Kaplansky, Kalmen, 1912-1997 : Kalmen Kaplansky was born in 1912 in Bialystok, Poland. He graduated from D. Druskina high school in 1929, and emigrated to Canada in December of that year. A printer by trade, Kaplansky worked in Montreal as a typesetter and linotype operator during 1932-1943. He was a member of the Montreal Typographical Union, Local 176 of the International Typographical Union, serving on the union's executive and as a delegate to meetings the Montreal Trades and Labor Council and the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada. Kaplansky was the secretary of the Montreal District Council of the Labour Party of Canada (Quebec Section) during 1936-1938, and was chairman of the Workmen's Circle in Montreal during ca. 1940-1943. He served with the Canadian Army during 1943-1946; while in the Army, he stood unsuccessfully in the 1944 Quebec provincial election as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) candidate in the riding of St. Louis. In 1946, Kaplansky was appointed National Director of the Jewish Labour Committee of Canada (JLC), a position he held until 1957. Through his postwar work with the JLC, Kaplansky took a leading role in building the human rights movement in Canada. During the 1940s and 1950s, Kaplansky and the JLC helped to organize Joint Labour Committees to Combat Racial Intolerance in several cities. Working closely with the Kaplansky and the JLC, these joint labour committees (and related provincial bodies, such as the Ontario Labour Committee for Human Rights) investigated complaints concerning discriminatory practices, organized support for human rights legislation, and sought to educate the Canadian public on human rights issues. Returning briefly to politics in 1950, Kaplansky stood unsuccessfully as the CCF candidate for a federal by-election in the riding of Cartier.
In 1957, the newly formed Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) appointed Kaplansky as the first director of its International Affairs Department; he was also secretary of the CLC's National Committee for Human Rights. While with the CLC, Kaplansky attended annual conferences of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, and during 1960-1966 he was a member of the Governing Body of the ILO. In 1963, he was a Canadian delegate to the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations. Kaplansky left the CLC in 1966, and from 1967 until his retirement in 1980 he was director of the Canadian Branch of the International Labour Office, and also Special Advisor to the ILO Director-General. (A unit of the ILO, the International Labour Office is responsible for research, investigations, technical co-operation, and publications; the Canadian branch was established during the Second World War, when the ILO was temporarily based at McGill University.) During 1967-1969 Kaplansky was the co-ordinator of the ILO's world-wide observances of its 50th anniversary.
Kaplansky also acted as a consultant and advisor to the federal government on several occasions, including serving as: chairman of the Special Staff Group on Employment and Economic Opportunities for Native Northerners, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, 1971-1974; member of the Economic Council of Canada, 1978-1988; member of the Refugee Status Advisory Committee, Employment and Immigration Commission,1978-1988; and advisor to the Minister of Labour, ca. 1979-1982. During 1980-1990, Kaplansky was a senior fellow of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Ottawa. He also active in many other organizations, including: the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (board of directors), the Canadian Hunger Foundation (trustee), and the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation (an organization established in 1971 in order to support research and study from a social democratic viewpoint; president). Kaplansky also had numerous speaking and writing engagements concerning human rights and international labour affairs.
Kaplansky's honours and awards include the Order of Canada (1980), an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa (1983), the CLC Award for Outstanding Service to Humanity (1984), the 125th Anniversary of Confederation Medal (1992), and the United Nations Association in Canada Medal of Honour (1995). Kalmen Kaplansky died in 1997.
