Kalmen Kaplansky
Encyclopedia
Kalmen Kaplansky, CM
(January 5, 1912- December 10, 1997) was a civil
, human rights
and trade union
activist in Canada. Alan Borovoy
described Kaplansky as "the zaideh" (grandfather) of the Canadian human rights movement.
Kaplansky was born in Białystok in what is now Poland
and emigrated to Montreal
after graduating from high school in 1929. He attempted to enroll at McGill University
but the university's registrar
told the young Jewish immigrant that "my job is to keep people like you out of the university."
He was a printer by profession and worked as a linotype operator and typesetter from 1932 to 1943. He was an active member of the Montreal Typographical Union (Local 176 of the International Typographical Union
) serving on its executive and as the local union's delegate to the Montreal Trades and Labour Council and to the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada
.
From 1936 to 1938 he was the secretary of the Montreal council of the Labour Party of Canada. He was also a leading activist in the Jewish community serving as chairman of the Workmen's Circle in Montreal from 1940 to 1943. He served with the Canadian Army from 1943 to 1946.
In August 1939, as World War II
loomed, Kaplansky returned to Białystok in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade his father and brothers to come to Canada. He boarded SS Athenia
to cross the Atlantic on his return trip in September 1939 and was one of the survivors when it became the first British ship to be sunk by the Germans
after Britain declared war.
to combat discrimination against all minorities and involve non-Jews, and the broader labour movement, in the JLC's civil rights work.
Kaplansky persuaded the Canadian division of the United Steel Workers of America to introduce a resolution at the 1947 Canadian Congress of Labour
convention calling for"vigorous action" on the part of the CCL and its affiliated unions in "the fight for full equality for all peoples, regardless of race, colour, creed, or national origin." Kaplansky also lobbied for the creation of a permanent committee on racial tolerance which the CCL established in 1948.
He also worked along the same lines with the CCL's rival, the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada working with Claude Jodoin
to write the Congress' Racial Discrimination Committee report in 1946 which called for the TLCC to take action against racial and religious intolerance calling them "dangerous ideas ... being used by our enemies to divide labor and to distract the attention of the working people of this country from the real issues facing them." Kaplansky also wrote a resolution to the TLC convention, introduced by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union which called for the establishment of "trade unions committees for racial tolerance."
Kaplansky and the JLC were thus able to organize Joint Labour Committees to Combat Racial Intolerance with the CCL and the TLC in Montreal, Toronto, Windsor, Winnipeg and Vancouver that fought against discrimination against minorities including Jews, Black Canadians, French Canadians and Roman Catholics and actively investigated and exposed complaints of discriminatory practices. These efforts are credited with bringing about laws against discriminatory hiring and accommodation practices in Ontario and elsewhere.
His work helped bring about the Ontario Fair Employment Practices Act of 1951 that banned racial discrimination in hiring and influenced legislation across the country.
Kaplansky was also chair of National Committee on Human Rights of the Canadian Labour Congress
, with the mandate being the "elimination of racial and religious discrimination in all areas of Canadian society and the promotion of equality of opportunity in employment, housing, and public accommodation for all residents of Canada." and was the first director of the Department of International Affairs of the Canadian Labour Congress. He also served as Canadian labour's representative of the International Labor Organization where he helped draft the ILO's Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958
which is the world standard for judging nations' laws and practices on the issue and is credited with earning the ILO the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1969.. He was also an alternate member on Canada's delegation to UNESCO
.
In 1947, Kaplansky and Moishe Lewis
spearheaded "The Tailors Project" by the Workmen's Circle and Jewish Labour Committee to bring European Jewish refugees to Montreal to work in the needle trades They were able to do this through the federal government's "bulk-labour" program that allowed labour intensive industries to bring European displaced person
s to Canada, in order to fill those jobs.
(CCF) and, its successor, the New Democratic Party
. While serving in the army he was an unsuccessful Quebec CCF candidate in the 1944 Quebec provincial election
. He later ran in a 1950 federal by-election in Cartier
.
, which promotes education and research into social democracy
. Kaplansky died on International Human Rights Day in 1997.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(January 5, 1912- December 10, 1997) was a civil
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
activist in Canada. Alan Borovoy
Alan Borovoy
Alfred Alan Borovoy is a Canadian lawyer best known as the general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association .He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1953 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1956 from the University of Toronto. He has been awarded four honorary doctorates. He was admitted to the Ontario...
described Kaplansky as "the zaideh" (grandfather) of the Canadian human rights movement.
Kaplansky was born in Białystok in what is now Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and emigrated to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
after graduating from high school in 1929. He attempted to enroll at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
but the university's registrar
Registrar (academic)
In education outside the United Kingdom, a registrar or registrary is an official in an academic institution who handles student records. Typically, a registrar processes registration requests, schedules classes and maintains class lists, enforces the rules for entering or leaving classes, and...
told the young Jewish immigrant that "my job is to keep people like you out of the university."
He was a printer by profession and worked as a linotype operator and typesetter from 1932 to 1943. He was an active member of the Montreal Typographical Union (Local 176 of the International Typographical Union
International Typographical Union
The International Typographical Union was a labor union founded on May 3, 1852 in the United States as the National Typographical Union. In its 1869 convention in Albany, New York, the union—having organized members in Canada—changed its name to the International Typographical Union...
