April 24, 2017

Community Rallies to Tell Museum of History to Drop Oil Sponsorship

Dozens crash Museum of History AGM to call for the museum to end its relationship with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers

Ottawa, ON – This afternoon, dozens of community members rallied at the Canadian Museum of History’s Annual General Meeting to demand the museum end its relationship with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).

“Fossil fuel lobbyists have no place in respected cultural institutions like the Museum of History,” said Katie Perfitt, Canadian Divestment Organizer with 350.org. “I grew up visiting the museum with my Grandmother, it’s where I first learned about Canada’s Arctic and first saw a totem pole, I don’t want to see this iconic museum tarnished by oil lobbyists like CAPP.”

The group, which includes students, academics, Indigenous peoples and community activists delivered 6000 signatures on a petition demanding an end to the relationship between CAPP and the Museum.

“The Museum of History is no place for climate denial, no place for ignoring Indigenous rights and no place for lobbyists who work to gut Canada’s environmental protections,” Clayton Thomas-Muller, Stop-it-at-the-Source campaigner with 350.org said. “Simply put, the Museum of History is no place for CAPP.”

After presenting the petitions, community members spoke at the AGM, explaining their reasons for opposing CAPP’s sponsorship.

“As a student and a young person whose entire life will be in a climate changed world, I’m paying attention to decisions like the Museum’s,” said Tina Oh, a student at Mount Allison University who spoke to the AGM. “The youth of today care who chooses to get in bed with big oil and who chooses to stand up to them.”

Many also expressed concerns about CAPP’s sponsorship of new Canada History Hall.

“CAPP has been a part of one of the largest attacks on Indigenous rights and culture in recent memory and plastering their logo all over something meant to honour the history of this land is, frankly, beyond offensive,” Thomas-Muller explained.

Read more about the campaign: www.rightsideofhistory.ca

-30-

Contact:

Katie Perfitt, 613 250 0302

Cam Fenton, 604 369 2155, [email protected]

FacebookTwitter