Memorable Manitobans: Jack Samuel Walker (?-1994)

Lawyer, community activist, magician.

Son of Victor Walker (?-1982), he received Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law (Honours) degrees from the University of Manitoba. He articled and later practiced with the firm of Walsh Micay for ten years before becoming senior partner in the law firm of Walker Cristall and Pandya, with offices at Selkirk, Winnipeg, and Arborg. He was solicitor for the Town of Selkirk, LGD of Leaf Rapids, RM of Bifrost, LGD of Armstrong, LGD of Fisher, and RM of Stanley. He was appointed by the provincial government to make an inquiry and report on the expropriation of land for the Hecla Island Provincial Park.

He was made a Queen’s Counsel (1975) and was later appointed as a part-time Provincial Court Judge. He did extensive research on the trials that followed the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and compiled a large number of documents that are held at the Archives of Manitoba. A manuscript that he wrote was published posthumously (2004) as The Great Canadian Sedition Trials: The Courts and the Winnipeg General Strike, 1919-1920.

In 1980, he married Evelyn ? and they had five sons. Active in the community, he was National Vice-President of Histadrut Canada, President of the Canada-Israel Fellowship, President of the Young Liberals Association, and National Vice-President of the Liberals Association of Canada. In 1986, he and his family founded the Children’s Cancer Fund of Manitoba to purchase medical equipment needed in the treatment of children with cancer. A self-taught magician who never performed professionally, he was a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and American Society of Magicians.

He died of cancer on 12 October 1994 and was buried in the Shaarey Zedek Cemetery.

See also:

Review: Jack Walker, edited by Duncan Fraser, The Great Canadian Sedition Trials: The Courts and the Winnipeg General Strike, 1919-1920 by J. M. Bumsted
Manitoba History, Number 54, February 2007

Sources:

“Manitoba names 9 new QCs,” Winnipeg Free Press, 1 January 1975, page 43.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 22 October 1994, page 42.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 21 May 2020

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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