Marc Miller, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, has expressed concerns over a new exhibition at the government-funded Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg, which traces the history of forced displacement in Palestine. 

Titled “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present,” the show features artworks, photography, texts, and objects as well as video testimonies by Palestinian Canadians recounting their ongoing resistance to the Israeli occupation. On its website, the institution elaborates on the term “al-Nakba” (Arabic for “catastrophe”), which refers to the mass expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. 

In a June 29 interview with national news agency The Canadian Press, Miller criticized the presentation’s framing of the war in Gaza, saying, “It isn’t up to me to speak to, or insert myself in, the curation of any particular exhibit. But manifestly, you cannot deny the fact that this is an exhibit that is born in controversy… There are some words in there that are regrettable. Not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization is, I think, a failure.” (Since 2002, the Criminal Code of Canada has listed the Palestinian militant group Hamas as a terrorist entity.) Miller further admonished the museum for its “error in governance” upon hearing that the CMHR board allegedly did not see the exhibition before it launched. 

CMHR had come under fire after announcing the show in late 2025, with backlash culminating in a rally outside the venue the day before the opening on June 27. A few days prior, Isha Khan, CEO of CMHR, had told local media, “I think people want to see this work as a binary . . . and it isn’t. It’s . . . about [how] we find our shared humanity through our storytelling.” 

On June 22, Mark Berlin, a human rights lawyer and the museum’s only Jewish board member, resigned, attributing his decision to an “incomplete exhibit” that would “promote a one-sided, unbalanced interpretation of Israeli history, Zionism, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.” Following Berlin’s departure, Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, had urged Miller to intervene.

A CMHR spokesperson told Ocula that the show “is not a commentary on Zionism or anti-Zionism, nor is it a challenge to the legitimacy of the state of Israel.” Though they acknowledged Berlin’s grievances, they emphasized that “focusing . . . on the human [rights] violations faced by Palestinian Canadians does not negate the human rights violations faced by Jewish people.” The spokesperson added that Miller’s concerns will be addressed in an “established content revision process.”

Meanwhile, other Jewish organizations defended the institution and the show. Independent Jewish Voices Canada, together with the Jewish Faculty Network and the United Jewish Peoples’ Order, wrote a June 25 letter commending the museum for its commitment to “presenting Palestinian perspectives and engaging the public by sharing their experiences, histories, and ongoing realities.”

Sabrina Hau is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.