It is flatly false. I can tell you that there's no head of any museum in this country, certainly our national museums, who will tell you that I've ever interfered with anything that any of our national museums have ever displayed.
From time to time, whenever there's a controversial item that's on display in a museum, or seen to be controversial by some in this country, I'm often asked, “What do you think of this display, what do you think of that exhibit, what do you think of this item?”, and from time to time I choose to offer my opinion. But at no time can I ever, or would I, as a minister ever tell a museum what they can or cannot display; nor the narrative that they can tell about Canada's history; nor the narrative that they can tell about Canadian science; nor the narrative that they can tell in the National Gallery.
These are independent institutions—protected by law, by the way. You don't have to take my view on this, that, you know, “Trust me, I'm James Moore, the heritage minister, and I won't get involved”. It's the law. The law prevents me or any minister or any member of Parliament or any government from interfering with any of our institutions in the way in which they decide to display their items and their collections. It's just the law.
So as a critique, I have to say it's a pretty weak one, because the evidence is pretty obvious about the fact of how our institutions are established in this country.