House of Commons, Canadian Museum of Civilization

Ques­tions on the Cana­dian Museum of Civilization’s name change and new focus

 

Octo­ber 15th, 2012

 

Mr. Pierre Nan­tel (Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, we have just heard some­thing rather pathetic.

The Con­ser­v­a­tive pro­pa­ganda cam­paign con­tin­ues. Oh, yes. This time, for no good rea­son, they have decided to give a new name and man­date to the Cana­dian Museum of Civ­i­liza­tion in Gatineau. They could not care less that this is the most pop­u­lar museum in the coun­try. That does not matter.

The NDP loves his­tory and loves the fact that the exist­ing museum cov­ers 20,000 years of his­tory. What we do not love, how­ever, is a revised and politi­cized ver­sion of his­tory, as told by the Conservatives.

Can some­one explain to the many fans of the Cana­dian Museum of Civ­i­liza­tion, myself included, why the Con­ser­v­a­tives hate pre-Columbian civ­i­liza­tions, for exam­ple? If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

Hon. James Moore (Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage and Offi­cial Lan­guages, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, the NDP is protest­ing a deci­sion that has not even been made or announced. As soon as a deci­sion has been made, I can assure my col­league that he will be among the first to know.

[Eng­lish]

When it comes to our national muse­ums, our gov­ern­ment is very proud of our national muse­ums. They are, indeed, some of the best muse­ums in the world. We have cre­ated two new national muse­ums under our gov­ern­ment: the Cana­dian Museum of Immi­gra­tion at Pier 21 in Hal­i­fax and the Cana­dian Museum for Human Rights in Win­nipeg. We will con­tinue to sup­port our national muse­ums and make them the very best muse­ums in the world.

Mr. Andrew Cash (Dav­en­port, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, indeed, this is the museum of which all Cana­di­ans can be proud. It has shown amaz­ing exhibits from all over the world. What will the focus be now, the Diefen­baker hall of glory—

Some hon. mem­bers: Oh, oh!

The Speaker:

Order, please. I do not think the mem­ber was fin­ished his ques­tion. I will ask mem­bers to hold off their applause until he does so.

The hon. mem­ber for Davenport.

Mr. Andrew Cash:

—or how about the Pre­ston Man­ning beau­ti­ful minds?

Some hon. mem­bers: Oh, oh!

The Speaker:

Order, please. I do not want to have to ask hon. mem­bers once again to hold off on their applause. I hope the hon. mem­ber for Dav­en­port will get to his question.

Mr. Andrew Cash:

Mr. Speaker, the reac­tion under­lines the fact that the Con­ser­v­a­tives are relent­lessly re-branding every­thing in their image and Cana­dian tax­pay­ers are foot­ing the bill for this.

What exactly is it about civ­i­liza­tion that scares the government?

Hon. James Moore (Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage and Offi­cial Lan­guages, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I con­grat­u­late my col­league on finally mak­ing it through a question.

We believe in our national insti­tu­tions. The Cana­dian Museum of Civ­i­liza­tion is a fan­tas­tic museum that has served Cana­di­ans incred­i­bly well. We believe in our national muse­ums. We will build upon the suc­cess of all of our muse­ums going forward.

If we have any changes in mind, I will make sure that he is among the very first to know. If the mem­ber has any ideas, we are open to hear­ing them as well.