Passion for human rights leads to Amnesty Canada role

Bill Rafoss is admittedly a product of the 1960s.

Born and raised in Saskatoon, the 64-year-old has spent much of his life working in the area of human rights. Settled into a patio chair for a recent interview, he wore the label ‘human rights defender’ with pride on his T-shirt.

On June 4, Rafoss was acclaimed as the board chairman of Amnesty International Canada for a twoyear term.

“We grew up in an age of protest, to a certain extent — promotion of civil rights, all those kinds of things. Once I graduated from university, I wanted to be involved in that kind of aspect of that movement,” he said.

Rafoss worked for the Legal Aid Commission as a court worker before moving on to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. He remained there for 25 years, starting as an investigator and moving up to chief investigator. He began teaching Canadian politics at the University of Saskatchewan in 2006.

His resume is extensive: president of Global Gathering Place in Saskatoon, experience as an election observer in Kenya and Mongolia, working with a new human rights commission in South Sudan and the human rights council in the Cayman Islands.

Rafoss retired from the SHRC in 2012, but wanted to remain working in the field of social justice. So, he joined the Saskatoon Amnesty International group.

Now, as Amnesty Canada’s board chair, his job is really to manage the board while a lot of the weight of the organization is carried by its president, Lana Verran, he said.

Amnesty’s Canadian branch supports raising awareness of international issues — such as the Syrian refugee crisis — in Canada. The organization is also involved in indigenous issues: it began to press for a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Inquiry in 2003, and has been involved where mining has affected indigenous communities.

As he has aged, he’s become more committed to social justice and wanted to do more, he said.

“That’s why I say when I left the government I wanted to continue in some active role. In fact, it kind of freed me up to even do more, because as a civil servant, you’re limited in terms of what you can do.”

He noted 150,000 people signed Amnesty petitions online last year.

“We know people are out there and they’re supportive.”