Less than a decade after making a $30-million donation to the University of Manitoba’s faculty of health sciences and its medical college, American business leader Ernest Rady says he is “hurt” and “appalled” by remarks made in a graduating doctor’s convocation valedictory address last Thursday.
In a letter dated Monday addressed to U of M president and vice-chancellor Michael Benarroch and Rady faculty of heath sciences dean Dr. Peter Nickerson, the entrepreneur and philanthropist took aim at valedictorian Gem Newman — who referred to the “genocidal war that Israel is waging on the people of Palestine” — and the university, for allowing him to “spew these hateful lies.”
The 2016 gift from Rady and his wife was made in honour of his parents, particularly his late father Max, a Winnipeg MD who graduated in 1921, one of very few Jewish students accepted in the university’s medical college at the time under a quota system designed to keep them out.
University of Manitoba college of medicine valedictorian Gem Newman calls for a ceasefire in Palestine during a 10-minute speech at the Max Rady College of Medicine’s convocation ceremony Thursday afternoon.
“Those words are not political opinion,” Rady wrote about Newman’s remarks. “They are hate speech and they are lies.”
Newman made reference to Israel’s “deliberate targeting” of Palestinian hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.
“Newman’s speech not only dishonoured 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,” Rady wrote.
During his 10-minute convocation speech, Newman called for an “immediate and lasting” ceasefire in Gaza and called on his classmates to do the same, while accusing multiple Canadian medical associations of failing to use their platform to call for one, too.
A video recording of the speech was later widely shared on social media.
Rady graduated from the U of M in the 1960s and later made millions through banking, finance insurance, oil and gas and real estate.
In his letter, Rady demanded the university edit out Newman’s speech from the convocation’s video recording, condemn Newman’s remarks for being inaccurate and and denounce antisemitism.
The video was no longer accessible on the U of M website Tuesday.
“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,” Rady wrote.
The speech prompted a response from Nickerson, who said some attendees were “disappointed and alarmed” by the address and called Newman’s comments “divisive and inflammatory.”
“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… 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,” a statement signed by Nickerson Friday said.
The Free Press has reached out to Newman, the U of M and the Rady family for comment.
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk.
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