New $10 bill featuring Viola Desmond goes into circulation at UBC
Posted November 19, 2018 10:19 am.
Last Updated November 19, 2018 4:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — As a new $10 bill is launched featuring civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond by the Bank of Canada governor in Winnipeg, at least one event is being held locally.
The University of British Columbia has offered a chance for staff and students to exchange their old bills for new ones this afternoon, and to hear from speakers.
Desmond is the first Canadian woman to be featured on a regularly circulating banknote.
Her sister, 91-year-old Wanda Robson, attended the official launch at the Canadian Museum For Human Rights in Winnipeg and said the Queen — who is featured on most Canadian currency — is in good company.
Desmond was arrested after refusing to leave a whites-only section of a theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., in 1946.
Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz, who was also at the bill’s launch in Winnipeg, said it’s all about human rights and social justice.
The banknote also features an image of the museum, an excerpt from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an eagle feather in recognition of Indigenous people.
— with files from The Canadian Press
