{4:4 MUSEE CANADIEN DES 
rte: CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION
100, RUE LAURIER STREET
GATINEAU, QC 0M8

February 2, 2012

T0: Matthew Betts, Jerome Cybulski, Jean-Luc Pilon, Terence Clark, Yves Monette and Patricia
Sutherland

am writing in response to your letter (on which I was copied) ofJanuary 31, 2012, sent to the
"Executive Committee, This letter should have been sent to me alone, as your director. However
as it was not, I am responding on behalf of the Executive Committee. Before we get to specific content,
you should know that I find your actions, in going over my head, both completely unacceptable and
extremely troubling.

With regard to the content of your letter, your objections to CMCs acquisition of the Empress of Ireland
collection are based on numerous errors and misunderstandings. Your points can be grouped under
several headings.

The Legal Situation

You charge that Mr Beaudry, in acquiring the collection in the first place, did so in contravention of the
Quebec Cultural Property Act (Loisur Ies bien culture/s). You acknowledge that he is the legal owner but
charge that he took items from an archaeological site (the wreck) without the necessary permission.

The Museum investigated the legal situation with regard to Mr Beaudry?s work several years ago, and
the results were discussed with staff. in a legal opinion dated March 19, 2008, it was concluded that Mr
Beaudry?s work was undertaken at a time when the wreck was not protected by Canadian or Quebec
law, that is prior to April, 1998, when the wreck was classified or registered under the same Quebec
Cultural Property Act you cite. The Quebec Government registered the wreck apparently in response to
a public outcry over the planned demolition of the Empress to acquire some of the teak panelling within
it. Mr Beaudry was one of the main proponents urging the government to register the wreck. He asserts,
and we have no cause to doubt, that all of his collection was recovered from the wreck site prior to this
date. He had no permit because none was required.

The long delay in legal protection for the Empress may be regrettable, conditioned I understand by some
legal confusion as to whether the wreck fell within federal or provincial jurisdiction. Be that as it may,
both the ethical and the legal situation with regards to the collection is exactly like that of any
archaeological collection offered to the Museum, that was excavated prior to the establishment of a
local (provincial) permit system. We regularly accept such collections.

civilisations.ca
civilization.ca

 

Contravention of Policy and Protocols

You cite a number of international or national museum ethical guidelines that you believe the
acquisition of this collection contravenes. Chief among these is the ICOM code of professional ethics,
which stipulates that museums "may not acquire objects where there is a reasonable cause to believe
their recovery involved unauthorized or unscientific fieldwork, or intentional (Article 2.4)

Any serious museum professional would agree that the rigid application ofthis rule is both impossible
and undesirable. Even ICOM recognizes this in Article 2.9, which states that exceptions may be made in
exceptional circumstances. The Museum believes that this is an exceptional circumstance (although no
more exceptional that all of those archaeological collections we acquire that were unearthed prior to
the establishment of permit systems). We have no knowledge that Mr Beaud ry engaged in intentional
destruction.

Your other citations to ICOM and the Ethical Guidelines of the Canadian Museum Association are either
redundant, incorrect, or beg the point they are trying to make. For example you cite Article 8, to
the effect that members of the museum profession should observe accepted standards and uphold the
dignity of their profession. To make your point you need to demonstrate that CMCs acquisition of this
collection would violate this dignity. We do not agree that it does.

We are not acquiring the collection "for trading purposes.?

Much more serious is the citation "Members of the museum profession should not support the illicit
traffic or market in property? (ICOM 8.2). The implications you are making in this statement
are completely false as CMC is not engaging in any illicit activity.

CMC rarely purchases archaeological collections. However, in this case, the advantages to Canadian
heritage of CMC acquiring this collection far outweigh any negative "monetary" considerations. Indeed
informal inquiry indicates that most or all other large Canadian museums sometimes purchase
archaeological collections. A very relevant case in point is the Royal Alberta Museum, which recently
purchased Empress of Ireland objects from Philippe Beaudry and put them on exhibit, without any
ethical outcry or transgression of professional dignity.

General Assertions

You assert that the Beaudry collection includes human remains. Mr Beaudry has denied this, and a
three-person CMC team who inventoried his collection last year saw no human remains, nor evidence
that there ever were any.

You also assert "whereas archaeological patrimony is a non-renewable resource and that the looting of

an archaeological site results in its As previously explained, the implication that looting
took place is unfounded.

?Whereas the acquisition of this collection by the CMCC will create a Canadian precedent? . This
statement is also untrue.

Parks Canada and the General Position of the Government of Canada

I did meet with Parks Canada staff, and Yves Monette, to hear their objections to this proposed
acquisition (in 2010). I agreed to arrange a meeting between Larry Ostola, VP at Parks and a responsible
spokesman, and either Moira McCaffrey or Victor Rabinovitch at CMC, to discuss. However in

preparation for this meeting I spoke with Larry Ostola myself, and he assured me that Parks Canada has
no objections to this acquisition, especially by CMC as a national public museum. He, and Parks Canada,

agreed with us that CMC was in fact the most appropriate home for this collection. I suggested he speak
to his staff.

The idea that CMC is the most appropriate home for the Empress collection is shared by other branches
of government. Mr Beaudry twice attempted to sell his collection, or parts of it, in the United States,
and was blocked by the Canadian Cultural Properties Export Review Board. This block was a temporary
measure, undertaken while CCPERB attempted to find a suitable Canadian purchaser. Beaudry lost his

buyer and CCPERB failed to find a purchaser. CCPERB has remained completely supportive of acquisition
of the collection by CMC.

CMCs Ethical Position

The Ethics Guidelines of the Canadian Museums Association (C.2) states that it is ethical for museums to
acquire ?illegally or unscientifically collected? material if required by a responsible government authority
for the safety of the objects. Passing over the issue of "illegally or unscientifically collected,? as a Crown
Corporation and Canada?s national history museum, CMC is a responsible government authority, and
along with CCPERB, the main government authority on objects of cultural patrimony. It is in order to
protect the Beaudry Empress of Ireland collection that CMC is acquiring it, with the full support and
approval of our Board of Trustees. The collection is of national historic interest and significance. It is
currently in the possession of the private individual who collected it from the wreck site in the first
place. His has stated intention is to sell it, wherever he can if he must. CMC has canvassed other
Canadian museums; we are the only public museum with the means and interest in acquiring it. The
options, then, are:

1) It is acquired by CMC, to be researched, housed, conserved, exhibited and otherwise made
available to the general public, as a national historic asset and part of our National Collection.

2) The collection is broken up and sold to private buyers in Canada and the United States, and is
lost irretrievably.

CMC has a mandated obligation to choose the first option.

   

I hope this clarifies the s' 

David Morrison 
Director of Archaeology and History

Canadian Museum of Civilization

cc Xavier Gelinas,

Chair, Acquisitions Committee