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Kalmen Kaplansky was born in Byalistok, Russian Empire (present-day Poland) in 1912. He was a civil, human rights and trade union activist in Canada.
He emigrated to Canada in 1929. He worked as typesetter in Montreal, and started his trade union involvement in the Montreal Typographical Union. He was the secretary of the Montreal branch of the Labour Party of Canada from 1936 to 1938, and of the Workmen's Circles from 1940-1943. In 1939, just before the start of the war, he travelled to Poland in an unsuccessful bid to convince his family to emigrate to Canada : he returned in September 1939, aboard the SS Athenia, which was the first British ship sunk by the Germans at the start of the Second World War. He survived the sinking and was rescued. He served in the Canadian Armed Forces during the period 1943-1946. He was a lifelong member of the CCF, and latter the NDP.
As the head of the Jewish Labour Committee during 1946-1957, he was instrumental in fighting anti-semitism and all forms of racism and discriminations, organizing the Joint Labour Committees to Combat Racial Intolerance. His work helped bring about the Ontario Fair Employment Practices Act of 1951 that banned racial discrimination in hiring and influenced legislation across the country. In 1946, together with Moishe Lewis, he helped launch the "Tailors Project", bringing European Jewish refugees to Montreal to work in the needle trades.