Jacob Finkelman (January 17, 1907 – December 21, 2003) QC OC was a Canadian legal scholar and jurist. He was an authority on Canadian labour law.
Early life and education edit
Jacob Finkelman was born in Poltava on January 17, 1907.[1] He came to Canada with his parents eight months after he was born and settled in Hamilton, Ontario.[2][3] He received a BA in 1926, an MA in 1932, and an LLB in 1933, all from the University of Toronto.[1]
Career edit
Finkelman became a lecturer at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1930.[4] William Paul McClure Kennedy, then dean of the faculty, spoke in favour of the appointment to Robert Falconer, the university's president.[5] When he was named an assistant professor in 1934, Finkelman was the first Jew to become a full-time professor at the university.[6] He was an assistant professor at the faculty from 1934 to 1939, an associate professor from 1939 to 1944, and a full professor from 1944 to 1954.[1]
Finkelman presided over his first labour arbitration in 1937, when he was asked by a garment union to adjudicate a dispute.[7] In 1944, Finkelman was named the first chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board.[8] He chaired the board until 1947, and then again from 1953 to 1967.[9] In 1967, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson named Finkelman the first chair of the Public Service Staff Relations Board (now the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board), a federal tribunal.[10]
Finkelman was named a King's Counsel in 1946.[1][11] He was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada in 1976[12] and received an honorary LLD from York University in 1977.[13]
Death edit
Notes edit
- ^ a b c d The Canadian Who's Who. Toronto: Trans-Canada Press. 1966. p. 342. ISSN 0068-9963. OCLC 861641402.
- ^ Friedland 2020, p. 156.
- ^ Kaplan, Goldenberg & Martin 1991, p. xi.
- ^ Friedland 2013, p. 235.
- ^ Friedland 2020, p. 155.
- ^ Friedland 2013, pp. 307–308.
- ^ Kaplan, Goldenberg & Martin 1991, p. xii.
- ^ Friedland 2020, p. 157.
- ^ "Jacob Finkelman, O.C., Q.C., LL.D". Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
- ^ Kaplan, Goldenberg & Martin 1991, p. xv.
- ^ a b Roesler, Kelly (December 24, 2003). "Pioneer 'professor' taught first labour law class in Canada". Ottawa Citizen. p. 29. Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Mr. Jacob Finkelman". Governor General of Canada. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
- ^ Kaplan, Goldenberg & Martin 1991, p. xvi.
Sources edit
- Friedland, Martin (September 7, 2020). Searching for W.P.M. Kennedy: The Biography of an Enigma. University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781487533915. ISBN 978-1-4875-3391-5. S2CID 226740332.
- Friedland, Martin (2013). The University of Toronto: A History (2nd ed.). University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-1536-6. OCLC 871355685.
- Kaplan, William; Goldenberg, Shirley; Martin, W. Steward (1991). "A Profile of Jacob Finkelman, O.C., Q.C., LL.D". In Kaplan, William; Sack, Jeffrey; Gunderson, Morley (eds.). Labour Arbitration Yearbook. Vol. 1. Toronto: Butterworths; Lancaster House. pp. xi–xvi. ISBN 9780409898675. OCLC 1150045988.