Local News
Valedictory speech delivered to graduating medical students sets off storm of controversy
By BERNIE BELLAN A valedictory speech delivered to the 2024 class of medical school students graduating from the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba on Thursday, May 16, has set off a storm of controversy.
During his 10-minute speech, Dr. Gem Newman, who described himself as a “pasty-faced white man,” veered into a strongly worded criticism of Israel toward the end of his approximate 10-minute speech.
Here are the comments he made with respect to Israel’s war in Gaza:
“I call on my fellow graduates to oppose injustice -and violence – individual and systemic. I call upon you to oppose settler colonialism, both at home and abroad. I call upon you to stand in solidarity with Indigenous people everywhere, here in Treaty One Territory, where an Indigenous man can expect a life ten years shorter than mine – and in Palestine (ed. note: loud cheers erupted at that point from among the students), where Israel’s deliberate targeting of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure has led to more than 35,000 deaths and widespread famine and disease.
“Many medical organizations, including the W.H.O. and Medecins sans Frontiere, and countless unions, including the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union, have repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza, while there has been deafening silence from the Canadian Medical Association, Doctors Manitoba and PARIM (Professional Association of Interns and Residents of Manitoba), and so I call upon you to join me in calling for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza. Join me in calling for unrestricted humanitarian and medical aid in Gaza. Join me in calling for an end to the targeting of medical facilities, medical staff, and journalists.
“I’m sure that some of you here today are worried that you may face censure for speaking out against the genocidal war that Israel is waging upon the people of Palestine, that it could jeopardize your career before it’s even begun. I understand that fear…”
Dr. Newman’s speech was greeted with a standing ovation from his fellow graduating doctors.
The next day, the dean of the Rady College of Medicine, Dr. Peter Nickerson, issued a strongly worded criticism of Dr. Newman’s remarks:
Yesterday, we celebrated the convocation of 106 new physicians. We came together with our friends and family to celebrate a diverse group of individuals who are beginning their career as doctors.
Part of our convocation tradition in the Max Rady College of Medicine is to hear an address from the class valedictorian. This has historically been an encouraging, congratulatory message and not a political platform. The speech is an honour and is meant to highlight, showcase and celebrate the academic excellence, resiliency and determination of every student, no matter their background.
I have heard from individuals who were present yesterday and who were disappointed and alarmed by the political message in the valedictorian’s address. I share these concerns. I, too, am disappointed that the address was delivered in a way that didn’t represent all students and that was disrespectful to some audience members who were there to celebrate and be celebrated. This isn’t the purpose of a valedictorian address and the speech should have better reflected shared experiences, successes and a commitment to serve all communities.
The valedictorian was expressing his own views, and this was not a message vetted or endorsed in any way by the College.
The University of Manitoba is steadfast in its commitment to freedom of expression; both speech and counter-speech are equally protected. However, freedom of expression has limits and comes with responsibilities. It is my view as Dean that a convocation address is different than a classroom setting, different than an opinion piece in a newspaper – it is an academic celebration for a diverse community. Statements made in this address were divisive and inflammatory. They should be taken as the views of one student, and do not reflect the views of the College nor the diverse perspectives of its students.
As we continue our convocation events, may we be mindful of the diversity of our community, our common humanity, and the purpose of these celebrations.
Dr. Peter Nickerson
Vice-Provost (Health Sciences)
Dean, Max Rady College of Medicine
Dean, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Manitoba
On Monday, May 20, Ernest Rady, who made a donation of $30 million to the University of Manitoba in 2016 – the largest single donation to the university in its history, and whose father, Max Rady, now has his name on the “Rady Faculty of Health Sciences” and the “Max Rady College of Medicine,” sent the following email in response to Dr. Newman’s remarks:
Via Email
University of Manitoba
Dr. Michael Benarroch, President and Vice-Chancellor
Dr. Peter Nickerson, Dean, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Re: Max Rady College of Medicine Convocation Speech by Valedictorian
Michael and Peter:
I write to you today because I was both hurt and appalled by the remarks the valedictorian, Gem Newman, gave at last week’s Max Rady College of Medicine convocation, and I was extremely disappointed in the University’s inadequate response. I have been fortunate in my life to be able to support the causes close to my heart, including the University of Manitoba. As you know, when Evelyn and I donated $30 million to the University’s Faculty of Health Sciences in 2016, that gift was in honor of my parents, and in particular, the gift to the College of Medicine was in honor of my father, Maxwell Rady. Newman’s speech not only dishonored the memory of my father, but also disrespected and disparaged Jewish people as a whole, including the Jewish students who were in attendance at that convocation – some of whom I’ve heard from.
