Israel Asper
 Israel Asper     (lawyer, media mogul) | ||||||||||||
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| Born | Israel Harold Asper August 11, 1932 Minnedosa, Manitoba | |||||||||||
| Died | October 7, 2003 (Age 71) Winnipeg, Manitoba | |||||||||||
| Nationality | Canadian | |||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Manitoba | |||||||||||
| Religion | Jewish | |||||||||||
| Children | • David Asper • Gail Asper • Leonard Asper | |||||||||||
| Spouse | Ruth "Babs" Asper | |||||||||||
| Party | Liberal Party of Canada | |||||||||||
Canadian-Jewish media mogul and "close friend of many of Canada's prominent political and business elite", with empire in "uncritical support for Israel and the United States."
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Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper was a Canadian tax lawyer and media magnate. He was the founder and owner of the now-defunct "dazzlingly financed" TV and media company CanWest Global Communications Corp, known for its "uncritical support for Israel and the United States."[1][2] and father to its former CEO and President Leonard Asper, former director and corporate secretary Gail Asper, as well as former Executive Vice President David Asper.[3]
Born in moderate circumstances, he "extended his influence both around the globe and into the inner chambers of national political leadership, university journalism schools and media regulators"[1], and was also the leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party from 1970 to 1975[2]. His Asper Foundation used "philanthropic" financial power to control educational institutions in favor of Israel.
Career
He founded the firm of Asper, Freedman & Co. in 1959,[2] and was also a partner and co-founder of the firm Buchwald, Asper, Henteleff (now Pitblado LLP) along with Harold Buchwald and Yude Henteleff.[3]
In 1970, 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.[2] 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.[4] 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.[2][5]
His media empire subsequently began with the Winnipeg television station CKND-TV in 1975. Shortly after, in 1977, Asper formed CanWest Global Communications Corporation, which grew to encompass the Global Television Network, among other assets.[2][6] In 2000, CanWest bought the media holdings of Conrad Black's Hollinger Inc. for $3.2 billion, allowing Asper control of the Southam newspaper group, over 60 Canadian newspapers (including the daily National Post) as well as several important offshore newspapers and journals.[7][5] Asper's and Black's s plan to divvy up of much of Canada's news media was exposed during Conrad Black's 2007 fraud trial in Chicago.[8]
His holdings included TV stations reaching nearly 100 per cent of English-speaking Canadian viewers, specialty channels that reach 30.1 per cent of those viewers and newspapers that reach 4.8 million readers in Canada. His cooperate media outlets were had numerous examples of of writers and editors being fired for failing to toe the Asper line, and resignations by angry writers.[1]
Asper was noted for his fierce loyalty to Manitoba and western Canada, refusing enticements to move east to Toronto.[5]
The Asper Foundation was established in 1983 in Winnipeg.[6] In 1997, to focus on his "philanthropic" career, Asper resigned as CEO of CanWest to become Executive Chairman.[9] In 2001, Asper donated CA$5 million to the St. Boniface Hospital & Research Foundation.[2]
He was a prominent member of Canada's Jewish community as well, and a vocal supporter for the State of Israel.[10] In this regard, among other positions, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba; an Honorary Governor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and an Honorary Chairman of the Jewish Community Campus of Winnipeg Inc. (The Asper Campus).[9]
Asper was also a close friend of many of Canada's prominent political and business elite, including Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. Controversially, Asper's newspaper chain fired Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills after he wrote an article that was critical of Chrétien.[11][12]
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, and remained so for the rest of his life. 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."[13]
The Asper foundation sponsored Benyamin Netanyahu's failed visit to the University in Montreal, where a speech of his was canceled due to protests. In a rant against the supposedly anti-Israel media a few weeks later, Izzy Asper, owner of Canada’s largest media conglomerate, said: "We should withhold our financial support from those institutions [universities] that fail this obligation of educational integrity [to train reporters to support Israel]." This was a threat that Asper could deliver on. In 1999 he gave $2 million to the University of Manitoba, then the largest donation in the university's history, for an Asper Chair in International Business and Trade Law as well as other funding for an Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship and other initiatives.[14]
Asper funded the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which has "given primacy to the Holocaust over other historical atrocities", inclduing downplaying the genocide of the Canadian indigenous populations. Izzy Asper was inspired to create the CMHR by the state-sponsored United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.[15]
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/2000 | 1 June 2000 | 4 June 2000 | Belgium Brussels Genval | The 48th Bilderberg, 94 guests |
References
- ↑ a b c https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/one-nation-under-izzy/article718060/
- ↑ a b c d e f g http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/israel-harold-izzy-asper
- ↑ a b https://books.google.com/books?id=o9_yWE2_BgUC&pg=PA24
- ↑ http://asperfoundation.com/canadian-museum-for-human-rights/
- ↑ a b c https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/israel-h-asper
- ↑ a b http://asperfoundation.com/foundation-message/
- ↑ https://www.broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/asper-israel
- ↑ https://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2007/07/03/BlackAndAsper/
- ↑ a b http://asperfoundation.com/israelasper/
- ↑ http://www.jta.org/2003/10/09/archive/obituary-israel-asper-son-of-immigrants-and-founder-of-media-empire-dies
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120301133013/http://www.globaljournalist.org/stories/2002/10/01/fired-canadian-publisher-superhero-of-free-press/
- ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.330360
- ↑ "Izzy and the Holy Land; Much of Izzy Asper's life was spent defending the 'Jewish Nation'", Newman, Peter C., National Post; Don Mills, Ont. [Don Mills, Ont]. 17 Nov 2008: A.19.
- ↑ https://yvesengler.com/2021/03/11/bnai-brith-smear-doesnt-change-facts-about-university-funding/
- ↑ https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/canadian-museum-for-human-rights-is-a-political-project
