Ottawa Cancels Museum

"can the cancellation of this silly project be far behind? I sure hope so"

you mean you sure hope its not far behind right?

JTF wrote:The MSM have been careful to report on this project because of the Aspers and their influences in numerous circles.

Originally, Izzy wanted a holocaust museum as a tribute to himself. (Jews would certainly contribute to such a thing).

After he died, the project morphed into whatever it is now, some undefineable message board for whomever controls the Board, but always remains a tribute to Izzy.

I say we have better things to spend money on.

If we have hundreds of painting sitting in storage and have decided to cancel a building to house them in, can the cancellation of this silly project be far behind? I sure hope so.

Leave it to JTF to tell it like it is. Your thoughts Grumpy?

Ummm. I don't care? Sounds glib I know, but I don't really care. I have watched the debates on this museum since returning home to Winnipeg in 2006. But I have not kept score. I don't know if the MSM is playing loose with fairness and balance. Mayhaps they are. I just don't care.

If the Aspers turned this from a Holocaust Museum into the Human Rights Museum who cares? If this turned into a shrine to Izzy who cares?

I refuse to get all worked up about it and if at the end of the day it turns into a monstrous white elephant than the naysayers can gloat. If it turns into a great success then the others can gloat.

I'll be delighted if it is a success. I'll probably be more than a little disappointed if it fails.

I just want to see Winnipeg take some initiative and do something that might make others sit up and take (positive) notice. Just once.

And get off their ass and be exicited for once .

Like BeRT.
...Did anyone try the BeRT to work yet?
o
I forgot
Paper cannot substitute flying carpets...

I see where you're coming from GOM, but, as a numbers kind of guy, you surely can see that this is a hugh hole in the ground that we'll continually pour money into with nothing to show for it. (It could be called a depreciating asset with a giant overhead.)


Yes Dean. I'm hoping this will be cancelled also.

With the cost of everything going up.. I wonder how much the yearly $22 Million will go up?

The word exponentially comes to mind for some reason.....

I wonder the irony of opening year of this beast being the same time as the predicted 2012 food riots?

What human rights will Canadians be abusing then, just to stay alive?

Heh....humankind will be forced to eat fat people by 2015...the ultimate human rights abuse....

hehe... then they will want to stay in Jail for protection...

Deank wrote:hehe... then they will want to stay in Jail for protection...

Are you kidding? That's the first place they'll hit, going after the lardy prisoners.

...shades of Soylent Green...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

Copycat! I said that in the deflunked NWC...

Great minds....

JTF wrote:...shades of Soylent Green...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

Off Topic.

When I think about "Soylent Green" I wonder what the movie was like? I have read the book but never did see the movie.

Charlton Heston...what more can you say?

JTF wrote:Charlton Heston...what more can you say?

Holy Moses

Aren't there more important issues out there, than some solar-powered giant outhouse worth millions...

Ahhh.... I can think of a couple of hundred off the top of my head....

like the CBC?

Nope...the CBC wouldn't be on that list...not by a long shot.

From the Blackrod Blog.
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/

Sunday, November 16, 2008
The humanitarian mask slips off the face of the Winnipeg Free Press

Stomach-turning.

That's the adjective that best describes Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press.
It started the moment we physically picked up the newspaper and something dropped out.

It was an appeal from Siloam Mission for donations.

"A plate of Christmas cheer for someone who is hungry in Winnipeg's inner city...$2.58"
"We really need your help."

This out of a newspaper whose employees were just bragging about how they snagged 1500 pounds of prime minced pork out of the mouths of the poor and hungry? That government subsidized pork was always intended for food banks just like Siloam Mission.

Instead, striking Free Press employees greedily snatched it up the moment that someone they're still refusing to identify drove a pickup truck full of it to the picket line.

But it only got worse.

The next thing to see was a story about the Free Press annual Pennies From Heaven drive.

They stole thousands of dollars of food from the poor, and now they want to raise pennies for the same poor?

