Alan Borovoy earned a Bachelor’s degree and an LLB by 1956.  By the time the Canadian Civil Liberties Association recruited Borovoy in 1968 to be its General Counsel, he had already distinguished himself with the Ontario Labour Committee for Human Rights (Jewish Labour Committee). In 1961 he had organized activists in Halifax and attracted a great deal of attention by taking up the cause of the residents of Africville, which led to the formation of the Halifax Advisory Committee on Human Rights.  A year later he was at the centre of a successful campaign to introduce legislation to ban racial discrimination in Ontario. When Aboriginals from Kenora approached Borovoy about discrimination and poor government services in the 1960s, he organized a large protest march to City Hall with hundreds of Aboriginals from neighbouring reserves to demand everything from telephones to an alcohol treatment centre (which were eventually provided).

Borovoy lived and worked all his life in Toronto where the CCLA is based. Borovoy would go on to lead the CCLA for the next four decades and become one of the most recognizable civil libertarians in Canada.

Further Reading

Borovoy, Alan. The New Anti-Liberals. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press Ltd., 1999.

Borovoy, Alan.Uncivil Obedience: The Tactics and Tales of a Democratic Agitator. Toronto: Lester Publishing Ltd., 1991.

Borovoy, Alan.When Freedoms Collide: The Case for Our Civil Liberties. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Denny's, 1988.