Life and times of the late senator David Croll

By Senator Jerry S. Grafstein, Q.C.

THE SENATE OF CANADA

May I thank Professor Arnold Ages and Ms. Evelyn Lazar and the organizers of this series for the privilege of lighting a candle of remembrance on the great work of the late David Croll! I am delighted that his daughter, grandchildren and other members of his family are here today. I hope I can do justice to the late David Croll.

The story of David Croll is a legend, a forgotten Canadian legend. His story briefly intersects with mine but I will come to that later. His life almost spanned the 20th Century called by Isaiah Berlin “the most terrible Century in western history.” This was the most terrible century for Jews in all history. One of every three Jews was killed in what I call the “Killing Century”. And, it was in this century that David Croll was born and played a pivotal role in the lives of Jews in Canada.

Let me start by sketching the remarkable rise of David Croll, from the small town in White Russia, to the centre of power in Ottawa and the visible and not so visible barriers he faced and overcame along the path to power and prominence.

David Croll was born in the Pale of the Settlement called “White Russia” in 1900 and came to Canada as a boy of 8, to escape the pogroms against Jews in Czarist Russia.

His family settled in Windsor, then a small town. There he did what all immigrant boys did. He worked to help his parents and siblings survive.

For them and for him, Canada was a dream of hope, a country with streets paved with gold.

When they arrived in Windsor, they discovered the streets were not gold. But with hard work and effort they could rise. While his Orthodox parents scratched out a living, David Croll worked as a shoeshine boy, delivered newspapers and did any odd job to help his struggling parents and family and siblings. For his parents, as for all immigrant parents, the key to climbing up the ladder of success and out of poverty was education and hard work. For him the public school system offered unlimited opportunity.

Though small of stature, he was a gifted football and baseball athlete who later became a crack squash player and avid golfer.

He graduated from public and high school in Windsor. Then as many of his generation did, sought to enter a profession, not restricted by Jewish quotas. He went to Osgoode Hall in Toronto and then returned to Windsor to put up his shingle as a lawyer, later to be joined by his younger brother, Cecil in a firm called Croll and Croll. He quickly became engaged in the bustling active life in his city that was deeply divided politically between the left, and the right.

Windsor then, and as it is now, was a bastion of labour dominated politics. In Ottawa, the Liberals reigned. The Province and Parliament in Ottawa was divided between Conservatives and Liberals. Only a few voices represented the so called “left” in Parliament and Queen’s Park. In Windsor, however, the “left” was a vibrant force, deeply divided between socialists and communists. Croll decided to become politically active in the Liberal Party, then led by MacKenzie King, considered at the time a leading labour reformer. He was elected as one of the first Jewish Mayors in Canada. Croll had quickly developed as a talented political organizer and great stump speaker. He became deeply embroiled in City issues providing welfare and other assistance to people engulfed by the onslaught of the depression. Under his leadership as Mayor, Windsor led the way in direct welfare programs for the jobless and the poor before it was popular in Canada.

Later in life I caught glimpses of his speaking style in Toronto and in Ottawa. He spoke in conversational tones, without notes, reminiscent of a union organizer, simply and passionately with a gift for memorable phrase. Ever ambitious he ran for Provincial Legislature and was elected in 1934. He quickly rose in the Liberal ranks and became Minister of Welfare, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Minister of Labour under the leadership of the unpredictable populist Premier, Mitch Hepburn. Croll was seen as a progressive force. He joined with other progressive elements within the Liberal Party particularly with Arthur Roebuck from Toronto. Croll and Roebuck became known as a dynamic dual promoting an activist social agenda. As Minister of Social Development and Welfare he was responsible for the Quintuplets. He was actively engaged in government assistance and direction to the celebrated family.

Now, in the heart of the Depression, Ontario was replete with labour strife. In 1937 the automotive workers went on a massive strike. This strike, in the heart of the depression divided the Province between employers and workers. Rather than opposing the unions, Croll resigned from the Cabinet or more accurately was asked to resign. He penned an eloquent letter of resignation that he made public. Joining his colleague later County Court Judge Roebuck, he wrote “I would rather walk with the workers than ride with General Motors”, a quote that became part of Canadian history. This was not surprising, coming from Windsor where he always maintained strong political support from the Unions.