Donors help Bangor Sawmill Museum to open
Museum faced difficulty after its application for student funding was denied
After announcing it wouldn’t be able to open for the summer, some generous donors have stepped forward to ensure the Bangor Saw Mill is able to open its doors and rumble to life.
The sawmill museum in Meteghan River had announced in June that it would be closed indefinitely after its application to the Canada Summer Job program to help fund a student worker was rejected.
At issue, the museum’s directors said, was a clause on the funding application that applicants have to sign saying they support “the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” including “reproductive rights” and the “right to access safe and legal abortions.”
Gerald Comeau, a member of the board that runs the museum, said the museum didn’t sign the clause because it didn’t want to involve itself in any abortion debate.
“I don’t think it’s our role as a museum to get into that kind of stuff at all,” he said at the time.
Even though the museum’s application did affirm its respect for human rights in Canada, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the application was denied, Comeau said.
Without a student worker, the museum’s volunteers weren’t able to staff the museum enough hours themselves to have it open full-time for the summer tourism season.
But upon hearing of the museum’s plight through media reports, three generous donors came forward to help the mu- seum hire its student worker. The three donors are Stephen Funtig of Windsor, Ontario; Lou MacEachern of Calgary and Robert (Bob) Dick from Winnipeg. The latter donor told CBC News his decision to provide support had nothing to do with his be- liefs surrounding the clause, but rather what he saw as an abuse of power by the government to deny the museum funding to hire a student.
In a media release, Bangor Commission president Lawrence Theriault expressed his apprecia- tion to the three benefactors who are helping to keep the sawmill museum open to the public.
“Our volunteers, who had been discouraged by the rejection of our application, are pleased to continue donating their time and effort to the museum,” he said.