science centers

lesley wanted me to post something about science centers since sid and i have been to very many of them since st johns (including two in st johns) however, i want to talk about louis riel and the way history is written

riel is big in winnipeg. he is a "historically important person".
It's kind a like how there is a malcolm X street in harlam. They celebrate him but they don't really want to talk about him

now to be clear, i did not really see the francophone depiction of riel while in winnipeg and next time I go will go see the St Boniface museum and his grave, rather than his family home (which we went to because it is part of parks canada, and dammit, we bought a pass for parks canada so i gotta use it)

in english speaking manitoba, they talk a lot about riel, but they don't really - there is a bridge named after him, and many streets. he is said to be the "father of manitoba". He is a leader of the metis.

what they don't talk about - well, they don't mention that the manitoba provisional government was comprised of metis, francophones and anglo farmers - a cross racial alliance against a cold hearted colonial canadian government. They don't talk about how Canada ignored the initial pleas for the crazy radical demand of a local decision making structure (a provincial parliament) or how the government used the uprising to expedite railway building and to justify the formation of a national police force (which had as a primary purpose dealing with dissent amongst First Nations). They don't talk about how in the second uprising  - the northwest uprising, a gatling gun was used - one of the first uses of a machine gun in open warfare, and how in the aftermath of the second uprising eight First Nations leaders were executed, despite their being no evidence as to their involvement in the uprising (see "Loyal till Death - Indians and the North-West Rebellion" by Blair Stonechild and Bill Waiser).

Official history cannot completely ignore the resistance that creates change, so it celebrates the organizers, while trying to minimize the actuality of their struggle. Weird


as to science centers? We went to two in St Johns, and one in Regina. We also visited a little nature center in Quebec City. Regina wins out - despite the exhibit on the joys and wonders of uranium mining - lots of hands on stuff for the kids and i got to design an expedition to mars (which was foiled by eco-saboteurs from the "mars first" movement - aka the sci fi book "Green Mars")