Local News
Community leaders David Asper, Harvey and Sandra Secter among the honourees at recent University of Manitoba convocation
By MYRON LOVE Community leaders David Asper and Harvey Secter were among ten individuals who were recipients of honorary degrees at the University of Manitoba’s most recent convocation.
For Harvey Secter, who was recognized with a Doctorate of Laws, the award was the culmination of a 30-plus year relationship with the university in one capacity or another. What made the event even sweeter for the university’s former Chancellor is that his wife, Sandra, was also honoured by the university with the Peter D. Curry Chancellor’s Award, which is given out annually to an individual who “has made outstanding contributions to the develop of the university.”
The Secter name is well known in our community. Harvey’s parents, the late Joe and Gwen Secter, set the bar high in terms of philanthropy and community leadership for their children – and Harvey and Sandra have certainly made their own mark in community service.
Harvey Secter began his working career in the family business, succeeding his father in operating Ricki’s Canada Ltd., a chain of ladies’ clothing stores across Canada, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Sam Guralnick.
In his time in business, Secter was involved with the Jewish Child and Family Service, which led into volunteering with the United Way, including chairing the 1998 United Way campaign.
He was part of the fundraising effort on behalf of the St. Boniface Hospital’s new Research Centre and served on the board of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba for more than 12 years.
In 1982, Secter and Guralnick sold the business and Secter, after fully retiring from the company – by then in his 40s – returned in 1988 to the University of Manitoba – from whence he had previously earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1969 – to pursue a career in law. He followed that up with a Master’s degree in Law from Harvard in 1995.
That same year, after returning to Winnipeg, he became a lecturer in Law at his alma mater, teaching in the fields of mediation and arbitration. In 1999, he was appointed Dean of the Law faculty. And, after retiring from that position in 2008, he was asked to serve as Chancellor of the university, a role he filled until 2019.
It was her contributions to the university as the wife of the Chancellor that earned Sandra Secter the Peter Curry Award. Harvey notes that it is unusual in that Sandra has never held an official position at the university.
The Chancellor serves, in a sense, as the university’s leading ambassador, Harvey Secter points out, and Sandra was the consummate “ambassador’s wife” by regularly engaging all the stakeholders, be they students, faculty, alumni or donors.
In her own right, Sandra Secter has contributed substantially to our community with leadership roles with the National Council of Jewish Women, the Combined Jewish Appeal – where she and close friend Marsha Cowan served as co-chairs of the 1997/8 campaign and again in 2001– as well as many arts organizations over the years.
“It was been really gratifying that others have found our joint efforts as volunteers over the years on behalf of the university and the community at large to be meaningful and worthy of recognition at this stage of our lives,” Secter concludes.
For David Asper – who was also recognized with a Doctorate of Laws, it was more of a bittersweet moment because David Milgaard wasn’t able to share the podium with him. Milgaard, the man that Asper spent many years moving heaven and earth to free from prison after he was falsely convicted for murder, was also scheduled to receive an honorary degree but, sadly, passed away in mid-May.
“I accepted his degree on behalf of David,” Asper says, “but it wasn’t the same without him. I missed having my guy beside me. That was to be his moment of full redemption.”
For readers who are unaware – or may have forgotten the details, Milgaard was a young man from Winnipeg – a drifter at the time – who happened to be crashing in Saskatoon for a period. In 1969, on a cold winter morning, a young nurse by the name of Gail Miller was brutally raped and murdered at a bus stop in Saskatoon. Footsteps in the snow led to the nearby house where the then-16-year-old Milgaard was temporarily staying.
Saskatoon police soon decided that Milgaard was their man. As the great Canadian criminal lawyer Eddie Greenspan pointed out in his autobiography, once the police and the Crown zero in on a suspect, they do their best to prove his guilt and ignore evidence that points to his innocence.
Thus, even though Milgaard steadfastly insisted that he was innocent, he was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. Through a quirk in our prison system, once convicted you can only get parole if you acknowledge your guilt – something which Milgaard refused to do.
David’s mother, the late Joyce Milgaard, believed in her son’s innocence and worked tirelessly to find anyone who would give him a fair hearing. In 1986, after 16 years in prison, the late Hersh Wolch took on the case and brought David Asper – a lawyer for Wolch’s firm – in to help.
Asper was soon spearheading the defense.