The story said the Free Press campaign is :

"to raise funds for two worthy causes: the Christmas Cheer Board and Winnipeg Harvest. "

Would that be the same Winnipeg Harvest whose pork was delivered by a mysterious source to the Free Press employees?

"The beauty of this campaign is everyone can participate. A child who finds a penny on the floor can contribute."

The story failed to mention how Free Press employees, celebrating their raises ranging up to $2000 a year, kickstarted the campaign with their own donations... Oh, maybe that's because they said they plan to donate the stolen pork in Christmas hampers.

Pardon us as we puke.

Further in the newspaper we found a story headlined "Humane society suffers financial hit." It told how the Winnipeg Humane Society has had to cut hours of operation and lay off staff because its annual campaign to raise operational funding has collected only $50,000, half of what it normally raises by this time of year.

A few pages further we hit a large ad from The Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. It carried a picture of Arni Thorsteinson and Susan Glass wagging their fingers at "citizens of Manitoba and Saskatchewan" and challenging them to donate to the museum.

They promised to donate another $800,000 themselves as a "matching gift--dollar for dollar--for donations or pledges received between now and December 31, 2008."

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the Black Hole of Manitoba, sucking up millions of dollars (a quarter of a billion dollars-plus so far) in donations while smaller charities like the Humane Society are paying the price. The multi-millionaires think its fun to wag their fingers and play at fundraising for their pet projects as the little people worry about their lost pets.

Maybe one of those millionaires can cut out a fundraising gala or two and toss the Humane Society a bone and bail them out of their hole.

But then, the money-sucking museum is a pet project of Winnipeg Free Press owner Bob Silver who, with his partner Ron Stern, donated $500,000.

You want more?

Free Press columnist Gordon Sinclair confessed Saturday that there was a small problem with his story about the poor single mother who was desperate because she expected to be evicted the very next day for non-payment of two months rent. The problem was that it wasn't true.

The woman wasn't facing imminent eviction, as he wrote, which means the nearly $6000 in donations she received was nothing more than free money.

Sinclair found that out when he finally spoke to her landlord, something he neglected to do before writing his first story about the woman---or his second.

Damn. There's nothing that spoils a good sob-story faster than the facts.

The pathetic attempts by the Winnipeg Free Press to paint themselves as great humanitarians continue to ring hollow, and will until the day the employees come clean about the Picket Pork scandal.

Who delivered the food?
Where did it come from?
And, more importantly, why did the people who had good-paying jobs think it was a good thing to take the food that was clearly intended for the unfortunate?

P.S. Just when you think it can't get worse…

A new, and more stomach turning version of Picket Pork has turned up.

Blogger Jim Cotton writes about meeting Free Press reporter Mary Agnes Welch on Saturday and asking her about "Porkgate."

"She looked me in the eye and said no one wanted to touch it and the guy was forcing the Pork on them."

Yes, people, the good-folk at the Free Press were forced---forced, damn it---to take the pork intended for the poor. There, now you have it. The true story. Mark 6.

Cotton, coincidentally, was the citizen journalist who poked the biggest hole in Sinclair's rent-girl story. He spotted the happy woman, newly flush with thousands of dollars in donations, celebrating with drinks at a downtown bar and a shopping spree the next day at high-end Polo Park stores.

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler.

Without the filter of the cowardly mainstream media in Winnipeg, it's amazing what Canadians are saying about this proposed museum...

The Globe & Mail published an article about an April, 2008 Heritage Canada study which found how opposed Canadians are to the proposed human rights museum.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081117.wmuseums17/CommentStory/Entertainment/home

Of the 122 comments posted, I counted 47 that were clearly against the museum and 5 that were clearly in favour of it. Many comments were against Winnipeg as destination city in general.

Given the enormous wealth this country has, this project should have very easily met its $105 million private fundraising goal by the March 31, 2008 deadline. Instead, Canadians are very clearly dubious of the museum and its backers and they are saying NO with their wallets.