) serving on its executive and as the local union's delegate to the Montreal Trades and Labour Council and to the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada
Trades and Labour Congress of Canada
The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada was a Canada-wide central federation of trade unions from 1883 to 1956. It was founded at the initiative of the Toronto Trades and Labour Council and the Knights of Labor...
.
From 1936 to 1938 he was the secretary of the Montreal council of the Labour Party of Canada. He was also a leading activist in the Jewish community serving as chairman of the Workmen's Circle in Montreal from 1940 to 1943. He served with the Canadian Army from 1943 to 1946.
In August 1939, as World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
loomed, Kaplansky returned to Białystok in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade his father and brothers to come to Canada. He boarded SS Athenia
SS Athenia
The S.S. Athenia was the first British ship to be sunk by Nazi Germany in World War II.-Description:Athenia was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Ltd., and was launched at Govan, Scotland in 1923. She was built for Anchor-Donaldson Ltd.'s route between Britain and Canada...
to cross the Atlantic on his return trip in September 1939 and was one of the survivors when it became the first British ship to be sunk by the Germans
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
after Britain declared war.
Human rights activism
As the national director of the Jewish Labour Committee from 1946 to 1957, Kaplansky was a leading advocate for anti-discrimination efforts; he believed that it was necessary to extend the JLC's mandate beyond fighting anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
to combat discrimination against all minorities and involve non-Jews, and the broader labour movement, in the JLC's civil rights work.
Kaplansky persuaded the Canadian division of the United Steel Workers of America to introduce a resolution at the 1947 Canadian Congress of Labour
Canadian Congress of Labour
The Canadian Congress of Labour was founded in 1940 and merged with Trades and Labour Congress of Canada to form the Canadian Labour Congress in 1956.-Founding:...
convention calling for"vigorous action" on the part of the CCL and its affiliated unions in "the fight for full equality for all peoples, regardless of race, colour, creed, or national origin." Kaplansky also lobbied for the creation of a permanent committee on racial tolerance which the CCL established in 1948.
He also worked along the same lines with the CCL's rival, the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada working with Claude Jodoin
Claude Jodoin
Claude Jodoin was a Canadian trade unionist and politician. He served as the first president of the Canadian Labour Congress from 1956 to 1966.-Background:...
to write the Congress' Racial Discrimination Committee report in 1946 which called for the TLCC to take action against racial and religious intolerance calling them "dangerous ideas ... being used by our enemies to divide labor and to distract the attention of the working people of this country from the real issues facing them." Kaplansky also wrote a resolution to the TLC convention, introduced by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union which called for the establishment of "trade unions committees for racial tolerance."
Kaplansky and the JLC were thus able to organize Joint Labour Committees to Combat Racial Intolerance with the CCL and the TLC in Montreal, Toronto, Windsor, Winnipeg and Vancouver that fought against discrimination against minorities including Jews, Black Canadians, French Canadians and Roman Catholics and actively investigated and exposed complaints of discriminatory practices. These efforts are credited with bringing about laws against discriminatory hiring and accommodation practices in Ontario and elsewhere.
His work helped bring about the Ontario Fair Employment Practices Act of 1951 that banned racial discrimination in hiring and influenced legislation across the country.
Kaplansky was also chair of National Committee on Human Rights of the Canadian Labour Congress
Canadian Labour Congress
The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in English Canada to which most Canadian labour unions are affiliated.- Formation :...
, with the mandate being the "elimination of racial and religious discrimination in all areas of Canadian society and the promotion of equality of opportunity in employment, housing, and public accommodation for all residents of Canada." and was the first director of the Department of International Affairs of the Canadian Labour Congress. He also served as Canadian labour's representative of the International Labor Organization where he helped draft the ILO's Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958
Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958
The Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation or Discrimination Convention is an International Labour Organization Convention. It is one of 8 ILO fundamental conventions...
which is the world standard for judging nations' laws and practices on the issue and is credited with earning the ILO the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in 1969.. He was also an alternate member on Canada's delegation to UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
.
In 1947, Kaplansky and Moishe Lewis
Moishe Lewis
Moishe Lewis was a Jewish labour activist in eastern Europe and Canada. A tanner by trade, he was born and raised in the Svisloch shtetl in the Russian Empire...
spearheaded "The Tailors Project" by the Workmen's Circle and Jewish Labour Committee to bring European Jewish refugees to Montreal to work in the needle trades They were able to do this through the federal government's "bulk-labour" program that allowed labour intensive industries to bring European displaced person
Displaced person
A displaced person is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration.- Origin of term :...
s to Canada, in order to fill those jobs.
Electoral politics
Politically, Kaplansky was active with the Co-operative Commonwealth FederationCo-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...
(CCF) and, its successor, the New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
. While serving in the army he was an unsuccessful Quebec CCF candidate in the 1944 Quebec provincial election
Quebec general election, 1944
The Quebec general election of 1944 was held on August 8, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The Union Nationale, led by former premier Maurice Duplessis, defeated the incumbent Quebec Liberal Party, led by Adélard Godbout...
. He later ran in a 1950 federal by-election in Cartier
Cartier (electoral district)
Cartier was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1925 to 1968.It was created in 1924 from parts of George-Étienne Cartier riding....
.
Later life
In his final years he was president of the Douglas-Coldwell FoundationDouglas-Coldwell Foundation
The Douglas-Coldwell Foundation is a Canadian think tank devoted, in the words of its slogan, to "promoting education and research into social democracy." It was founded in 1971, and is based in Ottawa....
, which promotes education and research into social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
. Kaplansky died on International Human Rights Day in 1997.