Preface

• Author: Alan Borovoy
• Pages: 9-13

• ix •

eface

On July 1 2009, after more than forty-one years, I retired

from my position at the helm of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association

(CCLA). In October of the same year, I received an honorary doctorate

from the University of Waterloo. From the time that my retirement was

announced (a few months before it actually occurred) until and even be-

yond the Waterloo doctorate, I was questioned many times, by the press

and public, on the same subject: To what extent, if any, has Canada

improved on its record of human rights and civil liberties? Having done

so many interviews by the time the doctorate rolled around, I decided to

make this subject the theme of my convocation speech.

While acknowledging periodic f‌luctuations (every few years and

every few months) in the country’s human rights performance, I con-

cluded early on that the overall trajectory was in the direction of improve-

ment. Consider this example: a few years ago, a friend of mine doing

research at Queen’s University came upon a revealing document — the

minutes of the Queen’s Senate for October 29 1943. Under the heading

“Statistics on Jewish Registration,” the document read as follows:

At Toronto University . . . the percentage [of Jewish students] has been 6%

but in medicine 25–30% on occasion. The University is much concerned

about the situation in medicine. . . . At McGill University . . . Jewish stu-

dents in Arts . . . are admitted only on an academic standing of 75% or