Features
David Asper has brought excitement to a new generation of basketball fans with the Winnipeg Sea Bears
By BERNIE BELLAN
June 8, 2023 The name David Asper has long been associated with Winnipeg sports teams.
A former Chair of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers – and someone who achieved both notoriety for how directly involved he became with that team – even going so far as to invade the locker room after a particularly brutal loss (only to be pushed out by now CEO Wade Miller), Asper was also involved with a pro basketball team known as the Winnipeg Thunder, which played here from 1992-94.
This past year, however, Asper took another foray into sports at the ownership level with Winnipeg’s newest sports franchise, the Winnipeg Sea Bears.
The Sea Bears play in a summer league – which is also when the Winnipeg Thunder, a team in which Asper also had an owership stake played. (Another team, the Winnipeg Cyclone, owned by Earl Barish, played in the winter.),
The Sea Bears franchise is the newest addition to what is now a 10-team All Canadian league known as the Canadian Elite Basketball League. So far, by any measure, the team is off to a roaring start.
Recently I chatted with Asper about what led him to enter – again, into the risky world of professional sports and why he’s confident that this time around, the Sea Bears and the league they play in, will be lasting successes.
I began by asking him whether he’s pleased with the attendance at Sea Bears games thus far? (At the time of our conversation the team had played five home games, with an average attendance over 4,000 each game.)
“Yes, I’m very pleased with the reception we’ve gotten so far,” Asper said, “but it’s my nature – it’s the entrepreneur’s curse, to be very cautious about it, because when we began – when you start a business – any business, you never know whether anyone’s going to actually show up and, if they do, whether they’ll keep coming back.”
I suggested to Asper that the history of pro basketball teams in Winnipeg is less than impressive, but he responded that the Winnipeg Thunder actually did “very well,” but “both leagues that the team was affiliated with collapsed.”
“The Thunder played in the summer. The Cyclone played in the winter. I had a better perspective of seeing what would happen if you played in the summer – which is what appealed to me about this league,” Asper added.
I asked, “How far back in time did your planning for the Sea Bears begin?”
Asper said he “started in the spring of ’22, spent time all last summer going across country to games, and then I decided I really liked what I was seeing. I was concerned about the show – the competitiveness of the basketball – and I’m not a basketball person, but I think I have a sense of when something is entertaining and athletic.
“By mid-summer we thought we were going to go for it, we had some negotiation with the league, and we were finally able to announce – late, relatively speaking, at the end of November. We put ourselves in quite a time crush being able to launch for 2023 because training camp starts mid-May, so we only had five months really. We had to hire staff, get tickets out and get ourselves prepared, so it’s been a very hectic time.”
I said to Asper that I wasn’t all that familiar with the Canadian Elite Basketball League and he did give me some of the league’s history, but after the interview I dug deeper into the league’s history.
The CEBL is now in its fifth season, having begun in the summer of 2019, originally with six teams, which were all owned by the league. It now has ten teams in two divisions, from six different provinces:The east division is made up of one team in Quebec (in Montreal), and four in Ontario (in Brampton, Niagara, Ottawa, and Scarborough); and a west division: one in Manitoba (the Sea Bears), one in Saskatchewan (in Saskatoon); two in Alberta (in Calgary and Edmonton), and one in BC (in Langley).
While five of the teams are still owned by the league, there are now five private owners – in Langley, Calgary, Edmonton, and Scarborough, in addition to Asper in Winnipeg.
For the most part the teams play in smaller venues, with the exception of the Sea Bears, who play in Canada Life Centre, which can hold over 15,000 (although seating is confined to the lower level).
Another difference between the CEBL and other leagues that have come and gone in Canada is the heavy emphasis on Canadian players on each team. As Asper explained, each team has 10 players, of whom six have to be Canadian, three can be American, and a tenth can be international.
“We collaborate with Basketball Canada,” Asper observed, and it is a great opportunity for Canadian university players to hone their skills.
Not only that, Asper added that “last year nine players coming out of our league signed NBA contracts,” which gives you an idea what a high level of basketball is played in the CEBL.
According to Wikipedia, each team operates under a salary cap of only $8,000 per team per game. (There are 20 regular games, followed by a round robin playoff tournament modeled on the NCAA Final Four tournament.)
