We here at Halifax Live are delighted that Ottawa is moving forward with funding for the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights.  Although we suspect that Winnipeggers would rather have their hockey team back, we never the less congratulate the citizens of that fair city on their new cultural attraction.

One thing that puzzles us however is why American architect  Antoine Predock chose to model the new building on the Pickelhaube, the Prussian designed helmet worn by German soldiers up until the middle of the first World War.

While it is possible that Mr. Predock is a fan of Wilhelm Friedrich IV (or Freddy to his British friends), the Prussian king who supposedly designed (some argue that he stole the concept from a Russian drawing) and instituted the helmet as standard headgear for the Prussian army, it is far more likely that the esteemed architect appears to be suffering from historical amnesia.

Mind you, it could have been worse. Luckily, Mr Predock did not choose the Pickelhaube’s successor, the Stahlhelm, as his inspiration. Given that part of the museum will likely be dedicated to documenting the holocaust, such a move would have been an even greater faux pas.

Still, by inadvertently using a militaristic icon as a model for his design Mr. Predock has provided us with a possible nickname for the new building: fellow Canadians, lets get ready to visit the ‘Pickle’.