The family that conceived and bankrolled the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg is withdrawing its financial support, citing an exhibition about the Palestinian experience of displacement that it says lacks critical context.

Gail Asper — a trustee of the Asper Foundation, the charitable body co-founded by her late father Izzy Asper, the broadcasting magnate who first envisioned the museum — told CBC Radio's Information Radio - MB on 27 July 2026 that she 'feels betrayed by the curators and the leadership' at the institution her family spent decades building. The trigger is Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present, an exhibition running at the museum until 30 November 2028 that uses photographs and testimonies from Palestinian Canadians to tell the story of exile after 1947. 'Nakba' is Arabic for 'catastrophe', the term Palestinians use for the mass displacement that followed Israel's creation in 1948.

The Asper Foundation donated over C$23 million (US$16.3 million) toward the museum's construction; Gail Asper personally gave a further C$1.4 million (US$1 million). The foundation stopped funding the museum's annual gala after 2023 over what it called 'concerns about its programming'. A museum spokesperson confirmed that no Asper Foundation money has come in since that year. On the CBC Radio programme, hosted by guest presenter Corey Funk, Asper said she has indefinitely paused a C$50,000 (US$35,500) donation earmarked for expanding an existing Holocaust exhibit at the museum. The spokesperson said that withdrawal 'will not impact our exhibits or current programming' (The Art Newspaper).

Asper said she has no objection to the inclusion of Palestinian Canadian survivor testimonies. Her complaint centres on what the exhibition leaves out. She told CBC Radio that the show omits the Palestinian rejection of the United Nations' 1947 partition plan, the displacement of Jews from Arab lands in 1948, the hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023, and Hamas's stated aim of eradicating Israel. Both the Jewish displacement from Arab lands and the Arab rejection of the partition plan are acknowledged elsewhere in the museum, according to The Art Newspaper, but not explicitly within the Palestine Uprooted display. Asper said the omissions 'brings the curatorship into disrepute' and that the museum 'fans flames of antisemitism' (Winnipeg Free Press).

The exhibition has drawn opposition since before it opened. Protesters gathered outside the museum on 26 June 2026 to demonstrate against the Nakba display (CBC News). Jewish organisations raised objections when the show was first announced in late 2025, when The Art Newspaper reported it was planned to open in June 2026.

But the museum says support is also growing. Since Palestine Uprooted opened, the museum has received an influx of donations from new backers, a spokesperson told The Art Newspaper. And on 29 July 2026, a union representing CMHR workers issued a statement objecting to the campaign against the Nakba display.

The museum did not respond to further requests for comment from The Art Newspaper for its 30 July story. Gail Asper did not respond to The Art Newspaper's request for comment either. She described her emotions towards the institution her family built as 'complicated'.