WARMINGTON: Critics worry Palestinian displacement exhibit in Winnipeg missing full context

Jewish leaders are calling on the Heritage Minister to ensure what is being portrayed is not used as a 'propaganda tool' against Israel

Published Jun 27, 2026  •  Last updated 22 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. Photo by Richard White /For Postmedia Network

They are billing it as the opening of an exhibit in Winnipeg to show decades of mistreatment of Palestinians.

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But there does not seem to be any reference to a display on the execution of Palestinian people by Hamas firing squads on the streets in Gaza in 2025.

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All the blame for the plight of Palestinians, instead, seems to be aimed at Israel – all paid for by Canadian taxpayers.

“The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will open a new exhibit (Saturday) that explores human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinian Canadians,” a news release sent out Friday afternoon states.

Displacement of Palestinian Canadians?

Exhibit tells Palestinian stories

The release explains “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present, on display in the Rights Today gallery on Level 5 until 2028” will be “featuring personal stories told through artifacts and video testimonies, the exhibit presents Palestinian Canadians reflecting on their ongoing struggle for human rights. The small exhibit reveals enduring patterns of loss and resilience, helping visitors understand more about this contemporary human rights story.”

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The release adds “Palestinian Canadian stories are now included alongside many other stories of forced displacement and human rights violations featured in the Museum’s galleries. Each of these stories contributes to our visitors’ understanding of human rights and helps the Museum fulfill its mandate to foster reflection and dialogue.”

The CMHR has not yet answered questions about how much the exhibit cost taxpayers or if that vile extermination of innocent people in October 2025 is part of the dialogue.

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Exhibit should tell the whole story

That it happened is part of the history of Gaza that can’t be scrubbed, any more than what Hamas did on Oct. 7, 2023, in the gutless sneak attack slaughter of 1,200 Jews and the kidnapping of almost 250 others.

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What the exhibit does show are pictures of Palestinians in displacement camps, art work, murals and poetry to those stories.

“No force can silence the truth we carry. Growing up in Canada, my children lived the Nakba through our stories,” said Fouad Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian who is “featured” in it. “And now we watch it happen again, live, on our phones. When I see the images coming out of Gaza, I am not watching the news. I am watching my history repeat itself.”

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CMHR CEO Isha Khan added, “We are a museum grounded in Canada’s human rights framework, whose mandate requires us to bear witness to the full complexity of the human story. We are proud to open this exhibit because the story it tells will help achieve that mandate, and because this story belongs in the collective memory of Canadians.”

Not everybody agrees.

In a statement released Friday, the Centre for Jewish and Israel Affairs (CIJA) said: “In the very day the Government of Canada appointed two new members to its Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion – which Prime Minister Carney tasked with leading a whole-of-government effort to combat antisemitism – one of the federal government’s own taxpayer-funded museums is launching a controversial ‘Nakba’ exhibit that risks exacerbating Canada’s antisemitism crisis.”

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CIJA added “the government must also prevent its own institutions from being weaponized to promote divisive political narratives that fuel hatred and violence” and “this should start immediately with the Heritage Minister (Marc Miller) demanding accountability from the @CMHR_News’ CEO and board.”

Exhibit should not be used as ‘propaganda tool’

In an online discussion Friday with B’nai Brith Canada CEO Simon Wolle, museum board member for almost eight years, Marc Berlin, said he “resigned” because he sees this as more of a “propaganda tool” than a constructive and fair reflection of history. What he wanted was something to foster a sharing of stories from both Israeli and Palestinians working together, as he did himself working in the region for many years.

Citing how more than 850,000 Jews being expelled from Arab countries in the 1940s along side the displacement of Palestinians, Berlin called what he has seen of the exhibit a “one sided narrative” that seems to “demonize and delegitimize Israel.”

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Wolle also expressed his concern saying “to maintain the public’s trust in and the integrity of his Ministry, (Marc Miller) must open an investigation into these failures.”

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That said, the museum itself, through media spokesperson Amanda Gaudes, has indicated a willingness to get back to the Toronto Sun to reveal how much it cost to build the display and to show more of what is included in it after the doors open Saturday.

The museum also put out a series of X posts expressing there are “misconceptions” about the exhibit and they also fight against antisemitism.

At a human right’s museum paid for by Canadians, the best path forward to is to make sure the full context is on display.

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As I wrote Oct. 14, 2025, the “disgraceful mass public executions carried out by Hamas terrorists likely as retribution on rivals have conjured memories of the Holocaust” and “there is nothing okay with killing people like this in front a cheering crowd.”

The sight of blindfolded, beaten and handcuffed Palestinians being executed by a firing squad, as shown in a horrific video, is not something that can be glossed over.

If this exhibit does not show that, there is still time to add it. There is no greater example of the violation of Palestinian human rights than that.

And this is human rights museum after all.

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