My father, born Avraham (Hebrew for Abraham) Radiskevich, immigrated to Manitoba from Russia in 1893. He, like so many other Jews, fled religious persecution, seeking a better life in Canada. He was lucky. Millions of others – whether during the Russian pogroms, the Holocaust, or the countless other purges of my people throughout history – were not so fortunate. Those horrors were made possible because of a set of beliefs (stereotypes and tropes) so entrenched and pervasive as to be taken as fact.
That same set of beliefs allowed the University of Manitoba to justify its decision to impose admissions quotas to keep Jews out. Despite those quotas, my father was one of the very few of his faith to be admitted to the University’s medical school, which is now named in his honor.
And yet, the University allowed the Max Rady College of Medicine’s valedictorian to spew these hateful lies to a captive audience, and now posts that antisemitic rhetoric on its website for all to see. And the University’s only response is a lukewarm message posted elsewhere on its website about differing opinions and appropriateness of setting for expressing such “opinions.”
Having seen where this kind of speech (and the excuses made for it) have led in the past, I cannot be silent. When I make a gift to an institution, I do it because I believe in that institution and I trust its governing body to do important, significant, and good work with that money. I therefore make it a point not to intervene or tell an institution what it should or should not do. But in this instance, by remaining silent, I would be complicit. So I am speaking out now because I must. Because so many like Gem Newman and the students cheering in the audience and the University itself, whose response to what is happening on its campus has been inadequate, may not even realize all the realities of the situation. The issues are far too complex for a mere letter, and I should not have to be the one to point this out; nonetheless, apparently it bears emphasizing. It is very easy for individuals like Mr. Newman to spout slogans and quips like “settler colonialism” and “genocidal war,” but if they do not take the time to understand the very long, complex, and nuanced history behind what is happening in the world today, then not only are they intellectually dishonest, but they are perpetuating the same harms that have existed for centuries. Those words are not political opinion. They are hate speech and they are lies. They espouse the same age-old prejudices about Jewish omnipotence and thirst for domination that have been used for centuries to justify the atrocities committed against this religious group, which makes up less than 0.2% of the world’s population and 1.4% of Canada’s.
By failing to call out Gem Newton’s words for what they are, the University is no better.
Having failed to vet the valedictorian’s speech in advance (despite the patent risk that something like this would likely occur, given what has happened at other universities), I beg that the University of Manitoba step up and finally do the right thing. Take down the convocation video and do not repost it unless the valedictorian’s entire speech is removed. Post a revised letter from the dean, not only on UM News, but on the same page as the edited video. Condemn, in no uncertain terms, Gem Newman’s remarks. Acknowledge that they were not only inaccurate, but flat-out lies, that they were hurtful to the University’s Jewish students and all people of the Jewish faith, and that the remarks do not have a place in any setting at the University. Denounce antisemitism in all forms it takes, even in its latest iteration as espoused by your valedictorian.
Advocating for the protection of one group of people, while in the same breath calling for the destruction and elimination of another, is not advocacy. It is hate. It is the very opposite of the words that your graduates spoke last week when they recited the Physician’s Pledge, vowing not to permit considerations of creed and ethnic origin to intervene between their duty and their patient.
Be as bold as you tell your students to be. Do the right thing: Speak out unequivocally. Take action. Do not be like all of those who came before you, acquiescing to prejudice and hatred because you do not want to ruffle feathers, or worse, because you believe it is justified.
Ernest Rady
Cc: Anne Mahon, Chancellor
Local News
Interviews with the curator of the Nakba exhibit and the CEO of the Human Rights Museum
By BERNIE BELLAN On June 26, I was invited to attend the Canadian Museum for Human Right to see the Nakba exhibit prior to its being opened to the public. While I was there I was given the opportunity to interview the curator for the exhibit, Isabelle Masson, along with CMHR CEO Isha Khan. What follows are the transcripts of those interviews (edited only to remove pause words like “uh” and phrases the were repeated). The first interview was with Isabelle Masson:
Jewish Post: Several representatives of Winnipeg Jewish community organization say that they weren’t fairly consulted on this exhibit. How do you respond to that?
Isabell
Masson: We came to this project with an awareness that Palestinian voices are often marginalized, even silenced, and an awareness that Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism have an impact on whose voice is heard and whose suffering is recognized. And so we intentionally chose to centre Palestinian voices with this exhibition.
JP: But to the point that many Jewish representatives of organizations and people within the community at large feel that the Jewish community should have been consulted on an issue that had such a direct impact on the Jewish community – did you not feel an obligation to consult with the Jewish community?
