Edited by: Fern Sidman

Renowned Canadian human rights lawyer and former parliamentarian Irwin Cotler has dedicated more than six decades of his life to defending civil liberties, advancing Jewish advocacy, and championing oppressed people across the globe. Now approaching his 85th birthday on May 8, Cotler reflected in an interview with The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) on the key moments and inspirations that shaped his life’s mission—tracing it all back to a childhood baseball game in Montreal.

It was during a Montreal Royals game that Cotler’s father pointed to Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in Major League Baseball and a member of the visiting Brooklyn Dodgers, as a symbol of courage and civil rights. “It wasn’t that he was just a ballplayer,” his father told him. “He was the inspiration for the civil-rights movement in the United States.” That moment, Cotler told JNS, planted the seed for a career rooted in justice, equity, and public service.

Cotler went on to become one of Canada’s most respected legal minds and political figures. A former Member of Parliament representing the Montreal area, he served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Throughout his career, he combined legislative influence with principled human rights activism. He has taught law at McGill University and Harvard, and held fellowships at Yale University, amassing 11 honorary doctorates along the way.

JNS reported that his contributions to Canadian society have earned him the title of Officer of the Order of Canada (1992) and Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). In 2023, Israel recognized his unwavering commitment to the Jewish people with the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor, one of the nation’s highest civilian awards.

Cotler’s commitment to human rights found a global stage through his founding of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, where he continues to serve as international chair. As JNS reported, his work includes defending political prisoners, standing up to authoritarian regimes, and advocating for the rights of minorities in countries where democracy remains fragile or repressed.

In January 2024, Cotler was once again nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, his third such nomination following earlier nods in 2016 and 2019. The nomination came from notable voices in the Jewish and human rights communities, including Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, and famed former Soviet dissident and Israeli statesman Natan Sharansky.

“When it comes to human-rights lawyers who defend dissidents and political prisoners, there is no one more deserving of being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,” Steinberg told JNS.

Steinberg, who first met Cotler at an academic event in Montreal in 1998 where they discussed Iran’s destabilizing influence in the Middle East, described Cotler to JNS as “the world’s leading academic and practitioner in the realms of real human rights and international law.” Their ongoing collaboration focused on confronting the ways in which non-governmental organizations and United Nations bodies have been used to erode moral clarity in global politics.

Another of Cotler’s admirers, Hillel Neuer, executive director of United Nations Watch, called Cotler “a moral giant,” telling JNS that he “dedicated his life to fighting injustice, defending the oppressed, and advancing human rights.” Neuer, who studied under Cotler at McGill University, credits the veteran attorney and parliamentarian as a lifelong mentor and guiding force in his own activism.

Neuer shared with JNS a vivid memory of his first encounter with the man who would become his mentor.

At just nine years old, Neuer stood with a crowd in downtown Montreal on Avenue de Musée, protesting outside the Soviet consulate. Behind drawn curtains, Soviet officials watched silently as the demonstrators raised placards and shouted for the freedom of Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky and other Jewish refuseniks trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

“Standing on a makeshift stage and addressing the crowd with a bullhorn in his hands was our inspiring leader,” Neuer recalled. “This is one of my formative childhood memories, and my first experience as an activist for the Jewish people and human rights.”

Neuer later enrolled at McGill University, where he took every class Cotler taught, became his research assistant, and began his own career in international human rights law. “Professor Cotler is not only a master of the law,” Neuer told JNS, “but more importantly, he is a master of its application in the service of humanity.”

Irwin Cotler’s advocacy has always been deeply connected to his Jewish identity and the defense of Jewish communities worldwide. As the JNS report noted, Cotler served as Canada’s first special envoy for combating antisemitism, a position that allowed him to confront rising Jew-hatred both domestically and internationally.

Cotler’s career is marked by high-level diplomacy as much as grassroots advocacy. During the late 1970s, as the peace process between Israel and Egypt began to take shape, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat personally asked Cotler to act as an intermediary—delivering a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to initiate peace talks, the JNS report said. That interaction placed Cotler at the periphery of what would become the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Accord, a cornerstone of Middle East diplomacy.

Now, decades later, Cotler continues to serve as a critical figure in efforts to bring war criminals to justice. JNS reported that he is currently part of a high-level working group advocating for an independent international tribunal to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin for crimes related to the war in Ukraine—a campaign that seeks to classify Putin’s invasion as a “crime of aggression.”

“We have to use whatever resources we can to protect the oppressed and to hold the oppressors accountable,” Cotler told JNS. “That’s what the pursuit of justice is all about—securing justice for victims.”

From Soviet dissidents to Middle Eastern political prisoners to present-day journalists jailed in authoritarian regimes, Cotler has consistently placed his career in service to those who cannot speak for themselves. He views his freedom not as a privilege to be enjoyed in isolation, but as a tool to be used on behalf of those living in tyranny.

“When I see and witness what the political prisoners are enduring,” Cotler told JNS, “I say, ‘I live in a free and democratic country. I’m not living imprisoned by an axis of evil.’”

This worldview has informed Cotler’s work through his leadership at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, which he founded in Montreal to serve as an international platform for advocacy, legal support, and policy coordination on behalf of oppressed individuals and vulnerable communities.

Today, Cotler is particularly alarmed by insufficient law enforcement responses to pro-Hamas demonstrations across Canada. “I’m talking about pro-Hamas demonstrations,” he told JNS. “I can name half a dozen violations of the criminal code that are being committed all the time.” His comments reflect growing frustration among Jewish leaders who feel Canadian authorities are not doing enough to crack down on antisemitic incitement and hate speech.

Cotler has remained a leading voice in defending the rights of Jewish Canadians while also pushing back against international movements that demonize or delegitimize the State of Israel. His legal and diplomatic work has addressed antisemitism in the United Nations, challenged BDS rhetoric, and emphasized the importance of historical memory in preventing the repetition of atrocities.

Cotler’s Montreal home—where he spoke to JNS—is filled with photographs of his children and grandchildren, highlighting the personal values that animate his public work. Despite his many titles and accolades, Cotler views his career as a testament to the courage of those he’s represented: prisoners of conscience, dissidents, and the voiceless.

Cotler’s life’s work reflects a fusion of intellect and moral resolve, combining his deep legal expertise with a persistent refusal to accept injustice—whether in the halls of the United Nations or in the hidden prison cells of dictatorships.

Yet, for Cotler, the accolades are not the reward. As he told JNS, they represent recognition of the courage and resilience of those he’s defended, from Jewish prisoners of conscience to international dissidents and wrongly imprisoned journalists.

“I take this [Nobel Peace Prize nomination] to be in recognition of the cases and causes that I had the privilege to be involved with over the years, and the brave and courageous dissidents, human-rights defenders and political prisoners on whose behalf I had the honor and privilege to be involved.”

As global democracies wrestle with rising authoritarianism, growing antisemitism, and the erosion of human rights, Irwin Cotler remains a vital voice of conscience. His legacy is not only one of extraordinary legal achievement but of moral clarity, integrity, and purpose.

Through his scholarship, his activism, and his indomitable spirit, Cotler has redefined what it means to be a lawyer for justice, standing firm in the belief that freedom is only secure when it is extended to all.