The Weston want to buy and donate the bay charter to a museum

The Royal Charter who gave birth to the Hudson Bay Company about 355 years ago could soon have a new home.

The Canadian History Museum announced Wednesday that the Weston family, famous for its Loblaw company, wishes to buy the document and donate it to the institution located in Gatineau.

The Charter was signed by King Charles II in 1670. It gave the Company of rights over a large extent of territory covering most of Canada and an extraordinary power over trade and relations with Aboriginal people for decades.

The museum specifies that the acquisition must still be approved by the court, but that, if this authorization is obtained, the Weston will donate the document immediately and permanently.

At a time when Canada is going through deep challenges and seeks to reconnect with unity, it is more important than ever than we are loyal to symbols and stories that define us as a nationexplain Galen Weston in a declaration.

The royal charter is an important artifact in the complex history of Canada. Our goal is to ensure that it is carefully preserved, shared with integrity and made accessible to all Canadians, in particular those whose history is deeply linked to its inheritance.

His family has built his fortune thanks to channels of stores in Canada, such as Loblaw et Holt Renfrewas well as several European department stores.

As part of its project to buy the charter, the museum indicates that the family had proposed additional funding of $ 1 million to support a significant consultation process with indigenous peoples on the way in which the royal charter can be shared, interpreted and contextualized in a way that respects their historical perspectives and experiences.

This funding will help the museum to explore the means to share the charter with other museums and through public exhibitions.

Caroline Dromaguet, president and general manager of the museum, underlines that this donation is Capital importance for the entire Canadian population et will serve as a catalyst for a national dialogue, for education and for reconciliation, for future generations.

The Weston expressed their interest in the purchase of the charter after the bay has a request for protection against its creditors in March, under the weight of a debt of $ 1.1 billion. They made an official offer in June.

The bay was seduced by the $ 12.5 million offer because it exceededconsiderably The value attributed to the Charter during an insurance assessment carried out in 2022, indicates Adam Zalev, co -founder of the financial consulting firm Reflect Advisorsin a judicial document filed on Wednesday.

The bay has also been sensitive to the offer due to additional funding intended to guarantee access to the charter to indigenous communities and institutions.

The charter was initially to be ceded during a future auction that the bay was preparing to organize with the Heffel gallery in order to sell 2,700 artefacts and 1,700 works of art belonging to the retailer. A request filed Wednesday before the court asks a judge to approve the withdrawal of the charter from any possible auction.

When the bay launched the idea of organizing an auction to get rid of its treasures, this aroused the concern of archive institutions, governments and indigenous groups, in particular the assembly of Manitoba chiefs. They feared that this would not allow pieces in Canadian and Aboriginal history to end up in private hands and out of public view.

To appease their concerns, the bay began to authorize groups to consult the inventory of the collection provided they sign confidentiality agreements.

A source close to the Bay collection, which was not allowed to speak publicly, previously told the Canadian press only paintings, points blankets, paper documents and even collection dolls were part of the treasury. Historians believe that the charter is probably the most coveted object that the retailer owned.

It is undoubtedly their most precious jewelsaid Cody Groathistorian specialist in Canadian and Aboriginal history and chairman of the advisory committee for the memory of the world of theUNESCOduring an interview granted in April.

There is no doubt that this is the most important document to which the Hudson Bay Company has access or that it has ever produced.

Thomas CaldwellChief Executive Officer of the Urbana Investment Management Company established in Toronto, shares this opinion. He brought in the spring to the Canadian press that he was interested in the purchase and donation of the parchment document bearing a royal wax seal at a museum.

At the time, he said that the gift of this play would be more logical for the one who would buy it, because It is very complicated to have a historic object like this in an office or at home.

He had estimated that it should be insured, monitoring it permanently and probably keep it at a specific temperature to preserve it.

For many years, the Hudson Bay Company kept the Royal Charter at its head office in Toronto, although it was temporarily loaned to the Manitoba Museum in 2020.

This museum and the Manitoba archives hold most of the artifacts of the Hudson Bay Company. The company gave them to these organizations in the 1990s, and many thought they would be the natural hosts of the Charter.

We know exactly where she must be in our systemsaid Kathleen Eppconservative of the archives of the Hudson Bay Company of Manitoba, to the Canadian press in April.

We already consider (the charter) as part of our archives, because (…) we have the rest of the story and we therefore think that it is logical that the charter is here and is accessible to the public like any other document.