Manitoba Museum cancels event after community backlash

The Manitoba museum is pulling the plug on an upcoming event celebrating the first human space flight. CTV’s Daniel Halmarson explains.

The Manitoba Museum has decided to cancel an upcoming event celebrating space exploration after backlash from Winnipeg’s Ukrainian community.

“Yuri’s Night” commemorates Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person to journey into outer space on April 12, 1961.

The date has turned into a celebration of space exploration around the world at museums and science centres. The Manitoba Museum hosted its first “Yuri’s Night” in 2010 with a dance party in the planetarium and other activities to boost public interest in science, technology, and space travel.

The museum took a hiatus from hosting the event following its 2019 party due to the COVID-19 pandemic but had scheduled its return for April 10.

However, for some Ukrainians living in Winnipeg, the name “Yuri’s Night” comes across as a celebration of Russian and Soviet propaganda.

Mila Shykota, who moved to Winnipeg three years ago, says it’s a sensitive subject for people who fled Ukraine for Canada following Russia’s invasion in 2022.

“Because they remember very well how Russia launched missiles and bombs into Ukrainian cities and every single day,” Shykota told CTV News on Wednesday.

Shykota and her friend Oksana Burchak said they were shocked to learn the Manitoba Museum was going to host “Yuri’s Night” next month.

“I was surprised to see his name and his picture, which I know from Soviet school as a symbol together with Lenin,” Burchak told CTV News. “(Gagarin) was the one with the right name, with the right face, and the right biography.”

The two women and other Ukrainian community members reached out to the museum this week to express their dismay over the event. They said even historic symbols can feel inappropriate or painful while the war rages on overseas.

Manitoba Museum CEO Dorota Blumczyńska said they decided to cancel this year’s “Yuri’s Night” following backlash from the community.

“I think it’s really important to stress that this is not a celebration of Yuri or a celebration of Russia,” Blumczyńska told CTV News on Wednesday. “What is occurring abroad right now is extremely distressing and not at all, something that we would in any way, whether intentionally or unintentionally, celebrate.”

Blumczyńska said museum staff will head back to the drawing board to come up with an event that better focuses on space exploration as a whole.

“If our activities are not in fact contributing to a more inclusive future, then it is something that gives us pause,” Blumczyńska said. “And that doesn’t mean whitewashing history. It does not mean avoiding topics which are complicated, complex, and even upsetting. But there is a way that we can do that.”

The Manitoba Museum said anyone who has purchased tickets to the event will be contacted regarding refunds.