In which Moominmama explores the grand metropolis of Winnipeg and finds farm equipment with personality...

Winnipeg is the capital city of the province of Manitoba -- and proud of it. An early explorer gave the town's center the name of "The Forks," after arriving where the Red River forks from the Assiniboine River. The name is still used today, but the Cree name "Winnipeg" also refers to this intersection, as it translates to "mixed waters," according to my tour guide.

The Red River has a rusty color, and the Assiniboine is more green;  the two colors "mix" at the fork. For native people, trappers and early settlers, this intersection made Winnipeg a commercial center with materials traveling by boat from far afield until railroads and highways took over.

This is the heart of Winnipeg, and a nifty restoration project took two old stables and converted them into a hipster market with local food and drink, shops and plenty of seating inside and out, right by the waterways. This proved to be Moominmama's favorite Winnipeg hangout, complete with bad puns (see photo left).

Coming in a close second for great Winnipeg sites is Assiniboine Park, a huge downtown park and zoo. Above is a photo from the English Garden. But the park also features a sculpture garden with the work of a Ukrainian expat, Leo Mol, who settled in Winnipeg after World War II.

By all accounts a generous and successful artist, he's clearly a source of great pride for the community. Moominmama's gripe with Mol centers on the discrepancy between his sculptures of women -- naked, slender, with "perky" breasts -- and the men, all fully clothed and doing manly things: a cowboy, a bush pilot, Moses gesturing to the sky. I did like this sculpture called the Blind Bandurist, playing the Ukrainian bandura.

But the true pride of place in Winnipeg should go to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights because there is no other museum like it "dedicated to the evolution, struggle and future of human rights around the world."

The building was designed by a New Mexico architect, Antoine Predock, who tried to incorporate aspects of the natural world with a beacon of hope at the top. The blue glass panels represent the sweeping sky over Canada. There are grassy slopes to represent the prairie and yellow stone that rises up like mountains at the back.

Visitors are encouraged to start at the bottom level and travel up the ramps (it's designed to be accessible), rising up toward the light.

The display started with a temporary exhibit exploring the neurological and psychological underpinnings of racism, primarily the human need to classify the world and the way this can create blind spots.

What a great introduction to exhibits that looked at the ways humans separate and create categories of people they determine are different from themselves!

Before you can violate human rights, you have to create an "other" who doesn't deserve them. And around the planet, humans have done this over and over again. I need only look at American political and cultural polarization to be afraid this is happening again, as some folks warn of another U.S. "civil war."

Looking at human rights across time and across the planet help you to see the general as well as the specific, and it's not as depressing as you think. Because none of these conflicts last forever, and over time, new groups have gained recognition as entitled to equal rights and opportunities. Peacemakers like Gandhi, a statue of whom stands outside the museum, continue to inspire.

The museum features the voices of real people in its displays, for example looking at the plight of migrant farmworkers who are brought in from Mexico and Central American but do not have the same rights as Canadian workers. Short video clips help you to learn about their lives and challenges.

It also was interesting to learn that Canada now has laws against advocating genocide that came about after a Rwandan man, Leon Mugesera, found safety in Canada despite his role inciting violence against the Tutsi, leading to their massacre.

It took many years, but Canada ultimately deported Mugesera, who faced trial and imprisonment in Rwanda. It is against the law in Canada now to "communicate statements in a public place which incite hatred against an identifiable group, where it is likely to lead to a breach of the peace." Private conversations are exempt and there are other safeguards, namely:

There is no violation if the statements communicated are true. There is no violation if the statements are made in good faith while sharing an opinion on a religious subject or text; or if the discussion is relevant to a subject of public interest and has a public benefit; or if the statements are made in good faith and designed to point out matters producing feelings of hatred.

Finally, judges in Canada have the power to seize propaganda inciting violence against any group, though notice and a hearing is required first. This applies to electronic as well as print materials. Moominmama is a firm supporter of free speech, but even in the United States, we have limits. I can see the value in these limits the Canadians have adopted.

The museum is very thought provoking. Humans will continue to debate what we mean exactly by "human rights," but it's a good discussion to have!

Moominmama is staying at a provincial park about 20 miles northeast of Winnipeg, but even the land here is a story about human rights. The land was cheap in this area because the soil is sandy and not very productive. It was purchased and settled by the poorest Ukrainian and Polish immigrants, who built homesteads that squeaked by on subsistence farming.

When the decision came to make a provincial park in 1964, the land was taken from them by eminent domain or "expropriation" as it's called here (setting aside for the moment that the land was first expropriated from native people.) The scattered families living off the land got the barest of financial compensation. The expropriation process was ultimately found illegal in the courts, but by then, the park was already underway.

Pine Ridge had homes, a store and school and was one of the last communities to be dissolved. The park service preserved the last remaining home, and two college students working there are busily collecting donations of period tools and other objects to show what life would have been like for the Depression-era farmers who lived there.

The piece de resistance is this item below. It is a thresher that was left behind after the Manitoba government seized the land. It looks like a work of art!