“I worked on David’s case for six years before he was released in 1992,” Asper recalls. “He was finally fully exonerated in 1997 by science and the evidence provided by DNA analysis. We became very close. A certain level of intimacy and intensity developed in our relationship”
(Another man – a serial killer as it turned out – who happened to be staying at the same house where Milgaard was staying at that time – was subsequently arrested and convicted of the murder.)
Asper observes that life outside went on in the years that Milgaard was incarcerated. “I met Ruth, the woman who would become my wife in 1986,” he says. “We had two children before David was released and our third before he was exonerated While my wife was working at starting a business and I was travelling across the country pursuing justice for David, his mother stepped up and helped us with our own family.”
In recent days, with kids grown, David Asper reports that he has cut back on his activities. “I am taking it easier,” he says. “I am still involved though in public service as a director of the North Portage Partnership Board and Chair of the Manitoba Police Commission, which I have found to be an interesting role.”
Local News
First year medical student Tim Rozovsky founds new association for local Jewish medical students
By MYRON LOVE In the face of a concerning surge in antisemitism over the past nearly three years, I am happy to report a good news story in that regard. Tim Rozovsky, the founder of the new Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba, reports that he and his fellow Jewish students enrolled in the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine are not experiencing any significant issues involving antisemitism.
Hopefully, the matter of the notorious Med school Valedictorian who used his podium to attack Israel was a one-off.
“My goal in forming the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba,” says the first year medical student, “was to create a safe, supportive environment for my fellow Jewish medical students.”
He reports that the current first year class at the school has eight Jewish students – an increase over more recent years – with maybe a dozen more in the other years.
For a new medical student, Rozovsky already has an impressive resume. He was born in Russia and grew up in Israel. After the completion of his army service in 2018, the then-22-year-old rejoined his parents, Dr. Katya and Alexander, who had moved to Winnipeg a few years before.
Prior to coming to Winnipeg, Rozovsky had completed a personal trainer program out of The Academic College at Wingate in Jerusalem. Some readers may know the young man from his work as a Master Personal Trainer at the Rady JCC.
Shortly after arriving here, he enrolled in a kinesiology program at the University of Winnipeg. He graduated with a BKin Honours in 2023 and did post graduate work at the University of Manitoba. Last fall, he received his MSc in Physiology and Pathophysiology – earning two gold medals, along with 32 awards and scholarships in the process.
Rozovsky says that it was his mother who inspired him to pursue a career in medicine. Dr. Katya Rozovsky is an associate professor at the University of Manitoba and an attending radiologist, specializing in pediatric diagnostic imaging.
(Tim also adds that his wife, Irina Gelzin, whom he married about a year ago, is training to be a nurse.)
Insofar as the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba is concerned, Rozovky reports that the group gets together multiple times a year. One of its programs was a joint Chanukah celebration with the Jewish Physicians Association of Manitoba.
There was also a joint program with the Christian Medical and Dental Students’ Association of Manitoba.
“More recently, we have been helping prospective Jewish medical students with their applications,” he says. “Hopefully we will be able to get together over the summer with the incoming Jewish students.”
As to his own future plans, Rozovsky notes that it is too early for him to be deciding on a specialty. “My goal,” he says, “is to work hard and get good grades and become the best doctor that I can be.”
Local News
Gray Academy to Represent Manitoba at National Reach for the Top Competition
By NOAH STRAUSS Posted June 6) Gray Academy’s Reach for the Top team is headed to Moncton, New Brunswick, to represent Manitoba at the National Reach for the Top tournament.
Reach for the Top is a Canadian school league that quizzes teenagers on a variety of different topics, from science and history to pop culture. Reach started out in 1961 in Vancouver, where a local CBC station broadcasted the new show; it eventually became a national broadcast starting in 1966. Alex Trebek, who famously hosted Jeopardy!, started out by hosting Reach for the Top.
Gray Academy’s very own team, made up of Grade 7 and 8 students, will travel to Moncton, New Brunswick, to compete as Team Manitoba. By winning the provincial Reach tournament, they secured their spot in the national competition.
Faculty members at Gray Academy are very supportive of the program. The Jewish Post spoke with three different staff members at the school. Coach and high school teacher Danielle Miller says she is excited for the trip; although she will not be accompanying the team herself, shehas coached them all year.
“This year we had over 20 students come to the club to join us, they practice twice a cycle at lunch,” Miller said. Due to the large turnout this year, two teams had to be formed. At lunch practices, students split into two teams of four where each player has a buzzer. The two teams compete to see who can answer the most questions correctly.
