The philanthropist behind the University of Manitoba’s largest-ever personal donation — $30 million — has denounced a speech made by a valedictorian for medicine grads and admonished the university for letting it happen.
In a letter dated Monday, Ernest Rady says he was hurt and appalled by the remarks by valedictorian Gem Newman at the May 16 convocation for students from the Max Rady College of Medicine. The school was renamed in honour of Rady’s father after the 2016 donation.
“Newman’s speech not only dishonoured the memory of my father, but also disrespected and disparaged Jewish people as a whole,” said Rady’s letter, sent to U of M president Michael Benarroch and college of medicine dean Dr. Peter Nickerson.
Approximately two minutes of Newman’s nine-minute address focused on the war in Gaza and called for a ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, which began after an Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel led by Hamas that killed roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage.
In a statement emailed to CBC News on Wednesday, college dean Nickerson confirmed the video that included the speech had been taken down.
Stating the actions of the Israeli government and calling for a ceasefire is, hate speech… 🤦 People like the letter author truly are racist. It’s just good ol’ a part of this ethnicity believe X, therefore all people of this ethnicity believe X.
Yep. Not too long ago I tried to explain this to some other Lemmings, and I got severely downvoted. They did not like hearing that ethnicity doesn’t imply a mental/cultural monolith.
I simply point out that there are non-zionist Jews and let them stammer
Bravo. I didn’t even go mental, I pointed out Africa has black people in it to disprove their claim that all black people are culturally American. They didn’t stammer, but they sure did get mad.
Hahaha what?? All black people are culturally American?
Wow. Some people actually think this?
This really must be a surprise for the black Irish, British, French, Dutch, Japanese, and countless other non-Americans of color.
Some servers are much worse at it than others. I’m a Chinese who got banned from .ml because I was ‘racist’ for making Xinnie jabs.