Morris Shumiatcher

Morris Cyril "Shumy" Shumiatcher, OC SOM QC (September 20, 1917 – September 23, 2004) was a Canadian lawyer best known for his contribution to the field of human rights and civil liberties.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, a son to Luba Lubinsky and Abraham Shumiatcher (1890–1974), he received a BA in 1940 and a LL.B in 1941 from the University of Alberta. He received his LL.M in 1942 from the University of Toronto. From 1943 to 1945, he served with the Royal Canadian Air Force as an air gunner. After the war, he received his PhD (as distinguished from the undergraduate degree J.D. or Doctor of Jurisprudence currently offered by the University of Toronto) from the University of Toronto.

In 1946, he moved to Regina, Saskatchewan at the invitation of Tommy Douglas to become law officer of the Attorney General. He soon became the personal assistant to Douglas. In 1948, he was appointed the youngest King's Counsel in the Commonwealth of Nations, in order to argue a case before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, United Kingdom. His law office was in an independent building south of the Hotel Saskatchewan on Scarth Street; his wife Jacqueline Shumiatcher was a high school teacher at Sacred Heart Academy on 13th Avenue.

He was the author of the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights, the model for the Canadian Bill of Rights. It was the first Bill of rights in Canada and was one year before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 1949, he left government to practise private law and appeared in his practice many times before the Supreme Court of Canada.

For 14 years he was an honorary consul general for Japan and Dean of the Consular Corps for Saskatchewan.

He authored Welfare: Hidden Backlash in 1971 and Man of Law: A Model in 1979.

In 1981, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1996, he was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.

References

• Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan entry