Masson: I think the best person to talk further about this issue is our CEO, Isha.
JP: In terms of the exhibit itself, I must say it really stresses the suffering that Palestinians have endured. But, in looking at other refugee situations around the world, the Palestinian situation seems to me to be unique in that there has never been an effort to resettle Palestinians within the countries to which they were forced to flee.
Do you not think that separates their situation (from other refugee situations) and, in some ways, it has made their situation worse than it could have been?
Masson: Well, the exhibit not only centres that experience of forced displacement and disposition as a longstanding experience across five generation that you know is tied to human rights violations that are ongoing today, but it also I want to point out, you know, foregrounds beauty, foregrounds resilience, foregrounds the maintenance of identity and belonging across time and across that experience. So there’s also these elements about this exhibition because it was also about humanizing Palestinians – about people with families with stories, with creativity – and coming back to some of the videos what interviewees say, right, we hope that Palestinians can be seen as fully human and hope that they can see Palestinians as having human rights and this this story today in this gallery is is a story about human rights.
JP: If I can focus on one particular aspect of the exhibit that I read this morning when I was sent the preview, it referred to what happened between the years 2000 and 2005 as a Palestinian uprising. But the Israeli term would be the Intifada which for them meant large-scale attacks – terrorist bombings by some Palestinians. Did you not think it necessary to include that in a larger context?
Masson: Well, we use uprising because it’s the most more accessible term in the exhibition and we, you know, we’re focusing really here on an artwork by artists – Palestinian American artist Reggie Cook and with an artwork that was trying to translate the experience of of occupation into what is created. So that’s the context in which we talk about that.
JP: But to ignore what happened during the uprising seems to me to leave out a major part of the context.
Masson: I don’t think that we are ignoring that. This exhibit is not about the full story of what has happened in Palestine, in Israel. It’s not, you know, the scope of this small exhibition. This small exhibition has a scope and the scope was really to create an opportunity and a place for Canadians to be able to encounter Palestinian Canadians and hear their voices.
JP: Given the current mood in the Middle East and the ongoing tensions between Israel and various other actors, the concern among many in the Jewish community that this is going to lead to a heightening of antisemitism and an exhibit like this seems that it it’s not going to do much to improve relations between Jews and Palestinians when it focuses on only one side of the story. How do you respond to that?
Masson: Well, this is only one exhibit of of many, of many stories that we have.
Following is my interview with Isha Khan. Khan began by explaining that she is “the CEO at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and I’ve been here as CEO of the museum since August of 2020. So almost six years.”
JP: So let’s get right down to discussing (the exhibit). I spoke to the curator. I asked a lot of questions about the exhibit itself. I’m more interested in asking (you) about the general context and the atmosphere in the community. The accusation has been made repeatedly by various leaders of Jewish organizations that you have not been willing to consult on this exhibit. How do you respond to that?
Khan: I think the word consult can mean many things. We have a community engagement practice. So for us that means that depending on the scope of the exhibit and this exhibit is about Palestinian Canadians and their experiences, the impacts of the human rights impacts, of forced displacement, which means we engage with that community as we share their stories. Many folks in the Jewish community will say we haven’t consulted with them and yet we have met with leaders of Jewish organizations from across Canada, main uh, major federations, foundations, local Jewish organization representatives many times to talk about this exhibit, to explain what its scope is, what it’s about, what it’s intended to do, and most importantly, what it isn’t. And unfortunately there continues to be misconceptions about what it is. So we hope people will come and see it.
JP: I think the fear in the community – and I think it’s well founded is that this will foment an increase in antisemitism. Can you understand that concern?
Khan: Absolutely. I personally and any member of our team who’s talked to folks about this has said that we unequivocally share the concern about antisemitism in Canada today. That is part of our mandate. And we will continue to do that work and we can also share these stories of Palestinian Canadians – you know, telling the story of one community’s human rights violation in no way should negate or minimize the experience of another community. That’s what this museum was designed to do….designed to build understanding of shared humanity and that’s what we believe we’re doing responsibly.
JP: Just before I began this interview, I was taken (down to the fourth floor; the Nakba exhibit is on the fifth floor) to see the gallery of other human rights violations. I’m not sure what it’s called. (It’s where there is a ) recitation of various human rights violations, including what happened in 1947 and 1948 (in Palestine). They offer passing reference to the displacement of both Jewish and Palestinian refugees. Would you consider ever having an exhibit about the displacement of Jewish refugees from Arab lands in 1948 and subsequent years?
