For the second time the participants in a judicial colloquium in the Bangalore Series had no sooner returned home but they learned of the death of one of their number.
Justice Walter Tarnopolsky was a leading participant in the Bloemfontein meeting. He died on 15 September 1993, just ten days after the Bloemfontein Statement was adopted.
Justice Tarnopolsky had been a member of the Ontario Court of Appeal since 1983. He was a leading jurist of his own country, Canada. His proud association with his ethnic origins in The Ukraine had recently been called upon as, unexpectedly, that country gained independence from the Soviet Union, and moved to establish a constitutional and rule of law society for itself.
Walter Tarnopolsky was born of Ukrainian immigrant parents, in a small farming community in Saskatchewan. He grew up on a wheat farm. His father spoke little English. However, he was ambitious for the education of his son, who earned his primary degrees at the University of Saskatchewan, with post-graduate degrees from Columbia University, New York and the London School of Economics.
Justice Tarnopolsky was a leader of the Canadian development of human rights law. After gaining his qualifications he went on to teach law at the University of Saskatchewan, the famous Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, and the University of Windsor. In 1980 he was appointed Director of the Human Rights Centre of the University of Ottawa. He held that post until his judicial appointment. In that post, he wrote commentaries on the new, and developing, Canadian law of human rights. These interests took him to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, between 1977 and 1983.
He had many other appointments and distinctions. But these are the externalities. I had known him for seven years. We met at conferences, in human rights circles, and in activities of the International Commission of Jurists, which we both supported. I was looking forward to his visit to Australia, where he was to come at the invitation of the Ukrainian-Australian Lawyers' Association. He was an intense man, deeply committed to the cause of equal opportunity. For him, this was no laughing matter.
The participants at Bloemfontein felt the deep wells of conviction, and the years of dedication, behind his interventions in their sessions. He was able to draw upon decades of reflection, and he gave a lot of his experience, generously and willingly, to his new South African friends. When I left him to return home he was looking forward to seeing briefly the beauties of nature in South Africa. I sat with him often during the lunches and dinners of the Colloquium for we were kindred spirits.
At a break in the sessions, I went with him for a walk in the main streets of the city of Bloemfontein. In a pharmacy, I purchased film for the inevitable photographs. At this point, Walter discovered that he had a nose bleed. "Funny that, I haven't suffered this since childhood", he said. When, later, I heard of his sudden death, I wondered if the nose bleed in Bloemfontein was an early warning of his final illness.
Walter Tarnopolsky was a dedicated champion of human rights. I can still see him, serious and intelligent, studying his papers, and listening attentively to his colleagues, for some new insight. We will miss him. But his work and example live on.