I asked Asper about what I described as his “abiding interest in sports,” given his history of involvement with both pro basketball and football teams.
He said that he thinks “sport is an important part of culture.”
“Where does it come from?” I asked.
“Well, I played sports as a kid,” Asper answered. “I didn’t play basketball, but I’ve seen the power of sports to be inclusive, to be inspirational, to be a shared common experience. I believe very strongly – I know that others in the arts community will dispute it, but I believe sports is as integral to culture as is art and other forms of activities.”
I asked Asper about the role he played in the building of IG Field (where the Blue Bombers now play).
He said that it was never his idea to build a new stadium at the University of Manitoba.
“My plan was to build it at Polo Park and I had everyone lined up and agreed to build it there. I don’t know what happened. I had led the whole project and Greg Selinger wound up taking it over.
I remarked: “Oh yah, I remember, there was an election.”
Turning back to the Sea Bears, I observed that, from pictures in the paper and what I had seen on TV, the team has been drawing a much younger crowd than say the Bombers or Jets – and a far more diverse crowd ethnically. I asked Asper whether that was part of the plan when he thought of starting a basketball team here.
He said, “The answer is yes. When I went across the country last summer and went to games and talked to fans, you could visibly see who was there and a lot of them were young families. There were also grandparents – people my age. It was a broader demographic than I thought it would be. I think that seeing young people at a game is very appealing to a broad age demography, but Bernie, when I would talk to first or second generation Canadians at those games, these were not people who grew up with hockey or football, but for them – basketball – when I talked about shared common experience and shared culture, I’m talking about these families – these new Canadians, meeting with legacy, old Canadians and having a shared common experience as Canadians that was so heart-warming. I said: ‘I want to be part of this.’
“It may be relatively small compared to football and hockey, but it’s doing a service. It’s serving a larger purpose, and what we’ve seen at the games so far – and it really overwhelms me, is that’s exactly what’s happening in Winnipeg.”
“I was talking to kids at the last game – they were part of two youth groups, who had never been to Canada Life Centre and came for the first time to a basketball game – and it blew their minds. They could not believe how great this was – predominantly new Canadians.”
I asked what the ticket price structure is?
Asper said, “They start at roughly 20 bucks. We try to have an entry point for families that’s very accessible.”
I asked whether Ruth (David’s wife) is involved with the team (since she was pictured seated along side David at the first game)?
Asper said, “No, but she’s the team’s number 2 fan.” He also told me that Ruth has a very strong background herself in sports.
I said that I remembered when she was co-owner of Tights, along with other fitness centers in Winnipeg over the years.
Asper said, “Not only that, but Ruth was the trainer for the (University of Manitoba) Bisons football team and she was the trainer for the Churchill Bulldogs football team. She’s in the Churchill Bulldogs Hall of Fame. She really has an experiential perspective on sports. She’s not involved, but she certainly knows the owner – let’s put it that way.”
I wondered about the stability of this particular basketball league – given the past failures of other basketball leagues that had Winnipeg franchises.
“Have there been any teams that have dropped out since the league started five years ago?” I asked.
“There was a team in Newfoundland, and it dropped out,” Asper answered. “Other teams have moved to different markets, so Hamilton moved to Brampton, Guelph had a team that moved to Calgary – which was important because that created a west and an east division. The league has seen unparalleled success this year. The growth in the league is really quite remarkable.”
Asper also noted that “We’re trying to build a sustainable summer event, so it takes a significant investment to start a team up, but the owners who are either starting or acquiring franchises are very committed to investing and growing. The league itself has come through its start-up anarchy, which is always the case in a start-up anything and now it’s moving into scaling up – because it’s working. People want to see this product.”
He also observed that the league is very competitive. Because it’s such a short season (only 20 games), “every single game matters.”
Asper explained that “we have a unique ending to the games” (in the CEBL). “Instead of the clock just running out – like you’d see in an NBA game, where you’d see them try to manage the clock, where the team that’s winning will try to run out the clock and the team that’s losing will try to create fouls and slow it down, what we do is, at the first stoppage in play with close to four minutes left to go in the game we create what’s called a ‘target score,’ so we add nine to the leading team’s score, so that, for example, the score is 84-80, then we turn off the clock, and the first team to 93 wins.
