HR: Historians Recount, Les historiens(ne)s racotent
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Historian James Walker
James Walker is Professor of History at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. He has authored books and articles on the subject of human rights in Canada, including the Fair Practices legislation of the 1950s in Ontario. Professor Walker is recipient of the 2003 Bora Laskin National Fellow in Human Rights Research.
James Walker enseigne l’histoire à l’université de Waterloo, en Ontario. Il a signé plusieurs ouvrages et articles traitant des droits de la personne au Canada, et notamment des lois ontariennes des années 1950 sur l’interdiction de la discrimination. Le professeur Walker est récipiendaire du 2003 Bora Laskin National Fellow in Human Rights Research.

“There was racial discrimination in Canada as there was in most of the western world in the 1940s.

“In Ontario and later in the other provinces across Canada there was a coordinated movement to bring in fair employment and then fair accommodation practices acts.

“The entire fair practices thrust of the immediate postwar era was to stop the individual discrimination, not to correct broad social problems.

“The people who were doing this articulating (against discrimination) was a fairly small group. They formed around themselves a huge coalition, a huge network of others: labour unions, Christian church groups, Jewish groups, women's groups, The Canadian Legion, The Nurse’s Association, The United Nations charter (1945), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Their rhetoric could be utilized to show that Canada must act to eliminate those problems that Minority groups are facing in our country.

“There was an organization called The Joint Public Relations Committee – the Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith – to confront the issues
that were facing not only Jews, but any minorities at the time.”
James Walker
"Race," Book Cover
Source Material/Documentation
  1. James Walker. Race rights and the law in the Supreme Court of Canada: Historical Case Studies. Toronto and Waterloo: Osgoode Society and Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997.
  2. Grizzle, Stanley G. My name’s not George. Toronto: Umbrella Press, 1989.
  3. Archives of Ontario: Leslie Frost Papers, Department of Labour Papers.
  4. Buxton National Historical Site and Museum: National Unity Association Papers.
  5. Canadian Jewish Congress, National Archives (Montreal, Toronto): Joint Public Relations Committee Papers.
  6. Dresden Town Hall: Council Minutes.
  7. National Archives of Canada: Kalmen Kaplansky Papers, Jewish Labour Committee of Canada Papers.
  8. Ontario Labour Committee for Human Rights, Maxwell Cohen Papers.
  9. Ontario Jewish archives: Joint Public Relations Committee Papers, Fred M. Catzman Papers.