Beryl P. Wajsman
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Beryl P. Wajsman is the founder and current president of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, a Canadian think-tank.
After completing his undergraduate studies in government, history and economics, Mr. Wajsman went on to receive his B.C.L and LL.B. degrees from the McGill University Law School. During those years he helped found the Project Genesis anti-poverty group, was an active member of the Montreal Committee for Soviet Jewry, served as legislative director and chief investigator for the Commission on Economic Coercion and Discrimination and chaired the first McGill Symposium on the Holocaust. Following his graduation he served as editor of the Canadian cultural quarterly Viewpoints, and then embarked on a career that has encompassed public policy and public advocacy.
Starting as an organizer and Liberal executive member under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Mr. Wajsman's involvements in the Canadian capital Ottawa have included directing a Privy Council sponsored future studies report on Access to Justice in Canada; membership of the Canadian Consultative Commission on Multiculturalism; service in the Ministry of Justice on regulatory policy related to labour and finance; and background staff work for the Law Reform Commission. He has also acted as an advisor to several ministers and Members of Parliament, participated in both Quebec Referendums on Sovereignty as a member of the federalist legal advisory team and assisted in projects of the Millennium Initiative conducted under the direction of the office of the Rt. Hon. Herbert Eser Gray.
He gained international experience in urban development, social housing and public finance by consulting on important infrastructure projects in the United States, France, and Venezuela. These included the revitalization of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York which saw the creation of 15,000 new jobs in a joint venture between 40 private employers, major unions and the City administration; the refinancing of Les Industries Blancomme of Paris, which secured the positions of 1500 workers in its rural plants; and the completion of Desarollo Urbanistico Caroni which built housing for 11,000 workers near Caracas.
He has built his Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal into one of Canada's largest public interest advocacy alliances. Counting over 2000 national political, labor, corporate, and communal leaders as members or associates, its stated goal is to pursue the pragmatic advancement of progressive action on social justice in Canada. It considers its most important achievement to be its success in bringing together big business and big labor in common cause with activists representing the most unempowered and disenfranchised in society.
With the support of labor leaders such as Edward Brandone of the FTQ, he developed plans for one of the first large scale social housing programs in Montreal. The multi-stage project, known as Habitations Louis-Laberge, established a paradigm for 2,000 unit communities. Forming a unique corporate-labor partnership, he has attacked the problem of hunger by strengthening the Quebec Food Bank Network by increasing its capacity by 50 tons per month and insuring a flow of resources to the "Lawyers Feed the Homeless" program in Toronto which serves 1500 people a week. He helped develop and broaden the MedExtra Healthcare Plan that, through special relationships with 1400 medical centres in North America, reduces the cost of medical procedures by up to 70% for patients requiring immediate treatment who cannot afford the wait time in the public system.
As demands have grown, the Institute has responded to many requests for help from social action groups such as Dans La Rue, the Committee for Justice for the Duplessis Orphans, Sister Andrée Menard's PROMIS Refugee Organization, Share the Warmth, Femmes du monde contre la pauvreté, le Carrefour des communautés du Québec and the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. Following his work on the Montreal Task Force on Municipal Mergers, Mr. Wajsman moved the Institute to form the Council on Community Conciliation with cultural and ethnic leaders such as the Rev. Darryl Gray, to combat the urban blight of racism and alienation. Working with support groups for seniors, Mr. Wajsman helped organize the first major conference that shed light on the issue of financial abuse of the elderly. His legislative initiatives have included the authoring of a Private Members Bill aimed at Public Curator reform and another on credit collection agency reform and oversight.Two important areas of current concern are protection of privacy issues and aiding citizens facing abusive behaviour by federal and provincial revenue departments. The Institute is also concluding a major report advocating the institution of a guaranteed annual income for all Canadians.
Mr Wajsman created the Institute's Centre for Democratic Development to combat what he sees as complacency among Canadians. The Centre has pressed for a more active engagement by Canada with its traditional allies and discarding the bankrupt doctrines of moral relativism and political equivalency. Addressing the urgency of protecting civil liberties while maintaining heightened national security, it organized a major conference on this subject with former CIA Director James Woolsey. Working with elements of the Canadian Forces and the Conference of Defense Associations, the Institute has also advocated for increased military capacity and budgets.
In addition to leading demonstrations condemning the actions of the Sudanese government, the Institute has formed the Canadian Rescue Committee for the Children of Darfur. Working with advice from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Committee has brought together some dozen national organizations whose members are offering Canadian homes for orphaned refugee children. The Institute has also assisted the Kinderbaum Foundation of Switzerland, directed by Dr. Michael Schmitz of Rome, in its work of building orphanages and training schools for abandoned South African orphans whose parents have died of AIDS. One of the Institute's most recent successes was the first partnership between the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a Canadian NGO which saw the Institute and Team EMS organize dozens of paramedics to help in the SCLC’s Delta Relief Project in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina devastation.
Mr. Wajsman's views and writings have appeared in many publications ranging from Time Magazine the National Post, Canada Free Press and the Jerusalem Post. He is a frequent political and public policy commentator on radio and television. In August of 2005 the Institute launched its own journal called Barricades. In January 2006 Mr. Wajsman began a special series of radio newsmagazine programs called "The Last Angry Man" for Corus Radio out of its Montreal affiliate 940AM.
Mr. Wajsman is a member of the University Club of Montreal; the McGill Faculty Club and the National Press Club of Ottawa. Among his citations from charitable, communal and volunteer organizations are the Community Service Award from the International Academy of Law and Mental Health and the Medal of Merit from the Association for the Welfare of the Soldiers of Israel. He was recently named one of the Présidents d'honneur of UNICEF Canada's 50th anniversary celebration.
[edit] Gomery Inquiry
Mr. Wajsman is probably best know to Canadians for his small but colorful appearance at the Gomery Commission into the Federal sponsorship scandal in May of 2005. Mr. Wajsman was accused of accepting an envelope stuffed with $5,000 that Liberal fundraiser Jean Brault left on a chair at a Montreal Italian restaurant. Mr. Wajsman vigorously denied charges and was not charged with anything illegal, although he has been barred for life from the Federal Liberal Party of Canada along with a dozen other individuals involved named in the Gomery Inquiry.
