Kalmen Kaplansky

Kalmen Kaplansky, (born Kalman Kaplański) (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. 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.

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-Semitism to combat discrimination against all minorities and involve non-Jews, and the broader labour movement, in the JLC's civil rights work. Kaplansky also lobbied for the creation of a permanent committee on racial tolerance which the CCL established in 1948. 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 Labour Organization He was also an alternate member on Canada's delegation to UNESCO. They were able to do this through the federal government's "bulk-labour" program that allowed labour-intensive industries to bring European displaced persons to Canada, in order to fill those jobs.

Later life In his final years he was president of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation, which promotes education and research into social democracy.