“So, not only does every game matter, the way the games end are so exciting that people leave feeling exhilarated or demoralized. There’s a really emotional way that our games end that really creates a compelling fan experience.”
I asked: “Anything else you want to add?”
Asper said: “Get your tickets at seabears.ca!”
Features
“Lessons from the Holocaust for Today”
By HENRY SREBRNIK On April 12, I spoke at our annual Yom Hashoah memorial ceremony in Charlottetown. The last time I did so was in April 1976, in Montreal. It was, for Canadian Jews, a completely different time. Montreal was still the first city of Canadian Jewry, with Toronto a distant second. Israel seemed a secure country, having won a hard-fought victory three years earlier in the Yom Kippur War.
There were clouds gathering, true – after all the UN General Assembly had passed the “Zionism is a form of racism” the previous December, and a powerful Communist bloc led by the Soviet Union was still a formidable enemy.
Today, Jewish life has become far more precarious. Two things are essential for an anti-democratic political movement to succeed: ideological justification by academics and intellectuals, and control of the streets by violent mobs. Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel, we have seen both.
At McGill University in Montreal, a March 21 referendum by the Law Students’ Association (LSA) supported amending the group’s constitution to boycott Israeli academic bodies, though it was deemed illegitimate by the university’s president. Similar actions are taking place across Canada. Indeed, at Vanier College, a Montreal CEGEP, it abruptly cancelled its Holocaust commemoration on March 25 because it didn’t think it could keep guests and the college community safe.
Unfortunately, we know a terrible precedent for this union of the intellectuals and the mob. Nazi ideology, too, was not formulated by street thugs. Historian Max Weinreich published his book Hitler’s Professors in 1946, noting that German scholarship provided the ideas and techniques that led to and justified unparalleled slaughter. All too many Nazi war criminals were holders of PhDs.
As historian Niall Ferguson reminds us, in an article published in the New York Free Press of Dec. 11, 2023, “Anyone who has a naive belief in the power of higher education to instill morality has not studied the history of German universities in the Third Reich.” The “final solution of the Jewish question” began, he has written, with words — “to be precise, it began as lectures and monographs and scholarly articles.”
The American writer Vivian Gornick, reviewing a book, “Turning a Blind Eye, A memoir of daily accommodation to fascism,” by the German historian Joachim Fest, about Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s (before the Holocaust), quotes this passage:
“Everyone sees that life for the Jews is gradually shutting down. Take their neighbor and good friend, Dr. Meyer: one day he can no longer subscribe to newspapers and magazines; another, he has to hand in his bicycle and typewriter; another, he can no longer keep a pet or buy flowers. Then all the Jews simply start disappearing from the neighborhood.” The Nazi march to power literally begins with shutting Jews out of public life while using academia as the heavy hand of indoctrination.
Is this slowly happening to Jews in Canada today, as they are pushed out of or refused admittance to cultural events, colleges, universities, and graduate schools, academic university positions, publishing, music, theatre, and so on? In “Canada’s Polite Pogrom,” By Jesse Brown, Atlantic, March 24, 2026, he writes: “Is a national tolerance for zealotry purging Jews from public life?” Jewish life in Canada may have “forever changed,” he argues. “I can no longer take for granted that people like me are represented in Canada’s hospitals, schools, newsrooms, and legislatures.”
We may see the quiet withdrawal of Jews from Canadian society “without any glass or bones being broken,” simply because the evidence that they are no longer welcome has become overwhelming. Another writer calls it the social and academic “shtetelization” of Western Jewry.
We even face obstruction from the Canadian government. In just the last two years, eight explicitly Jewish non-profit charities, including the Jewish National Fund, have been stripped of their ability to collect tax-deductible donations by the Canada Revenue Agency — often amid pressure campaigns from anti-Israel activists. The delisting was also celebrated by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), the union representing CRA workers.
We now witness continuous large “pro-Palestinian” rallies through our cities, invasions of shopping malls and thoroughfares, including intimidating behaviour against Jewish passersby. Today, police stand and watch mobs chant for Israel’s destruction, call for the genocide of its people, harass visibly Jewish citizens, and drive antisemitic intimidation deep into urban life. They now believe their job is to enforce the law only if it does not risk upsetting violent constituencies. This makes Jews expendable, because defending them risks confrontation.