If there was a plebiscite for this project, how do think most Canadians would have voted?

Here are some the posters who are saying No. I don't agree with them all but I am delighted to hear what Canadians are saying.

Vern McPherson from Canada writes:
A very good opportunity for the fed govt and the dear leader to put this expensive thing on hold until times improve.

al isinwonderland from Canada writes:
Winnipeg really is a fairly nice city however it is pretty isolated and the weather in the winter and the bugs in the summer make it more of a place to drive around rather visit. If more driving visiters are desired I would encourage Winnipeg to built direct and easy highway routes into the city core. Even with that, I don't know that a museum of this kind would attract much visiter interest no matter where it was located. Sounds kind of depressing.

Canadian Pom from London, United Kingdom writes:
I have to say, I don't think a civil rights museum would have attracted us. I tend to go on holiday to relax and have fun, not to be told about how awful my ancestors were in a series of audio/visual lectures.

Jeff S from Canada writes:
I have never been to Winnipeg and this museum would certainly not convince me to visit.

Pamphleteer . from Canada writes:
Besides, who would go anywhere JUST to see a museum? Unless we're talking about the Smithsonian, or a similarly themed museum that houses rare and original historical artifacts (like the incredible British Museum for example), what could you learn from a museum, especially one themed on 'human rights,' that you couldn't get from your public library? The museum should have been placed in Ottawa.

Maria Doroha from Selkirk, MB, Canada writes:
Re the Museum of Human Rights -- ok, as long as one horror to humanity is not emphasized over the others (which I wonder about, given the primary fundraiser -- but it is now a national entity, not one family's). But it certainly is not a primary attraction -- ooh, let's go and see how many people were
slaughtered!

Cadillac Rancher from FORMER Conservative, writes:
Can we just speak the truth for a moment?

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights/Holocaust Memorial was an ego-project of the late Izzy Asper. It has no rational basis in economic terms. The support it has found among governments is
based on politics and lobbying and out of fear of being targetted for sabotage by the Asper children through CanWest.

The musuem is pure boondoggle.

Bart Farquart from Calgary, Canada writes:
If culture means visiting something called a 'human rights museum' I suppose the headline is probably true. This former Winnipeger admires the Asper family and is a supporter of Israel and the Jewish people but Cadillac Rancher's comments have merit.

Hero Hero from Canada writes:
Winnipeg is a very nice city about 750,000, with some of the best beaches in North America just a stone's throw away.

In terms of the museum, it serves a select grouping of Canada's community, nothing else.

Antonio San from Canada writes:
The Globe is hardly subtle: the Newman bio of Izzy, the Can west debacle and now the Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg where no one wants to go... OK we get it. Still this Museum is a taxpayers' $22 million operating cost shame! In Winnipeg or elsewhere it is a shame, period.

A Calgarian from Canada writes:
That's going to be one expensive website! If most people will just visit the virtual museum, they should stick most of their effort into to developing the web portal.

james c from Canada writes:
i grew up in winnipeg too. nice city. but a museum of human rights does not excite me. i wont be going back anytime soon.

Len Smith from Canada writes:
The Conservatives' support for the museum is nothing but an attempt to get Winnipeg's Jewish vote, which holds the balance in some ridings between the Liberals and Conservatives.

Gill Bates from Wroxton SK, Canada writes:
Winnipeg is an interesting place to visit, but the human rights museum project is a big mistake. Seriously, how much entertainment value is there in human rights? The museum project is a great example of the public paying for the dreams of a millionaire businessman. What Izzy Asper really wanted was a Holocaust museum, but that wouldn't fly, so he just widened the concept a bit to make it palatable. With the Aspers so prominent in the project, what will be the first thing in the museum...? the Holocaust. It's ironic that Izzy Asper, a virulent anti-Palestinian, would be teaching the world about human rights. He certainly didn't practice what he preached.

