Don Whiteside
Don Whiteside was an influential figure in the realm of civil liberties in Canada, born in New York in 1931 and of Native North American descent. He served in the U.S. military during the Korean War before pursuing academic achievements, earning a doctorate in sociology from Stanford University in 1967. Whiteside held various roles within the Canadian government and played a significant part in developing human rights programs. He co-founded the Ottawa branch of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), which successfully advocated for the rights of young newspaper vendors in Ottawa.
In 1972, advocating for government funding to support civil liberties initiatives, Whiteside and like-minded individuals broke away from the CCLA to establish the Canadian Federation of Civil Liberties and Human Rights Associations. Despite their efforts, his new organization struggled to gain the recognition that the CCLA received, especially following the passage of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. Whiteside's health declined due to cancer in the early 1990s, leading to the dissolution of the Federation in 1992, shortly before his death in 1993. His contributions to civil liberties are preserved in the archives housed at Trent University, reflecting his longstanding impact on human rights advocacy in Canada.
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Subject Terms
Don Whiteside
Sociologist, author, rights activist
- Born: 1931
- Birthplace: New York
- Died: 1993
Also known as: Sin-a-paw
Significance: Don Whiteside was a sociologist, author, and founder of the Ottawa-region branch of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Much of Whiteside’s work studying the Indigenous population of Canada was archived and made available to scholars in 2000.
Background
Prior to 1964, the primary civil liberties group in Canada had been the Association for Civil Liberties. Although the group was intended to have a national scope, its focus began to shift more toward Ontario, prompting the nation’s human rights leaders to create a new organization, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), to serve the country as a whole. The effort was prompted by a 1964 bill that gave Canadian police increased powers to fight organized crime.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association remains active into the twenty-first century. Among its more influential accomplishments was helping to draft the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a list of rights formally enshrined in the Canadian Constitution in 1982. The Charter ensures freedom of speech, the press, due legal process, the right to a fair trial, and other basic human rights.
Life’s Work
Don Whiteside was born in New York in 1931. His parents were Thereon Harvey and Dorothy Whiteside. Whiteside was of Native North American descent and was given the traditional name Sin-a-paw upon his birth.
Whiteside served in the US military during the Korean War (1950–1953). He attended Stanford University in California and earned his doctorate in sociology from the school in 1967. Whiteside began working for the Canadian government in the Department of Regional Economic Expansion, the Department of Secretary of State, and the Department of Health and Welfare. He also taught at Manitou Community College, which at the time was the only college specifically for the nation’s Indigenous communities. The school closed in the 1970s. He was also director of the Ontario Genealogical Society.
In 1968, Whiteside was working for the Department of Secretary of State’s Group Understanding and Human Rights Section where he helped develop the federal government’s human rights programs. He was one of the co-founders of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s Ottawa branch, officially called the Civil Liberties Association National Capital Region (CLA NCR).
The group took up the case of young newspaper vendors who were being harassed by police at Ottawa’s Sparks Street Mall. The vendors were distributing an alternative paper called Octopus. However, the police claimed they needed a permit from the mall authority and confiscated their papers. The CLA NCR pointed out that larger, mainstream newspapers were also being distributed along the mall without permits, but only Octopus was targeted. After almost two years of negotiation, the CLA NCR was successful in allowing the Octopus vendors to distribute their papers at the mall.
While a member of the CLA NCR, Whiteside advocated that the group should seek government funding to help run its operations. This stance was met with resistance by the national president of the CCLA, who wanted the group to be free of government assistance to maintain an appearance of independence. In 1972, Whiteside and several other human rights organizers who agreed with his position split from the CCLA and founded the Canadian Federation of Civil Liberties and Human Rights Associations.
Despite the group’s work fighting for human rights in Canada, Whiteside’s Federation could not escape the shadow of the CCLA. He was frustrated by the national media’s focus on the CCLA at the expense of his group. When Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms was passed in 1982, the CCLA received the lion’s share of the credit for drafting the proposal.
In the early 1990s, Whiteside was diagnosed with cancer and had to step away from his work. Without him as leader, the Federation of Civil Liberties and Human Rights Associations ceased operations in 1992. Whiteside died in 1993.
Impact
The archives of Whiteside’s work were placed in the care of the National Library of Canada before they were donated in 2000 to Trent University by David Newhouse, a professor of Indigenous Studies at the school. The archives consist of Whiteside’s written records, cassette tapes of interviews, and visual slides.
Personal Life
In 1956, Whiteside married Alvina Helen Adams. The couple had five children.
Bibliography
“Aboriginal Collections and Library Services in Canadian Research Libraries.” Canadian Association of Research Libraries, Aug. 2014, www.carl-abrc.ca/doc/Aboriginal‗research‗collections‗and‗libary‗services‗AGM‗2014-final.pdf. Accessed 5 July 2023.
“About Us.” Canadian Civil Liberties Association, 2023, ccla.org/about-us/. Accessed 5 July 2023.
Clément, Dominique. Canada’s Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social Change, 1937–82. UBC Press, 2009.
“Don Whiteside Fonds.” Trent University, archives.trentu.ca/index.php/04-004. Accessed 5 July 2023.
“Ontario.” Canada’s Human Rights History, 2023, historyofrights.ca/encyclopaedia/social-movements/rights-associations-second-generation/ontario/. Accessed 5 July 2023.