David Asper (born November 26, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and businessman, and a former acting dean of Robson Hall, the law faculty of the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...

. Asper is the son of Izzy Asper, the founder of

Canwest Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, ...

, and is now the head of the charitable foundation named after his family. As a lawyer, he was on the legal team that overturned David Milgaard's wrongful conviction and later became a professor. From April 2017 to December 2018, he was chair of the Winnipeg Police Board and, in January 2019, he became chair of the Manitoba Police Commission.

Early life and education

Asper was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

in 1958 to Izzy and Babs Asper (1933–2011). He has two younger siblings, Gail Asper and Leonard Asper. After graduating from Brentwood College School on Vancouver Island, he attended the University of Manitoba where he earned a BA in political science and history. He then went to California Western School of Law, earning a Juris Doctor in 1984.

Career

Asper started his career as a lawyer focused primarily on criminal defense litigation and successfully represented Milgaard in overturning one of Canada's most notorious wrongful conviction cases. He then spent almost 18 years as an executive with Canwest Global Communications, serving on its board of directors and in various operational roles, including as Chair of the National Post. In 2006, he returned to Law School at the University of Toronto where he earned an LLM in 2007. Following completion of his master's degree in law at the University of Toronto in 2007, Asper became an assistant professor of law at the University of Manitoba Robson Hall Faculty of Law. He has taught as an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

at Lakehead University's Bora Laskin School of Law and at Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, and comments occasionally on legal matters for popular media. Asper has also served on various committees of the Law Society of Manitoba and is a learning resource for the CPLED Articling module on ethics and professional responsibility. In 2013, Asper was a co-founder of Amenity Healthcare Limited, which owned and operated a chain of independent pharmacies in Western Canada, typically in traditionally underserved communities. It grew at a rate of seven to ten pharmacies per year before its acquisition in 2017 by TorQuest Partners, a Toronto-based equity firm. In April 2017, Asper was named by Winnipeg's mayor,

Brian Bowman Brian Leslie Bowman (born July 22, 1946) is an American virtuoso euphonium artist and music professor who, among other things, held the principal euphonium chair and was a featured soloist with the premier concert bands of the United States Navy ...

, to be the chair of the Winnipeg Police Board. With his confirmation by the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

the same month, he became the first board head not to be an elected official. He became acting dean of Robson Hall on July 1, 2020, having been a faculty member from 2009 to 2013. He has also taught law as an adjunct professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law and the

Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (ASU Law) is the law school at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. The school is in the Beus Center for Law and Society on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. Created in 1965 as the Arizona State Unive ...

Philanthropy

In philanthropy and public service, in addition to being chair of The Asper Foundation, Asper is a past chair and current director of the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division (CFL), West division. They play thei ...

, a member of the Board of the Pan Am Clinic Foundation and co-chair of the 2015 CFL Grey Cup Festival Committee. Through his philanthropy, he provided the lead gift to establish the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights at the University of Toronto. He has also established major endowments at the University of Manitoba, United Way and the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, where he actively supports the Jewish Child and Family Services Helping Hand Initiative. Past community involvement includes being president of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, chairman of the

, vice-chair of the Canadian Football League board of governors, co-chair of the 2006 Winnipeg Grey Cup Festival, governor and vice-chair at St. John's-Ravenscourt School, member of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

governing council and member of the board of the Canadian Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. In October 2018, Asper and his family donated 2.5 million dollars to the Canadian Olympic Foundation's 5to8 athlete development campaign, the largest donation to Canadian Olympic sport by a factor of ten. Asper endorsed

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

for prime minister and is associated with and supports the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC; , ), sometimes referred to as the Tories, is a Government of Canada, federal List of political parties in Canada, political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main Right-wing ...

Awards and honours

Asper received the Arbour Award from the University of Toronto and the Award of Distinction from Destination Winnipeg. He was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his community service. In 2019, he was appointed as Queen's Counsel (now King's Counsel) in the province of Manitoba. Asper was awarded an Honourary Doctorate of Laws (LLD) by the University of Manitoba in 2022.

Personal life

Asper is married to Ruth. Together, they have three adult children: Daniel, Rebecca and Max.

References

External links

The Asper Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asper, David 1958 births

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

Living people Canadian television executives Lawyers from Winnipeg Canadian Jews Canadian philanthropists University of Toronto alumni University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni California Western School of Law alumni