Respect and dignity

This museum is intended to bring people together. It is a space to explore human rights issues and inspire action for a better world. We invite you to help us create a welcoming environment that promotes these goals.

We imagine a world where everyone values human rights and takes responsibility to promote respect and dignity for all. This extends to the way we treat each other as employees, volunteers and visitors (both in person and online).

We welcome the exchange of ideas through respectful discussion that advances understanding about human rights. Anyone whose conduct is abusive, disruptive or disrespectful (see examples below) may be asked to leave our building. We also reserve the right to remove social media posts that violate this code of conduct – and to permanently block serious or repeat offenders.

Museum principles

While diverse perspectives are welcome, the Museum is committed to the fundamental principle that all human beings are born equal in dignity and rights. Flowing from that principle, the Museum recognizes the following as facts:

• Racism, discrimination and oppression exist in our society and in its institutions. These issues are often systemic and reflect the reality of white privilege. This is wrong and requires a shared community commitment to change.
• Many human rights violations of the past continue to affect people today and must continue to be addressed.
• The colonial experience in Canada, from first contact to the present, constitutes genocide against Indigenous people. The Indian residential school system was a key component of this genocide.
• People with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions are entitled to equity in rights, respect and opportunity.
• Full accessibility for people of all abilities is a necessary goal for the Museum and for all of society that has yet to be achieved.
• All content in the Museum is based on objective and credible research.

Unacceptable behaviours

Behaviours that are not accepted may include (but are not limited to):

• Personal attacks, including abusive, aggressive, harassing or threatening behaviour, including comments, gestures and physical contact.
• Racism and discrimination: targeting an identifiable group of people (or members of that group) with hateful or abusive comments. This includes generalizations about people based on (but not limited to) attributes such as race, nationality, ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics or disability. 
• Inciting hate in any way towards another person or group.
• Offensive language, including inflammatory comments. This includes offensive language on clothing or personal items.
• Illegal or unsafe activities, including violence, harassment, defamation, obscenity, pornography, misrepresentation, creating a disturbance, damaging property, using alcohol or tobacco where not permitted, using recreational drugs or infringing on the rights of a third party.
• Spam, irrelevant comments and misinformation (online). Social media posts that are repetitive, promote a product or service, advertise or promote a political party or candidate, have no relevance to the topic being discussed, or that constitute misinformation, will be removed.

Inclusive washrooms

As of May 17, 2022, all Museum washrooms are gender‐inclusive. Information about amenities in each washroom is available to make a choice accordingly.

This decision is rooted in our work to be a place where everyone is respected and welcomed, including transgender people, those of genders and gender expressions that don’t align with the binary categories of “man” and “woman”, as well as caregivers and families. More information available on our Accessibility page.

Please note that this code of conduct is regularly reviewed and may be subject to ongoing revision.