Khan: We would absolutely consider it and in fact have shared with leaders of the Jewish organizations months ago that yes, these are important stories that need to be told (and) invited them to work constructively with us on developing that content. Unfortunately we didn’t really receive much response.
JP: How long is this exhibit supposed to be on for?
Khan: So this exhibit right now we’re saying is a minimum of two years. That’s because it is an exhibit in a standing gallery and so it also depends on our updating of our other galleries and, you know, exhibits take a bit of time. This one is four years in the making and so we’ve just committed that it’ll be a minimum of two years and we’ll see where things go.
JP: There are a lot of other refugee situations in the world – (for instance) South Sudan, and just this morning I was saying to Isabelle that I received an email about the situation for people from Burundi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
I didn’t realize that was a problem. I know that the Congo has had ongoing problems with displacement of populations. It it seems to me it’s not an unlimited number of stories like this you could tell, but there are a lot of others. How do you decide which ones take priority?
Khan: We’re often asked the question of how we decide, and it comes back to how this museum is designed. Each gallery is intended to tell a different story. It has an objective. So this exhibit, Palestine Uprooted, is in our Rights Today gallery. It’s to talk about global human rights issues. And we know that people want to better understand human rights of Palestinians. There’s no question. It’s being talked about, debated, discussed all over the world. And so we’re being responsive there to that need. And we know that Palestinian experiences were under represented in our galleries and have heard that for years. To your point though that there are other stories – the design of this museum is that you ought to be able to feel something, understand something about the forced displacement of one community and apply it to another. So now this story stands along the forced displacement of the Rwanda people, indigenous peoples, Ukrainian people, the Igbo people. You’ve named a number of others that we do need to develop content on over time, but it’s done depending on what gallery it is, what we are trying to invoke…because we’ll never be the encyclopedia of all human rights atrocities in the world. That’s actually why we’re called the Canadian Museum for Human Rights rather than the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.
We’re here to to develop an understanding through the stories that will impact people.
JP: Okay. I want to ask a politically loaded question.
Khan: Okay.
JP: The Jewish population of Canada is at best 450,000. In that range, Jews don’t have the political impact that they used to. At most, there are 12 to 16 ridings where the Jewish vote can make a difference. The Muslim population has grown substantially. It has a much larger political impact. Did that factor in to this exhibit being mounted in any way?
Khan: Absolutely not.
JP: So, I’ll ask the question that I asked the curator of the exhibit. Where did the impetus for this come from? Did it come from Palestinian Canadians?
Khan: The this exhibit came from a recognition, our decision. I hold responsibility ultimately for the decisions made by my team. It was made based on the recognition that Palestinian experiences were under represented in this museum. We absolutely heard from the Palestinian community organizations in Canada and had heard for many years that their stories were underrepresented. Ultimately, the decision was ours. And as we look at this gallery and updating our content, this is ‘rights today’ – global human rights. We know that the world is talking about Palestinian human rights and the stories of Palestinian Canadians naturally belong in our collective memory alongside many other stories that are told here.
JP: There was one particular aspect on one of the panels when I was sent a preview this morning and it referred to the Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005 which led to a lot of Israeli deaths that we generally refer to as the Intifada. Um there’s no mention of Israeli deaths on that panel. Would you agree that that might have been an oversight?
Khan: I mean I know that there the factual point is absolutely accurate. The decisions on the curation of the exhibit are not ones that I make, but certainly if that is a concern that we will look at.
Local News
Nakba exhbit at CMHR now open – here’s what it looks like
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted June 26)The following press release was sent to me early Friday morning June 26 (Photos supplied by Annie Kierans, CMHR) Nothing that follows has been edited. I leave it to you to form your own opinion:
Winnipeg, MB — June 26, 2026 — The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will open a new exhibit tomorrow that explores human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinian Canadians.
Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present will be on display in the Rights Today gallery on Level 5 until 2028. Featuring personal stories told through artifacts and video testimonies, the exhibit presents Palestinian Canadians reflecting on their ongoing struggle for human rights. The small exhibit reveals enduring patterns of loss and resilience, helping visitors understand more about this contemporary human rights story.
Palestinian Canadian stories are now included alongside many other stories of forced displacement and human rights violations featured in the Museum’s galleries. Each of these stories contribute to our visitors understanding of human rights and help the Museum fulfill its mandate to foster reflection and dialogue.
Exhibition highlights
Personal stories and artifacts: Experience firsthand accounts from Palestinian Canadians sharing their journeys of displacement and memory through a series of five artifacts. Cases display artifacts like property deeds, house keys, and a traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, accompanied by short videos that deepen understanding of the impacts of displacement.
