David Matas (born 29 August 1943) is the senior legal counsel of

B'nai Brith Canada B'nai Brith Canada ( ; BBC; from he, בני ברית, b'né brit, Children of the Covenant) is a Canadian Jewish service organization and advocacy group. It is the Canadian chapter of B'nai B'rith International. Mission The organization pres ...

who currently resides in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

. He has maintained a private practice in

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

, and

human rights law International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, a ...

since 1979, and has published various books and manuscripts. Criticizing

impunity Impunity is avoidance of punishment, loss, or other negative consequences for an action. In the international law of human rights, impunity is failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a ...

for human rights abuses, Matas stated: "Nothing emboldens a criminal so much as the knowledge he can get away with a crime."

Early life and education

David Matas was born in

; his grandparents were immigrants from

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

. He obtained a B.A. from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

in 1965. In 1967, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Jurisprudence) from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

, England, and in 1968 he obtained a

Bachelor of Civil Law Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated BCL, or B.C.L.; la, Baccalaureus Civilis Legis) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and C ...

. In 1969, he became a

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Barrister, and he joined the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (un ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

in 1971.

Career

Government work

Matas served as a Law Clerk to the

Chief Justice of Canada The chief justice of Canada (french: juge en chef du Canada) is the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada, the highest judicial body in Canada. As such, the chief justice is the highest-ranking judge of the Canadian court sy ...

in 1968–69, and was a member of the Foreign Ownership Working Group,

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

, and was special assistant to the Solicitor General of Canada in 1971–72. He served as a member of the Canadian delegation to the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...

, the Task Force on Immigration Practices & Procedures, the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Conference on an

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individua ...

1998, the Canadian Delegation to the Stockholm International Forum on the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, and from 1997 until 2003, the Director of the International Centre for Human Rights & Democratic Development. On 13 November 2009, Matas was appointed to the board of this centre, also known as Rights and Democracy (R&D), which was headed by Professor Aural Braun. Shortly afterwards, a number of illicit actions by the staff of R &D and secret grants to radical organizations were exposed, and Matas joined Braun in initiating a major investigation. As a result of the investigations, funding was cut and in 2012, the government closed the Rights and Democracy framework.

Teaching work

Matas has also taught

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fed ...

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, Introductory Economics, Canadian Economic Problems,

International Law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

, Civil Liberties, and Immigration & Refugee Law, at the University of Manitoba.

Politics

David Matas ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

and 1980 federal elections as a Liberal candidate in

Winnipeg—Assiniboine Winnipeg—Assiniboine was a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 1988. This Riding (division), riding was created in 1976 from parts of Po ...

district and came in second place both times. In 2009, Matas was a signatory to a letter opposing the appointment of Christine Chinkin to a UN Human Rights Council fact finding mission on the 2008-2009 Gaza War (also known as the Goldstone Commission), alleging that Chinkin signed a prejudicial letter that indicated that, without examining the evidence, she "concluded that Israel was acting contrary to international law." Chinkin did not resign, and endorsed the UN

report A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents. Usage In ...

, which was later denounced as biased and ill-informed by one of its authors, Judge Goldstone. The report's other authors stand by its content and criticized Goldstone's reversal of position on it. In his book "Aftershock: Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism", Matas accused critics of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

's post-1967 war policies regarding the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

of having double standards in not also criticizing China's occupation of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

Human rights work

He has been actively involved as Director of the International Defence & Aid Fund for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

in Canada, Director of Canada-South Africa Cooperation, Co-chair Canadian Helsinki Watch Group, Director Manitoba Association of Rights & Liberties, Amnesty International, B'nai Brith Canada, the Canadian Bar Association, the International Commission of Jurists, Canadian Jewish Congress, and

Canadian Council for Refugees The Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR; formerly known as the Standing Conference of Canadian Organizations Concerned about/for/with Refugees) is a Montreal-based non-governmental organization that critiques the Government of Canada's public policy ...

. He represented

Lai Changxing Lai Changxing (born September 15, 1958) is a former Chinese businessman and entrepreneur. He was the founder and Chairman of Yuanhua Group, based in the Special Economic Zone of Xiamen. He imported foreign products like cars, cigarettes and ...

in his extradition proceedings. He is also counsel for ''Justice for Jews from Arab Countries'' and is co-author of "Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: The Case for Rights and Redress". He presented various papers on the legal issue of prosecuting war criminals in Bangladesh.

Organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China

In 2006, with

David Kilgour David William Kilgour (February 18, 1941 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadian human rights activist, author, lawyer, and politician. He was also a Senior Fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Kilgour graduated from the Univer ...

he released the Kilgour-Matas report,David Kilgour, David Matas (6 July 2006, revised 31 January 2007)
An Independent Investigation into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China
(free in 22 languages) organharvestinvestigation.net which stated "the source of 41,500 transplants for the six year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained" and "we believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners". In 2009, they published an updated version of the report as a book. They visited about 50 countries to raise awareness of the situation. Later Matas stated, "We estimate in the period between 2000 and 2005, there were 41,500 transplants which have no other explained source". In 2012, ''State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China'', edited by Matas and Torsten Trey, was published with essays from Gabriel Danovitch, Professor of Medicine, Arthur Caplan, Professor of Bioethics, Jacob Lavee, cardiothoracic surgeon, Ghazali Ahmad, Maria Fiatarone Singh, Torsten Trey, Ethan Gutmann and Matas. Ethan Gutmann interviewed over 100 witnesses and estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008. Jay Nordlinger (25 August 2014
"Face The Slaughter: The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China’s Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem, by Ethan Gutmann"
, National ReviewBarbara Turnbull (21 October 2014)

The Toronto StarEthan Gutmann (August 2014
The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting and China’s Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem
"Average number of Falun Gong in Laogai System at any given time" Low estimate 450,000, High estimate 1,000,000 p 320. "Best estimate of Falun Gong harvested 2000 to 2008" 65,000 p 322. amazon.com

CBA Committee on the Constitution

Matas is a member of the Canadian Bar Association. In 1977, following the election of the

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (; ; PQ) is a Quebec sovereignty movement, sovereignist and social democracy, social democratic provincial list of political parties in Quebec, political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates Quebec sovereignty movement ...

government the previous year, he was asked to sit on the CBA Committee on the Constitution. The committee's mandate was to study and make recommendations on the

Constitution of Canada The Constitution of Canada (french: Constitution du Canada) is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents a ...

. The members of the committee were drawn from each province of Canada, and included two future provincial premiers, a future Supreme Court of Canada justice, two future provincial chief justices, and a future Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. The Committee presented its report to the CBA at the next annual meeting, in 1978. The committee made wide-ranging recommendations for constitutional change, including a completely new constitution, abolishing the monarchy, changing the Senate, entrenching language rights and a bill of rights, and changing the balance of powers between the federal government and the provinces.

Works

* ''Justice Delayed: Nazi War Criminals in Canada'' (1987) with Susan Charendoff, * ''Closing the Doors: The Failure of Refugee Protection'' (1989) with Ilana Simon, * ''No More: The Battle Against Human Rights Violations'' (1996), * ''Bloody Words: Hate and Free Speech'' (2000), * ''Aftershock: Anti-Zionism & Antisemitism'' (2005), *
Bloody Harvest, The killing of Falun Gong for their organs
' (2009) with David Kilgour * ''Why Did You Do That?: The Autobiography of a Human Rights Advocate'' (2015),

Bnai Brith Canada, 2002 Matas has also appeared in the documentaries ''Red Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China's Prisoners'' (2013) and '' Human Harvest'' (2014).

Awards

Matas is the recipient of numerous honours and awards including: * Governor-General's Confederation Medal in 1992 * Outstanding Achievement Award from the Manitoba Association of Rights & Liberties in 1996 * League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada Midwest Region Human Rights Achievement Award in 1999 * Vancouver Interfaith Brotherhood Person of the Year 2006 * Appointed a member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the c ...

on October 23, 2008. *For their organ harvesting work Matas and Kilgour won the 2009 Human Rights Award from the German-based International Society for Human Rights and were nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

References

External links

Biography
at University of Winnipeg

at Canadian Political Science Students' Association {{DEFAULTSORT:Matas, David University of Manitoba alumni Princeton University alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford People from Winnipeg Lawyers in Manitoba Canadian people of Romanian-Jewish descent Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent 1943 births Living people Clerks of the Supreme Court of Canada