Marcus L from Calgary, Canada writes:
I've been to Winnipeg on several occasions and enjoyed my visits. They were fun. But I can't say I'd have any interest traveling anywhere at personal time and expense for a human rights museum. Not my idea of a good time, and I can learn about human travesty and mass crime from the Internet and my local library. BTW - I appreciate art and culture just as much as the next person.

Henry Bollocks from Canada writes:
As far as I'm concerned, the problem isn't Winnipeg, it's the museum.

While I am interested in seeing more of my country, including Winnipeg, I have absolutely no interest in Asper's publicly funded Holocaust museum.

Toronto Lover from Canada writes:
The Big Nickel in Sudbury is more of an interesting draw than this shining example of Pork in Winnipeg.

I actually like Winnepeg and it could have been much better served by a non-political attraction. If the museum becomes a platform to force guilt on us it's a waste of time. The suffering of one group however horrific it was does not trump the atrocities that have occurred since WWII. Why is it that
there is scant mention of the countless Christians, gays, disabled, etc who were killed in the Holocaust? Maybe this museum will start to honour these people as well, but I doubt it.

dreaming of a green party majority from Canada writes:
A museum no one wants in the middle of nowhere -how appropriate that my tax dollars are going for really smart projects

r b from Calgary, Canada writes:
If I want to visit an opera, I'll go to Bayreuth.

If I want to see great paintings I'll go to the Rijksmuseum.

Breathtaking sculpture? I'll go to Florence.

Greatest Museum of Natural History? Then it's Manhattan for me baby.

Great fishing, friendly folks, warm summers? I would go to (and have gone to) Manitoba.

But quite frankly Winnipeggers, I don't think I'll be dialing in the human rights museum as a must go to spot anytime soon.

A Wong from Montreal, Canada writes:
I think an online museum for human rights would be more effective and reach more people in the end myself. Plus i am skeptical of any project initiated by Izzy Asper. Something tells me it will be a very biased perspective on human rights.

Cowtown Chick from Canada writes:
I can understand the desire to have it in the middle of the country but seriously! I would never make a trip just to see this museum, I may visit it if I was already in the city it was built - but then we're back to the beginning that there's just not a big enough draw to bring me there.


Stan L from Canada writes:
Give me a break....all due respect to Winnipeg, this is the dumbest museum ever...a good online project? perhaps, but a 100 million of our taxpyers' dollars for a museum? This is nothing more than the Harper government pandering to Asper's ego (one of Harper's BIG supporters I might add) Cut 45 million dollars to the arts...tack on some for Asper's dream museum.....cut another 45 for an actual National portait gallery that has been in the works longer than this nightmare.....tack on a few more dollars for Asper.

Wassup Widat from Canada writes:
The museum - a complete boondoggle and a pet program of the locally philanthropic Izzy Asper who truly was a local character.


Kenneth MacDonald from Houston, United States writes:
I doubt if this type of museum will attract many visitors. No matter what city it's in.

Erik Richards from Winnipeg, writes:
Please, by all means, take it out of here. It was a white elephant conjured up by the Aspers and they have basically tried to guilt Canadians (or at least various levels of government) to help pay for it.

I'm not saying people won't go to see it - if they're already here - but people certainly won't come specifically to see it.

xxzv klfcv from Calgary, Canada writes:
I agree with earlier comments that it makes far more sense to fund a great web site or virtual museum than to build an expensive edifice. This is especially true if the museum is primarily focused on documentary materials such as descriptions, photos, stories, films rather than physical artifacts or hands-on exhibits like costumes, fossils or trains. Younger generations generally prefer to visit the web than drive to a building to find information or entertainment and growing concerns about the cost, inconvenience and environmental impact of travel will only increase this tendency.

In a country the size of Canada it makes little economic sense to spend federal money on physical infrastructure that is unlikely to be used by the vast majority of taxpayers. Of course this may not be an economically driven decision ...

"If more driving visiters are desired I would encourage Winnipeg to built direct and easy highway routes into the city core"
umm.. north south east and west.. non rush hour... 30 minutes tops