Powerful artworks: In her painting Bound Together in Gaza, Malak Mattar, a Gazan artist, captures the struggles and resilience of her generation shaped by conflict. Her work pays homage to Guernica, Picasso’s powerful masterpiece depicting civilian suffering during war.
Curfews and Closures, by Rajie Cook, bears witness to life under military occupation during the 2000–2005 Palestinian uprising, when curfews and closures were expanded and further limited basic rights and freedoms.
Cultural heritage: Discover traditional Palestinian embroidery called tatreez. Tatreez motifs and colours are tied to place, family history and regional identity. Patterns are associated with particular towns, villages or areas of Palestine. In this way, tatreez is a form of storytelling: a way of preserving memory, sustaining identity and expressing resilience across displacement and exile.
Poetry and reflection: Engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s evocative verses, inspiring personal reflection on exile, voice, and responsibility. Visitors can take a card containing Darwish’s poem and add a personal note, fostering ongoing dialogue beyond the exhibit.
Contemporary context: Witness striking images of current events in Gaza and the West Bank, connecting past displacement to ongoing struggles.
Quotes:
“No force can silence the truth we carry. Growing up in Canada, my children lived the Nakba through our stories. And now we watch it happen again, live, on our phones. When I see the images coming out of Gaza, I am not watching the news. I am watching my history repeat itself.” -Fouad Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian featured in the exhibit
“We developed this exhibit with a clear awareness that Palestinian Canadian voices have too often been marginalized, silenced or spoken over — and that anti-Palestinian racism affects whose stories are heard and whose suffering is recognized. That is why we intentionally centred Palestinian Canadian voices throughout the exhibit.” -Isabelle Masson, Curator of Palestine Uprooted
“Human rights matter precisely when they are inconvenient, when the question of who deserves the dignity of having their rights recognized is genuinely contested. These are the moments where having a national museum for human rights is most important.
There are people who believe this exhibit should not exist in its current form. There are people who believe it should have existed sooner. There are people who will visit this exhibit and feel that it does not say enough, and others who will feel it says too much.
We have listened to every one of these voices. We have reflected. And we have renewed our resolve to continue the difficult, sometimes contested, and often controversial work of building understanding about human rights. We are a museum grounded in Canada’s human rights framework, whose mandate requires us to bear witness to the full complexity of the human story. We are proud to open this exhibit because the story it tells will help achieve that mandate, and because this story belongs in the collective memory of Canadians.”
- – Isha Khan, CEO
Local News
Nakba exhibit at human rights museum set to open despite mounting criticism
By NOAH STRAUSS (posted June 25) The Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ Nakba exhibit is scheduled to open this Saturday, June 27, despite growing criticism and calls for it to be delayed or revised. The exhibit has sparked public debate in Winnipeg and beyond regarding how it presents the history surrounding the creation of the State of Israel.
Earlier this week, Mark Berlin resigned from the museum’s board. In his resignation letter, he expressed concern that the exhibit presents a one-sided narrative and does not adequately address the experiences of Jewish communities affected by the events surrounding Israel’s independence.
The Nakba, an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe,” refers to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1947–1949 conflict that followed the creation of the State of Israel. Critics of the exhibit argue that it focuses primarily on Palestinian displacement without sufficiently acknowledging the broader regional consequences of the period.
Some Jewish advocacy groups also point to the experiences of Jews who left or were expelled from several Arab and Muslim-majority countries in the decades surrounding Israel’s creation. Estimates suggest that between 850,000 and 950,000 Jews left or were displaced from countries including Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen, under a range of circumstances including persecution, expulsion, and confiscation of property.
In his resignation letter, Berlin, a faculty member at McGill University specializing in human rights law, wrote, “Telling the story with a one-sided perspective chosen by the museum serves to deepen division and contributes to further hostility toward Jews in Canada.”
Following his resignation, CIJA President Noah Shack released a statement saying, “The resignation of the museum’s only Jewish board member is a clear indictment of the museum’s handling of the controversial ‘Nakba’ exhibit.”
The exhibit’s VIP opening is expected to include invitations to representatives from all three levels of government. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham had initially been invited but later declined following discussions with representatives from the Jewish community, including CIJA Manitoba Vice President Gustavo Zentner and Jeff Lieberman, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.
Members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community are also planning a peaceful rally outside the museum on Friday at 5 p.m., according to organizers.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is expected to release a formal statement ahead of the exhibit’s opening.
(added June 26) To see interviews that Bernie Bellan conducted with Isabelle Masson, curator of the “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg and Isha Khan, CEO, CMHR about the exhibit go to curator of exhibit and CEO interviewed
