Wpg Free Press: ‘A true servant of the people’

As the Winnipeg Free Press reports on alumnus Saul Cherniack [LLB/39]:

A Manitoba politician and army veteran who helped amalgamate the City of Winnipeg, oversaw the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and advocated for Japanese-Canadians’ rights after the Second World War has died.

Saul Cherniack packed a lot of life into his 101 years. He died early Friday in his sleep, his son Lawrie Cherniack said.

“He never cared if he got elected. What he cared was if he did what he felt was the right thing. And he was always willing to change his mind if he felt there was something to be changed,” Cherniack said.

His father served as a New Democrat MLA for St. Johns from 1962 to 1981. He served as finance and urban affairs minister during the Edward Schreyer government.

Some of his son’s most vivid memories of his dad stem from his years spent visiting outlying suburbs, trying to convince residents why they ought to amalgamate into a unicity (which happened in 1972).

Cherniack would make presentations and then field questions for hours, his son remembered.

“And at the end of the day, I think it’s fair to say, even if people disagreed with him, they respected him and understood that he was acting on principles and with the best of intentions,” Cherniack said.

Read the full Free Press story here.

Read the CBC story here.