http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Human-rights-museum-under-fire-for--249306751.html
WFP
10Mar2014
Human-rights museum under fire for alleged censorship
By: Bartley Kives
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is weathering a censorship allegation after deleting a blog post it commissioned from a Tyrell medal-winning Canadian historian.
To coincide with International Women’s Day, the Winnipeg-based museum asked Veronica Strong-Boag, a historian specializing in the history of women and children in Canada, to pen a blog post in her area of expertise.
The post appeared on March 4, but was removed hours later after museum staff deemed a passage criticizing the federal Conservative government unacceptable.
The passage in question described the Conservatives as having an "anti-woman record." She said museum staff first asked her to back up that claim, but ultimately rejected a footnoted posting as a partisan statement.
In a letter to Strong-Boag, museum communications director Angela Cassie apologized for failing to explain what was expected from blog-post authors.
"We will more clearly ask that guest blogs consist of anecdotal accounts of first-person experiences that illuminate human rights themes," Cassie wrote. "We also make efforts to ensure that guest blogs not be used as, or be perceived as, a platform for political positions or partisan statements."
In a response letter, Strong-Boag called Cassie’s statement "naive and pedagogically unsound" for a museum "supposedly dedicated" to promoting human rights.
[ . . . ]
Strong-Boag is a visiting scholar at Trent University, a professor emerita at University of British Columbia, a former president of the Canadian Historical Association and the 2012 winner of the Tyrell medal for outstanding work in Canadian history.
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