Human rights pioneer Hill was a remarkable man

The start of Black History Month reminded me again of one of the finest gentlemen I've ever been privileged to meet — Dan Hill.

Sitting across from him in his Toronto office he unfolded the story of a Windsor motel operator with whom he had a recent enforcement discussion. He was Dr. Dan Hill then, recently appointed as the first full-time chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC).

In his 40s, he devoted nine years (1962-71) to establishing not only that Black people, but Indigenous people, had rights identical to all fellow Ontarians.

Hill's office was located in the old Ontario Department of Labour building in Toronto. I was employed as a summer research assistant with the Ontario Labour Relations Board. We shared the same floor of that long-gone old building with the OHRC.

The story Hill recounted exemplified his personal soft-response approach to handling allegations of racism filed with the Ontario's Human Rights Commission.

An American Black couple had booked a motel room in Windsor. When they attended the motel they were told rooms weren't available. In a heated conversation that ensued the motel host used the infamous `N' word several times and threatened to call police if they did not leave the premises.

The couple filed a formal complaint with the commission. Hill's own office booked him a room in the same motel. Hill drove to Windsor and visited the motel.

Requesting his reserved room, the motel proprietor told him no rooms were available and once more used the `N' word. He told Hill to get out of his motel.

Hill then produced his credentials as chair of the OHRC and urged the motel operator to reconsider his language or face penalties available under the Ontario Human Rights Act.

A discussion ensued and the motel host agreed to reconsider. A week or so later Hill arranged for the original American couple to once more book a room at the same motel. This time they experienced neither friendliness nor hostility but they had a room.

Hill and his wife, Donna May Bender, enjoyed a mixed-racial marriage at a time when both in the U.S. and Canada such interracial marriages were widely reproached.

Open bigotry was still far too common. They came to Canada from the U.S. and Hill enrolled as a PHD student in sociology at the University of Toronto.

His doctoral thesis was a landmark study focusing upon Black people living in Toronto during the 1950s. The title of his thesis was: Negroes in Toronto: A Sociological Study.

Hill and Bender had three children, all bringing credit to their family. Singer-songwriter Dan G. Hill's hit 1977 ballad Sometimes When We Touch peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the U.S.

Younger brother Lawrence Hill is a novelist and essayist of 11 books, including his noted 2007 novel The Book of Negroes. Lawrence

Hill is a professor of creative writing at Guelph University.

Their sister, Karen Hill, is a noted poet and writer.

In his years at the OHRC helm, Dan Hill's soft enforcement earned him widespread respect and admiration. A famous case in Chatham illustrated that approach.

A business owner refused to rent a boat to two Black fishermen and what followed was another example of Hill's soft enforcement technique. He hosted a public hearing and invited the offending boat owner to attend. An overwhelmingly Black audience was then invited en masse to rent fishing boats from the offending owner.

This tactic for dealing with discrimination and bigotry was widely respected throughout Canada. When he departed the OHRC, Hill established his own human rights' consulting firm. Later, from 1984 to 1989, he became Ontario's provincial ombudsman, where he strove to make that office reflect the “new Ontario” with a forceful outreach program toward traditionally excluded groups and, in particular, Canada's Aboriginal Peoples.

Hill, who died in 2003, was an amazing gentleman and human rights pioneer in Ontario and in Canada. It was a privilege to have known him.