And these events are not just “political protests.” At an al-Quds rally in Toronto March 14, protesters held signs that showed rats crawling out of a Star of David, depicting a Jewish man as a goblin-like creature emerging from a cave, and showing a Jewish man as a hook-nosed caricature.
Three Jewish synagogues in Toronto were hit with gunfire in one week in March. After every such incident, we hear that “antisemitism has no place in Canada.” But if that were true, synagogues would not require concrete barriers. Jewish schools would not need armed security. Community institutions would not conduct threat assessments before hosting events. Yet big city mayors like Toronto’s Olivia Chow don’t seem, to put it diplomatically, be losing much sleep over what’s going on in their cities.
The attacks on Jews, including physical assaults and social media campaigns, are part of a purposive campaign designed to make Jews think twice about gathering with other Jews, entering a synagogue, going to kosher restaurants, putting a mezuzah on the doorpost of their apartments or dorm rooms, or wearing a Jewish star around their necks. In fact people have been attacked on the street for speaking Hebrew.
If each Jewish holiday will now be seen by antisemites as an opportunity for terror, then the prognosis for diaspora Jewry is bleak. Unless things change, Jewish life in the diaspora will become more sealed off from the larger society.
We may be returning to a time that we thought was long behind us. And we are less prepared for it than our forebearers were, because they were used to living in a semi-segregated world, and expected less from the larger society. As large swaths of the Jewish community are beginning to retreat inward, the greater long-term fear is the collapse of Jewish life here altogether.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Features
Streaming the Diaspora: Jewish Stories in the Digital Age
The digital era has transformed how cultural narratives are created, shared, and preserved. For Jewish communities around the world, streaming platforms have become powerful tools for storytelling — enabling voices from different countries, traditions, and generations to connect in ways that were once impossible. What used to rely on local gatherings, printed texts, or regional broadcasts is now accessible globally, instantly, and interactively.
Streaming has allowed Jewish stories to transcend geography. Whether it’s historical documentaries, modern dramas, or personal testimonies, audiences can now explore a wide spectrum of perspectives — from Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions to contemporary Israeli culture and diaspora experiences in North America, Europe, and beyond. This shift reflects not only technological progress but also a deeper need for identity, continuity, and shared memory.
A New Era of Cultural Storytelling
Streaming platforms have opened doors for creators who might previously have struggled to find mainstream distribution. Independent filmmakers, historians, and content creators now have the ability to reach global audiences without relying on traditional gatekeepers.
This has led to:
- more diverse representation of Jewish identities
- storytelling that blends history with modern perspectives
- greater visibility for lesser-known traditions and communities
As media scholar Henry Jenkins noted,
“Digital culture allows stories to travel, evolve, and find new audiences beyond their original context.”
Jewish storytelling, rooted in centuries of oral and written tradition, naturally adapts to this model — evolving while maintaining its core themes of resilience, identity, and community.
The Role of Streaming in Preserving Memory
One of the most significant contributions of streaming platforms is the preservation of historical memory. Documentaries about the Holocaust, migration stories, and cultural archives are now widely accessible, allowing younger generations to engage with history in a more immediate and emotional way.
Streaming enables:
- access to survivor testimonies and historical footage
- educational content for global audiences
- preservation of languages like Yiddish and Ladino
This accessibility helps ensure that stories are not lost, but instead reinterpreted and shared across generations.
Bridging Generations Through Digital Media
Another important aspect of streaming is its ability to connect different age groups. Older generations may bring lived experiences, while younger viewers engage through modern formats such as series, podcasts, and short-form video content.
This creates a dynamic exchange:
- elders share traditions and personal histories
- creators reinterpret these stories for modern audiences
- viewers engage, discuss, and reshape narratives in digital spaces
The result is a living, evolving cultural dialogue rather than a static archive.
Entertainment, Identity, and Digital Habits
In today’s digital ecosystem, cultural content exists alongside many forms of online entertainment. Users often move fluidly between watching series, engaging with interactive platforms, and exploring different types of digital experiences.
For instance, while streaming culturally rich content, users may also explore entertainment platforms featuring zoome slots, where interactivity, design, and engagement play a central role. Although the purposes differ, both environments reflect how digital platforms are designed to capture attention, create immersion, and keep users engaged through evolving content.
This coexistence highlights a broader reality: modern digital life blends education, culture, and entertainment into a single, continuous experience.
