William Kaplan – författare

Frances Kelsey was a quiet Canadian doctor and scientist who stood up to a huge pharmaceutical company wanting to market a new drug - thalidomide - and prevented an American tragedy. The nature writer Rachel Carson identified an emerging environmental disaster and pulled the fire alarm. Public protests, individual dissenters, judges, and juries can change the world - and they do. A wide-ranging and provocative work on controversial subjects, Why Dissent Matters tells a story of dissent and dissenters - people who have been attacked, bullied, ostracized, jailed, and, sometimes when it is all over, celebrated. William Kaplan shows that dissent is noisy, messy, inconvenient, and almost always time-consuming, but that suppressing it is usually a mistake - it’s bad for the dissenter but worse for the rest of us. Drawing attention to the voices behind international protests such as Occupy Wall Street and Boycott, Divest, and Sanction, he contends that we don’t have to do what dissenters want, but we should listen to what they say. Our problems are not going away. There will always be abuses of power to confront, wrongs to right, and new opportunities for dissenting voices to say, "Stop, listen to me." Why Dissent Matters may well lead to a different and more just future.

Frances Kelsey was a quiet Canadian doctor and scientist who stood up to a huge pharmaceutical company wanting to market a new drug - thalidomide - and prevented an American tragedy. The nature writer Rachel Carson identified an emerging environmental disaster and pulled the fire alarm. Public protests, individual dissenters, judges, and juries can change the world - and they do. A wide-ranging and provocative work on controversial subjects, Why Dissent Matters tells a story of dissent and dissenters - people who have been attacked, bullied, ostracized, jailed, and, sometimes when it is all over, celebrated. William Kaplan shows that dissent is noisy, messy, inconvenient, and almost always time-consuming, but that suppressing it is usually a mistake - it’s bad for the dissenter but worse for the rest of us. Drawing attention to the voices behind international protests such as Occupy Wall Street and Boycott, Divest, and Sanction, he contends that we don’t have to do what dissenters want, but we should listen to what they say. Our problems are not going away. There will always be abuses of power to confront, wrongs to right, and new opportunities for dissenting voices to say, "Stop, listen to me." Why Dissent Matters may well lead to a different and more just future.

Several contributors deal with the quality of Canadian citizenship and the principle of distributive justice applied to all citizens. Others offer a "lament" for the Canadian nation, analysing and explaining why the vision of Canadian citizenship as an allegiance to the federation did not succeed in overcoming the varied loyalties pulling Canadians in different directions. Some authors celebrate this failure, arguing that maintaining dual alliance to the nation and province is more important. The essays reflect a consensus that Canada and Canadians have failed to give their citizenship meaning. One explanation for this, offered by the editor William Kaplan, is that Canadians are private about their patriotism, even if it is deeply felt. If Canadian citizenship is to endure, that patriotism will have to be more strongly and publicly expressed. Contributors to this volume are Daryl Bean, Neil Bissoondath, Robert Bothwell, Alan Cairns, Marc Cousineau, Robert Fulford, J.L. Granatstein, Darlene Johnston, William Kaplan, the late Paul Martin Sr, Rosella Melanson, Desmond Morton, Peter Neary, Maureen O''Neil, Robert J. Sharpe, Monique Simard, Glenda Simms, Daniel Turp, and Michael Walker. The essays by Simard and Turp are in French.

Written by distinguished scholars from Canada and abroad, the essays cover topics in four different fields that reflect some of Cohen''s principal academic interests and concerns: international law, public law, legal history, and legal education. From discussion of the development of United Nations law in the recent Gulf Conflict, the International Court of Justice, and the Cohen Committee on Hate Propaganda, to habeas corpus and legal education, the essays break new ground and demonstrably add, as Maxwell Cohen has done, to knowledge in their respective fields. The collection contains a preface by former Chief Justice Brian Dickson and essays by Anne Bayefsky, William Black, Irwin Cotler, Dale Gibson, Annemieke Holthuis, Julius Grey, William Kaplan, Louis Knafla, David McDonald, Roderick Macdonald, J.P.S. McLaren, Donald McRae, Edward McWhinney, Donat Pharand, Shabtai Rosenne, Oscar Schachter, Robert Sharpe, and William Stevenson. Maxwell Cohen was a former Dean of Law at McGill University. He is currently Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Ottawa.

Within weeks of leaving office, Mulroney was paid at least $225,000 in cash by Karlheinz Schreiber, an international arms dealer wanted in Germany for bribery and tax evasion. When confronted by Kaplan about the unexplained payment, Mulroney vehemently denied any wrongdoing: "Anyone who says anything about [the money] will be in for one fuck of a fight." At the root of Kaplan''s investigation is a secret trial and its stunning revelations - information that nearly escaped public attention. Only now, years later, is the former prime minister facing a public inquiry that threatens to permanently derail his reputation.

In Canadian Maverick, bestselling author William Kaplan critically examines the life and times of lawyer, politician, academic, and Supreme Court Justice Ivan C. Rand. Born to a working-class New Brunswick family, Rand's hard work and impressive intellect led to an extraordinary career that redefined Canada's legal landscape.Rand's 1943 appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada invigorated what was then a pedestrian institution. His work in labour law, including his development of the Rand Formula, and his key judgments in civil liberties cases inspired a generation of Canadian judges, lawyers, and law students.Kaplan's rigorous study encompasses Rand's legal contributions, his pivotal role in the creation of the State of Israel, and his position as founding dean of the University of Western Ontario's Faculty of Law. An absorbing account of a complex and sometimes contradictory figure, Canadian Maverick draws a compelling portrait of one of Canada's most influential legal minds.