Respected judge dies after house fire
San Grewal, The Toronto Star Staff Reporter
TORONTO -- When Canadian legal icon Sam Filer reached the height of his career, he refused to let a debilitating condition slow him down. The man who had earlier helped persecuted Jewish citizens of the former Soviet Union continued his dogged fight for human rights.


Shortly after he was appointed an Ontario District Judge (now referred to as Ontario Superior Court Judge) in 1984, Filer was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which eventually paralyzed him from the neck down.


On Wednesday, after a fire at his home, he died at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre of complications related to his condition.


During a memorial service yesterday, Filer's wife Toni Silberman asked those in attendance to remember her husband as both a courageous champion of human rights and a beloved family man and friend to all those he loved.


She singled out her husband's close relationship with her mother -- whom Filer invited on their honeymoon -- and her sister, Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella.


His legacy, she said, will live on in the memories of all those he touched.


"He had a fundamental interest in people and their concerns," said Patrick LeSage, former Chief Justice of the Ontario Superior Court. "I was there when he was appointed in 1984 and we became not only colleagues, but close friends."


LeSage spoke at yesterday's service at Benjamin's Park Memorial on Steeles Ave. W., detailing Filer's illustrious career as a corporate lawyer with a personal interest in human rights and then his remarkable career as a judge.


He told the Star about the work that set Filer apart.


"There was a group in Canada started around the late '70s, early '80s, called the Canadian Committee of Lawyers and Jurists for Soviet Jewry, to promote the cause of Jews in the (former) Soviet Union. Sam was one of the co-founders."


The group was instrumental in putting pressure on the Russian government to allow often-persecuted Jewish citizens to emigrate. Filer made regular trips overseas and the movement eventually helped thousands of Jewish Russians come to Canada and other western countries, long before the cold war ended.


"When he was diagnosed with ALS, it was obviously tremendously traumatic and upsetting to he and Toni," LeSage said.


"As it progressed, though, what you saw was this tremendous strength of character and sheer courage you might not have seen before. It began to shine."


In 1999 Filer was honoured with a special award by B'nai Brith's League for Human Rights.


"He had an absolutely stellar reputation, not just with one organization, but with an entire range of Jewish organizations," said Frank Dimant, vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada, said in a phone interview from Florida. "He was a natural leader."


Filer chaired the national Civil Liberties Section of the Canadian Bar Association and its Ontario branch, and was also on the national executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, which honours other distinguished members with an award in Filer's name.


Eventually, however, the ALS -- a progressive fatal neurological disease -- began to take its toll. Although he continued working as a judge with the help of a speaking device, the rigors of the job finally caught up with him. He retired from the bench in 2004. Sam Filer is survived by his wife, their four children, and eight grandchildren.