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Employees from Signex work on the signage for the main entrance to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg Manitoba, September 16, 2014. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights which opens September 20th, is the first national museum to be built in nearly half a century, and the first outside the National Capital Region.LYLE STAFFORD/The Globe and Mail

The Temerty Family Foundation has donated $500,000 to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg to help build a theatre in the section of the institution devoted to the Ukrainian famine.

The foundation, which previously donated $1-million to the museum's capital campaign, is making the second donation for the Breaking the Silence exhibit, which deals with the Holodomor, the 1930s state-sponsored famine in which millions of Ukrainians died.

"I am a proud Ukrainian-Canadian," Toronto businessman James Temerty said. "I'm very aware of what can happen when we don't respect and recognize our differences. I felt compelled to do something useful, to promote this magnificent edifice that will offer visitors an experience that challenges their assumptions and opens their eyes to how we can all make a difference."

Mr. Temerty is the latest donor to top up his contribution as the $351-million institution approaches its grand opening on Friday.

RBC just doubled its original $1-million gift with a donation to the section of the museum about protecting human rights in Canada. Power Corporation of Canada, Great-West Life, London Life, Canada Life and Investors Group have made a collective gift of $1-million, bringing that group's total to $3-million. And the Jim Gauthier Automotive Group has made a new $500,000 donation to pay for an accessible drop-off entrance, bringing its contribution to $1.5-million.

Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the new institution's fundraising arm, has now raised $147.5-million toward the project.

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