Alan Borovoy remembered

Alan Borovoy was General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association for over 40 years. He died on May 11th at the age of 83, He will be honoured by friends and colleagues on June 30th in Toronto, for his tireless work defending rights and freedoms.

“It was his life; it was his joy, you know he lived civil liberties.”

The CCLA is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to safeguard the rights of all Canadians.

Danielle McLaughlin, Director of Education for the CCLA and Education Trust worked with Alan Bovoroy for 28 years. She says ‘his insight into all of the wide variety of issues that he became involved with was remarkable and I just fear that there’s not going to be anybody quite like Alan again, he was somebody who really saw Canada in a unique way.

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Borovoy never married and did not have children but McLaughlin says of the CCLA, “it was his life; it was his joy, you know he lived civil liberties.”

“His insight into all of the wide variety of issues that he became involved with was remarkable and I just fear that there’s not going to be anybody quite like Alan again, he was somebody who really saw Canada in a unique way”.

Even when he didn’t agree with them, Borovoy fought for people’s right to freedom of expression. He denounced the prosecutions of notorious neo-Nazi, Ernst Zundel and the anti-semitic schoolteacher Jim Keegstra in 1985.

The author of five books, including, Categorically Incorrect: Ethical Fallacies in Canada’s War on Terror, Borovoy also wrote a bi-weekly column in the Toronto Star.  He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1982  High-profile Toronto lawyer, Clayton Ruby told the Toronto Star that Borovoy hated bigotry and stupidity.  “This is not only morally wrong, Ruby said paraphrasing Borovoy, “This makes no sense; this is dumb.”

“The fact that the organization has been able to grow in the ways that it has is thanks to the way he got everything started.” according to Danielle McLauglin.