzhenry said the museum has hired Winnipeg lawyer Laurelle Harris, who has expertise in women’s and Black studies and mediation, to lead a review of complaints of racism and other forms of discrimination at the museum.
Numerous allegations about racism and homophobia at the museum have surfaced online in recent weeks from former employees who have gone public on social media.
The museum has become a popular spot for people to rally over the years. Above, people attend a rally in response to the killing of George Floyd. (Austin Grabish/CBC)
Harris started Tuesday and will report directly to the CMHR’s board of trustees and will provide an initial report by the end of July, including recommendations on how to move forward, Fitzhenry said.
The external review will be used to create an action plan and the museum is committed to a transparent process that will include updates posted online, she said.
“In keeping with its mandate and mission, this museum must be a role model that reflects the highest standards of diversity and inclusion, both internally and externally.”
She provided CBC News with a long list of museum content related to the rights of people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.
Federal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement he’s been informed about apparent cases of self-censorship of LGBTQ realities at the museum.
He said the federal government expects national museums to be held to the highest standards of inclusiveness, social awareness and respect.
“An institution like the Canadian Museum for Human Rights should not be perceived as condoning homophobia or engaging in self-censorship. Its role is to expose the realities of those whose voices have been silenced, not to silence them even more.”
WATCH | CMHR employees say they were told to censor gay content for certain guests:
Current and former employees of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg say its management would sometimes ask staff not to show any gay content on tours at the request of certain guests, including religious school groups. 2:19
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