One of the two teams did exceptionally well at various tournaments throughout the year and will be traveling to nationals as the sole team representing Manitoba.
Co-coach Micah Doerksen described Reach as a great academic competition where young minds are tested on various topics through quick,fast-paced questions.
High school guidance counselor Lindsey Leipsic said, “We have athletes, non-athletes, we have students who are really involved and students who are not as involved at school, and we have quiet leaders, and we’ve seen friendships be built in Reach.” Some of her favorite memories of Reach involve seeing students from across Winnipeg come to Gray Academy and bond with one another. Lev Chisick, who is competing at nationals, agreed, saying, “Moncton is going to strengthen our school spirit and make us a better team.”
As the junior team makes their way to Moncton, the senior team will head to provincials. Later this week, students from the senior team will travel to Virden, Manitoba, to compete at the provincial level. The team qualified after placing high enough at their most recent tournament, which took place at St. Paul’s.
Confidence is high as the school heads into these final tournaments. When Nath Goldenberg, who is also competing at nationals, was asked what he is most looking forward to, his answer was short and sweet:“Winning.”
Local News
Team Schvesters teammates Benji Harvey, Kim Gray once again among top ten fundraisers in this year’s CancerCare Manitoba Foundation Challenge for Life event
By MYRON LOVE This year’s annual CancerCare Manitoba Foundation’s Challenge for Life walk at Assiniboine Park is scheduled for Sunday, June 13 – and, once again, in terms of fundraising, Team Schvesters is sitting in second place overall – having raised just over $30,500 as of May 26 – which is $5,000 more than the team members had raised by the same time last year.
As well, team members Benji Harvey and Kim Gray are once again in the top ten among individual fundraisers. Harvey this year sits in fifth place, having raised a little over $16,000 as of May 17 – while Gray has raised just above $8,000 – putting her in seventh place.
Harvey reports that, -over the past 18, years participating in CancerCare Manitoba Foundation’s Challenge for Life, she has personally raised $180,000 for cancer research, while her team as a whole has brought in $367,000. In discussing her success as a fundraiser, Harvey says that she has made a lot of friends over the years and believes in giving back to the community.
The “Schvesters” are the Greenfeld sisters: Harvey and sisters Lesly Katz and Debra Lewis – the daughters of Lil and the late Ike Greenfeld. Two of the sisters are cancer survivors.
There is one other team member – in addition to Kim Gray. Judge Rocky Pollack first joined Team Schvesters in 2023. After a year away in 2024, he returned last year. Pollack lost his wife, Sharon, to cancer in 2014 after a multi-year struggle.
Nancy’s Nightingales has been a top 10 community fundraising team for Cancercare Manitoba and the Challenge for Life since its inception in 2008. As a team, they have walked together since 2006 when they walked 60 km in two days in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer.
Last year, the team – including Louise Raber, Joanne Katz, Rhonda Youell, Connie Botelho and Harriet Lyons – finished fifth in fundraising. So far this year, the team is again sitting in fifth place –having raised just under $12,500 (as of May 26) – a couple of thousand dollars more than last year, and just about $300 behind the fourth place team.
The Nightingales are named after a nurse who is a cancer survivor- and a friend of Louise Raber, Nancy’s Nightingales team leader.
“Our goal, as always, is to raise at least one dollar more than last year,” says Raber.
Team Jason’s Journey team leader Jason Gisser has experienced a more intimate and longer-lasting relationship with cancer than many of the other Challenge for Life participants. He was first diagnosed with cancer when he was 18. “I am a proud cancer fighter, having lived and battled a chronic cancer diagnosis for the last 23 years,” he said in an earlier interview. “I participate in the Challenge for Life not only to give back for the care and treatment which I have and continue to receive through CancerCare Manitoba, but to ensure that others do not have to endure the journey which I have endured.”
This is the ninth year that Gisser has taken up the Challenge for Life. His teammates are returnee Nora Fien, as well as friends Danial Sprintz, Wendy Martin White and Jason Roberts, also his mother, Judge Freda Steele. He has personally raised about $5,500 this year, while the team as a whole has raised just over $7,000.
“The Challenge for Life is great opportunity to raise valuable dollars for cancer research and treatment,” Gisser notes.
Readers can make donations to their preferred team by going online to CancerCarefdn.mb.ca and click on Challengeforlife.ca.