Challenges of Representation in the Digital Space
While streaming has expanded opportunities, it also raises important questions about representation and authenticity. Not all stories are told equally, and some narratives may be simplified or commercialized for broader appeal.
Key challenges include:
- balancing authenticity with accessibility
- avoiding stereotypes or oversimplification
- ensuring diverse voices are included
Creators and platforms must navigate these issues carefully to maintain cultural integrity while reaching wider audiences.
The Globalization of Jewish Narratives
Streaming platforms have also contributed to the globalization of Jewish stories. A viewer in Canada can watch an Israeli drama, a French documentary, or an American series — all within the same platform. This interconnectedness allows for a richer understanding of how Jewish identity varies across regions while still sharing common roots.
This global reach encourages:
- cross-cultural dialogue
- broader empathy and understanding
- new interpretations of identity in a modern context
Streaming vs Traditional Media
| Aspect | Streaming Platforms | Traditional Media |
| Accessibility | Global, on-demand | Limited by region and schedule |
| Diversity of content | High | Often restricted |
| Viewer interaction | Possible (comments, sharing) | Minimal |
| Content longevity | Long-term availability | Time-limited broadcasts |
| Entry for creators | Lower barrier | High barrier |
This comparison shows why streaming has become such a powerful medium for cultural storytelling.
Final Thoughts
The digital age has reshaped how Jewish stories are told, preserved, and experienced. Streaming platforms have turned local narratives into global conversations, allowing voices from across the diaspora to connect in meaningful ways.
By combining accessibility, diversity, and interactivity, streaming has created a new space where tradition meets innovation. As audiences continue to explore these stories alongside other forms of digital engagement, the importance of thoughtful, authentic storytelling becomes even more significant.
In this evolving landscape, Jewish narratives are not just being preserved — they are being reimagined, shared, and lived in real time across the digital world.
Features
U.S. Senate candidate from Michigan calls Israeli government ‘evil’ like Hamas
Abdul El-Sayed, doubled down on his criticism of the Netanyahu government and defended campaigning with controversial streamer Hasan Piker
By Jacob Kornbluh (Posted April 19, 2026) “This story was originally published in the Forward Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.”
FoAbdul El-Sayed, a U.S. Senate candidate from Michigan, said in an interview aired Sunday that the Israeli government is as “evil” as Hamas, sharpening his criticism of Israel in the closely-watched Democratic primary.
“Killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil,” El-Sayed told CNN congressional reporter Manu Raja on the network’s Inside Politics program. “It’s not how evil is this one versus that one — Hamas: Evil, Israeli government: Evil. We can say both.”
El-Sayed, 41, is a physician and the son of Egyptian immigrants. He is seeking to channel the energy of the 2024 Uncommitted movement, which protested the Biden administration’s support for Israel in the war against Hamas in Gaza. He is also hoping to build on the surprise success of the New York City mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani in taking on the Democratic establishment.
He is locked in a dead heat with state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Rep. Haley Stevens. The primary is set for Aug. 4.
Earlier this month, El-Sayed faced backlash for appearing alongside streamer Hasan Piker, who has been accused of antisemitic rhetoric — including saying that Hamas “is a thousand times better” than Israel. McMorrow, who is married to a Jewish man, and Stevens, who is closely aligned with AIPAC, have both criticized El-Sayed.
In the CNN interview, El-Sayed defended his decision to campaign with Piker, framing it as an effort to reach voters who feel alienated from traditional politics. “My understanding of America is, it’s a place where we have freedom of speech,” he said.
The Michigan Senate race is shaping up as one of the starkest tests of the Democratic coalition and how the party navigates policy towards Israel in Congress amid the wars in Gaza and Iran. The state is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States.
Last week, 40 Senate Democrats voted to block $295 million for the transfer of bulldozers, used by the Israeli military to demolish homes in the West Bank and Gaza; 36 of them also supported a measure to block the sale of 1,000-pound bombs to the Jewish state. It shattered a previous high of 27 Democrats who backed a similar pair of resolutions of disapproval to block some weapons transfers last year.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who is Jewish, was among those who voted for the measures. In remarks as they announced their votes, Democrats highlighted their opposition to the Israeli government’s policies in the occupied West Bank, the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the war with Iran.