Searching for Justice: An Autobiography

Christopher English is a professor of history at Memorial University of
Newfoundland. He is the author of A Cautious Beginning: The Emergence of
Newfoundland’s Supreme Court of Judicature in 1791–92.

Kaufman’s 40 years as law student, lawyer (notably on the criminal
side), and judge of appeals in Quebec were a preparation and prelude to
a remarkable post-retirement career in which he has chaired
precedent-setting inquiries: the functioning of Nova Scotia’s Public
Prosecution Service, itself a product of the extensive inquiry into the
conviction of Donald Marshall; labour-management relations in the
Nuclear Division of Ontario Hydro; restitution payments to National
Hockey League players in the wake of the Alan Eagleson affair; legal aid
in Ontario; the case of Leonard Peltier. Most notable for their impact
on the law and public policy were those he chaired into alleged wrongful
criminal convictions: Guy Paul Morin, and whether Stephen Truscott
should be offered a new trial. He has interesting and important things
to say on all these questions. In most cases, his findings have been
endorsed by the agencies that commissioned him. However, the case of the
deportation and imprisonment of Peltier seems stuck in the mud, a
classic case of non-disclosure of evidence in which the Canadian
government may have been intentionally misled. The longest-standing of
the wrongful conviction cases, that of Truscott, dating from 1959, is
still being played out.

This memoir falls within the genre of survival stories by potential
victims of war and persecution in the 20th century. Kaufman was
perspicacious and lucky in escaping Vienna early in World War II, and
the story of his parents’ survival in occupied Europe during the
Holocaust is a relatively happy one. As student, journalist, lawyer,
judge, and commissioner, Kaufman was buoyed by good cheer, a sense of
humour, a close and sustaining family, and an ability to make a
reasonable case for an exception to established rules, whether those for
entrance to university, law school, or the bar. A happy warrior indeed.