The Asper Foundation, Winnipeg, MB

The Asper Foundation (a private family foundation) and the CanWest Global Foundation (the corporate foundation of CanWest Global Communications Corp.) have undertaken and developed major initiatives locally, nationally and internationally supporting the areas of Jewish causes, arts and culture, community development, human rights, literacy and education, journalism and communication studies, media and healthcare. In the recent past, over $125 million has been donated to various charitable causes through these two foundations.
In April 2003, The Asper Foundation, in joint partnership with the Government of Canada, Province of Manitoba, City of Winnipeg and The Forks North Portage Partnership, announced the establishment of The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Canada. The Asper Foundation donated $24 million and was the driving force behind the creation of a distinctive, architecturally exceptional Museum that will help to eliminate intolerance through recognition of human rights as the foundation for human equality, dignity and freedom worldwide. A major component of the Museum will be a national student program that will sponsor 20, 000 high school students and their chaperones from across Canada to visit the Museum each year. In 2008, Bill C48 was passed unanimously in Parliament establishing the Museum as a National Federal Museum, the fifth National museum and the first to be established outside of the National Capital Region. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights opened on September 20, 2014.