Emmett Hall: Establishment Radical

Kenneth M. Glazier was Chief Librarian Emeritus at the University of Calgary, Alberta.

For forty years the name of Emmett Hall has been a household word and always with high regard for both his wisdom and his courage. Canada doesn’t have many living heroes, but Hall is one of them. He has played a vital role in Canadian history, as a Supreme Court Justice, Royal Commissioner and elder statesman, “father” of medicare, co-chairman of the 1968 Hall-Dennis report on education in Ontario, and a proponent of civil rights.

Anyone who takes up his pen to write a biography of such a man has a major responsibility not only to recount the varied and distinguished career, but also to portray the man behind the public figure. Gruending, journalist, prose writer, and poet, comes from the same Saskatchewan background where Hall spent his youth.

What kind of a man was Emmett Hall? In his professional life as a lawyer he was hard-working and demanding of all who worked with him. He did not hesitate to defend those who needed his help even if the cause was unpopular (as in the “Regina Riots of 1935”). But after the day in the office or in court he would spend a good deal of time in community endeavours (as chairman of the Catholic School Board in Saskatoon, with St. Paul’s Hospital Board, the Knights of Columbus, or the Red Cross). He had unusual energy and didn’t waste it. He believed in hard work as an important element in any endeavour. He also had a sense of social responsibility.

It is interesting that some of the issues that were raging then, and for which Emmett Hall made some far-reaching decisions, have re-emerged. Hall was one of the “fathers” of medicare. When the report of the Royal Commission on Health Care appeared on June 20, 1964, the medical profession were stunned. Instead of the CMA proposal that health insurance be provided privately through their plans, Hall ruled that there was to be a universal, compulsory, tax-financed insurance policy and a wide range of health services and hospital care. Today, only two provinces permit “extra billing” by the doctors, and Ontario is now taking steps to correct this procedure. Alberta will be the last hold-out on the erosion of medicare by extra billing.

This is not a sensational book, because Hall was not a sensational man. The book is a solid piece of work about a solid citizen who accepted increased responsibilities on the national level and won the respect of Canadians. The book should make Canadians proud that such a man lives in our generation.