All Stories: Ready to explore?
Human rights stories are all around us. We explore contemporary and historic human rights stories, from Canada and around the world.
Stories listing
Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
By Karine Duhamel
Tags for Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

“A cauldron of hell”: The story of Canada’s Hong Kong veterans
By Matthew McRae
Tags for “A cauldron of hell”: The story of Canada’s Hong Kong veterans

Truth and reconciliation: What’s next?
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
Tags for Truth and reconciliation: What’s next?

Lighting the flame
By Rhea Yates, Manager, Digital Outreach
Tags for Lighting the flame

Exploring women’s rights and gender equality
By Chloe Rew, Program Interpreter
Tags for Exploring women’s rights and gender equality

Four freedoms: The power of objects
By Jeremy Maron
Tags for Four freedoms: The power of objects

The Chinese head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act
By Matthew McRae
Tags for The Chinese head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act

Japanese Canadian internment and the struggle for redress
By Matthew McRae
Tags for Japanese Canadian internment and the struggle for redress

The story of the Komagata Maru
By Matthew McRae
Tags for The story of the Komagata Maru

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
By Armando Perla
Tags for The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms


Approaching the human rights stories of Indigenous peoples
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
Tags for Approaching the human rights stories of Indigenous peoples

The nuts and bolts of reconciliation
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
Tags for The nuts and bolts of reconciliation

Why reconciliation? Why now?
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
Tags for Why reconciliation? Why now?



Reconciliation: A movement of hope or a movement of guilt?
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
Tags for Reconciliation: A movement of hope or a movement of guilt?


Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
By Karine Duhamel
On September 13, 2017, people around the world will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

“A cauldron of hell”: The story of Canada’s Hong Kong veterans
By Matthew McRae
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese army launched an attack on the then‐British colony of Hong Kong, located in Southern China.

Truth and reconciliation: What’s next?
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
This article series has focused on the way we present Indigenous content within the Museum and how we are approaching reconciliation.

Lighting the flame
By Rhea Yates, Manager, Digital Outreach
Fifty years ago, 10 young Indigenous athletes ran an 800‐kilometre relay from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, carrying the torch that would open the 1967 Pan American Games.

Exploring women’s rights and gender equality
By Chloe Rew, Program Interpreter
If I were alive in Canada before 1929, I would not have been considered a person. “Persons” under the British North America Act referred only to men.

Four freedoms: The power of objects
By Jeremy Maron
In his January 1941 State of the Union address, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt articulated four fundamental freedoms that everyone in the world ought to be able to enjoy – freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom from fear and freedom from want.

The Chinese head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act
By Matthew McRae
When he was a little boy growing up in Vancouver, Dr. Henry Yu didn’t understand why his grandfather frequently took him on long walks to visit Chinatown.

Japanese Canadian internment and the struggle for redress
By Matthew McRae
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Lena Hayakawa lived what she describes as a very idyllic life.

The story of the Komagata Maru
By Matthew McRae
When Nimrat Randhawa and her family immigrated to Canada in the summer of 2003, they arrived completely in the dark – literally.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
By Armando Perla
The cornerstone of human rights protection in Canada is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter forms part of Canada’s Constitution and came into being on April 17, 1982.

The story of Africville
By Matthew McRae
If you’ve never heard of Africville, you’re not alone; the tragic story of this small Black community in Nova Scotia is not as well known as it should be.

Approaching the human rights stories of Indigenous peoples
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
This article focuses on the creation and development of exhibition content exploring the human rights stories of Indigenous people in this country. To tell these stories, the Museum engaged with communities and individuals in a process of truth‐telling.

The nuts and bolts of reconciliation
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
As a child, I often visited museums. I was lucky to be able to travel with my family, and to visit interpretive spaces across the country.

Why reconciliation? Why now?
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
Since the publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final report in 2015, more and more Canadians seem focused on the idea of reconciliation.



Reconciliation: A movement of hope or a movement of guilt?
By Karine Duhamel, Researcher-Curator, Indigenous Content
In Why reconciliation? Why now? I talked about the idea of reconciliation as an invitation to a new and shared future and as a pathway towards a good life, both for Indigenous people and for other Canadians.

A Universal commitment
Discover the people of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

What does being Canadian mean to you?
What do you value about being Canadian? How has Canada shaped you? Watch stories about what Canada means to the people who live here, or record a video to share your own!
