Israel Asper was born on August 11, 1932, to a Jewish family in Minnedosa, Manitoba, the son of musicians Leon Asper and Cecilia Swet, who had emigrated from Ukraine in the 1920s.[4][5]
He founded the firm of Asper, Freedman & Co. in 1959,[1] and was also a partner and co-founder of the firm Buchwald, Asper, Henteleff (now Pitblado LLP) along with Harold Buchwald and Yude Henteleff.[2]
In 1970, he wrote The Benson Iceberg: A Critical Analysis of the White Paper on Tax Reform in Canada.[2]
Also that year, Asper was elected leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party (defeating university professor John Nesbitt). Asper represented a right-libertarian strain within the party. In the Manitoba election of 1973, he promoted a laissez-faire economy, and advocated the elimination of the welfare state. He also advocated the public financing of election campaigns, to ensure that politics would not be dominated entirely by monied interests.[1] Moreover, as leader of the Manitoba Liberals, he supported the provincial Bill of Rights, and would go on to seek inclusion of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution Act of 1982.[12] His Liberals won only five seats, and Asper was elected in Wolseley by only four votes. He resigned as party leader and MLA in 1975, though he continued to support the Manitoba Liberal Party in later years.[13]
I am the offspring of immigrants and Prairie immigrants at that. And these people who would otherwise have been cinders in one of Hitler’s ovens have a great sense of gratitude to Canada for offering them shelter… people arriving with no money, people arriving not being able to speak a word of English from all over the place. And so you get taught that you owe and you have an undischarged debt to this country…
He was a prominent member of Canada's Jewish community and a vocal supporter for the State of Israel.[5] Among other positions, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.[16]
Asper was also a close friend of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. Controversially, Asper's newspaper chain firedOttawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills after he wrote an article that was critical of Chrétien.[17][18]
Views on Israel
As a youth, growing up in Winnipeg, Asper joined the socialist-Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair which supported the creation of a binational state in Mandatory Palestine. As a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Asper's views on Zionism swung to the right and he became a supporter of Jabotinskyism and Irgun leader Menachem Begin and an opponent of Labour Zionism. Asper said of his views "because the Labour Zionists got control of the educational institutions, and of the government, I utterly supported Begin from the time I was 12 or 13. Without him and his guerrilla revolt against the British, there would be no Israel."[19]
Israel Asper first had the idea to build the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) on 18 July 2000. Asper spent the next three years making the CMHR a reality, and had a thorough feasibility study conducted by museum experts from around Canada.[12]
In 2003, Asper established a private charitable organization to build the CMHR, called the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.[1] On April 17, the 21st anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an event was held at The Forks in Winnipeg where Asper first publicly announced his intent to create the CMHR. The announcement included considerable funding commitments from the governments of Canada, Manitoba, and Winnipeg, as well as land donated by the Forks Renewal Corporation. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien committed the first $30 million towards the capital cost, and private fundraising was soon overseen by the Friends of the CMHR.[12]
Later that year, on October 7, on his way to announce the architectural competition in Vancouver for the CMHR’s design, Asper died suddenly at the age of 71. His family, along with the Asper Foundation's executive director, vowed to continue to develop the museum. Two weeks later, the groundbreaking ceremony was held at The Forks and the architectural competition announced.[12]
In 2014, a stretch of road in front of the CMHR was named "Israel Asper Way".[20]
The Foundation was established in 1983 by Israel and Babs Asper, created from the wealth they had generated via CanWest, to build upon theirs and their family’s philanthropic endeavours.[14] In 1997, to focus on this philanthropy, Israel Asper resigned as CEO of CanWest, remaining as Executive Chairman instead.[16]
On 22 November 2000, the Foundation donated $10 million each to The Winnipeg Foundation and the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.[27] In October 2019, the Foundation announced a gift of CA$5-million to the University of Manitoba to establish the "Asper Foundation Entrance Bursary," a $1,000 entrance bursary program available to students in any faculty or school.[28] In early 2021, the Foundation made a $5 million gift to the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) to expand the "Asper HUJI Innovate" startup accelerator program at the University.[29]
^"Izzy and the Holy Land; Much of Izzy Asper's life was spent defending the 'Jewish Nation'", Newman, Peter C., National Post; Don Mills, Ontario [Don Mills, Ont]. 17 Nov 2008: p. A19.
