How far will you go to right a wrong or make a difference?

Three people caught my attention this week. One just died, one has been gone now for 24 years and the other just received further recognition for her achievements.

Simon Wiesenthal died on September 20, 2005 at the age of 96. Known around the world as the great Nazi hunter, Wiesenthal spent more than five decades tracking down Nazis and attempting to bring them to justice. A Jew from the Ukraine, Wiesenthal escaped death even though he was twice imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

After the war he began collecting information about war crime atrocities and in 1947 opened the Jewish Historical Documentation Centre in Austria.

While people talked about justice, Wiesenthal often found himself alone. Due to the battles of the Cold War, few countries on either side of this East-West struggle were interested – even though people who had committed terrible acts were living among them. Canada was no exception. In 1977 Mr. Wiesenthal said he would never step foot in Canada again because he felt our politicians and our people weren’t interested enough to bring former Nazis to justice.

Despite the lack of interest from most countries, Wiesenthal kept going and made a difference. He said he was responsible for some 1,100 Nazis being brought to justice. One of the most infamous was Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for Hitler’s plan of the extermination of all European Jews. With the help of Wiesenthal and others, Eichmann was found living in Argentina in 1960. Israeli agents took him to Israel where he stood trial, was found guilty, and was executed for committing crimes against humanity.

Another involved the capture of Karl Silberbauer, the Gestapo Sergeant Major who arrested Anne Frank, her family and the other occupants of their hiding place in Amsterdam.

Wiesenthal never gave up because he knew what he was doing was right.

Closer to home many Canadians marked the weekend by participating in the 25th Terry Fox Run. Born in Winnipeg and raised in Port Coquitlam, B.C., at the age of 18, Terry discovered he had bone cancer. His right leg was amputated in 1977 and he was so moved by the suffering of young cancer patients that he set out to run across the country. On April 12, 1980 Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean in St. John’s Newfoundland and began his Marathon of Hope.

While we see the media, political and community attention today, Terry Fox started out that April day with very little fan fare. Despite this, he carried on, running to raise money and educate people about the need for a cure for cancer. After many lonely days, Terry’s run started catching the attention of the media and the public.

He almost made it half way across the country before he was stopped short. On September 1, 1980, Terry Fox ended his Marathon of Hope outside Thunder Bay as he discovered the cancer had spread to his lungs. On June 28, 1981 Terry Fox died at the age of 22 and Canada mourned. However, his legacy carried on.

Finally, Sandra Lovelace Nicholas was willing to shame her own country to get discriminatory laws changed and yet on September 21st instead of retaliating against her, the Prime Minister appointed her to the Senate of Canada.

Lovelace Nicholas is a Maliseet woman from the Tobique Nation in New Brunswick. Years ago she married a White man and as per Canadian law, she lost her Indian status and she and her children were denied housing, education and other benefits from her own band. Even after she was divorced, she was not able to regain her Indian status. However, when Aboriginal men married non-Aboriginal women, they were not affected in the same way.

In 1977 Lovelace Nicholas took her case to the United Nations Human Rights Commission saying Canada’s Indian Act violated the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1981 the U.N. declared that the rights of Aboriginal women had been violated and for Canadians who prided themselves on our respect of human rights, this was a humiliating blow.

These three people, for different reasons, wanted to make a difference. Despite what must have seemed like insurmountable odds, they persevered when most of us would have given up. I doubt any one of them dreamed in their childhood that they would aspire to such greatness or would change the lives of so many. But these ordinary people took on a task just because they felt their work had to be done.

All too often, we see injustices in our communities and in our work, but we’re unwilling to make the sacrifices to do anything about it. We don’t have the time. We don’t want to stand out or make a fuss. We don’t people to think we’re crazy. We’re afraid of starting something in case we fail.

Instead of finding excuses, we all need to find simple ways that make a difference. A little dedication can go a long way. Even though Simon Wiesenthal stood mostly alone for many years, today his work has created the Simon Wiesenthal Center with offices in New York, Toronto, Miami, Jerusalem, Paris and Buenos Aires. While the centers are still dedicated to prosecuting Nazi war criminals, their mandate includes preserving the memory of the Holocaust, fostering tolerance, and confronting racism and genocide with a membership of more than 400,000 families world wide.

Even though Terry Fox started out mostly alone on his Marathon of Hope, the run he started has never ended. In 1981 the first Terry Fox run attracted 300,000 Canadians and raised $3.5 million. Now after 25 years, the annual run, held in September, and involving hundreds of thousands of people around the world, has collected almost $400 million for cancer research.

While Sandra Lovelace Nicholas spent years to get the United Nations to support her claim, the victory for her and thousands of Canadian Aboriginal women did not come right away. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau did not change the law, but in 1985 Brian Mulroney’s government finally corrected the problem and allowed women who had been stripped of their Indian status to get back their rights. In 1990, in recognition of her long fight, Lovelace Nicholas became the recipient of the Order of Canada.

Therefore, regardless of whether your injustice or your dream of improving the lives of others may seem insurmountable, I’d suggest you start anyway and make that difference. You might want to correct discriminatory policies in your place of work, community organizations, or even in the laws of Canada. You might want to help a cause that sorely needs attention and funds. Or you might want to restore justice for a grave injustice.

If you think it will take years to see results, don’t be discouraged. I remember when I graduated from the University of Manitoba. I ended up with a dream job with lots of responsibilities and great pay. But I wanted to go to law school. A friend of mine said, “do you realize you’ll be 29 years old by the time you actually get Called to the Bar and actually start practicing?” I said “yeah, but I’ll be 29 anyway.” Don’t let time get in your way. The years will go by anyway, so you might as well get started now.

So the next time you think, “someone should do something about that”, think to yourself, “how far am I willing to go?”

Stephen

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Stephen Hammond, B.A, LL.B, CSP, is a speaker, trainer and author working in the field of workplace human rights. Articles, tips and his books Managing Human Rights At Work: 101 Practical Tips to Prevent Human Rights Disasters and Steps in the Rights Direction: 365 human rights celebrations and tragedies that inspired Canada and the world are available on his website www.stephenhammond.ca. Contact Stephen at 866-685-8338 or stephen@stephenhammond.ca