I was born in Winnipeg in 1932, the oldest of two sons of David and Leda Slater (née Omansky). My brother Joel was born in 1937.

My father was David Slater (originally Slutsky). He was born in Ekatrinoslav (now Dnieperpetrovsk), Russia. At 16, he went to Lithuania and then followed family to Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, in 1911. He enlisted in the Canadian Army and saw action in World War I as a member of the Winnipeg Grenadiers. He was wounded and carried a piece of shrapnel in his head until the day he died.

After the war, he returned to Winnipeg where he tried to get a job at the Post Office, except they weren't hiring Jews at the time. So, he began a career in real estate, eventually becoming successful as the developer of projects at Polo Park and apartments on Lanark Street. In 1926 he returned to Russia in order to bring his mother, Eta Leah, to Winnipeg, Eta Leah Slater was religious and at one time she was the president of the ladies division of the Talmud Torah.

My father became very active in the Jewish community, serving as the President of the YMHA and the Jewish Welfare Fund. He was also one of the original 119 founders of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, as am I. I'm very grateful that my father urged me to join him in that effort. My father was also a music lover and horn player, and served as the President of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. A highlight of his week was listening to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio every Saturday afternoon.

My mother's family moved from Ekatrinoslav to Harbin, Manchuria, where she was born, we believe, in 1902. The family immigrated to North America while my mother was one or two years old and settled in San Francisco, but left after the earthquake of 1906 and the fires that followed. They headed to Beausejour, Manitoba, where my grandfather opened a store, and eventually moved into Winnipeg where my mother attended William Whyte and St. John's Tech. My mother was certified by the Toronto Conservatory of Music as a piano teacher. At the peak, she had 80 pupils studying in our home. I remember being her worst student.

We lived on Cathedral Avenue when I was born, and later moved to the South End of the city. The 1930s were tough, and we lived modestly. I remember playing a good deal of soccer and hockey, encountering some anti-Semitism at the rink at Wilton and Dromore. The words: "Jewboy, get off the rink!" still stick with me, as does the memory of rallying some new North End friends from the YMHA to come help take care of matters at the rink.

I attended Grosvenor School where, at the age of six, I absent-mindedly walked into a Grade 3 class. I held my own so they kept me there. Socially, it was problematic, but it did mean that I could start university at the age of 15 after attending Robert H. Smith and graduating from Kelvin.

At the University of Manitoba, I signed up for the Canadian Officers Training Corps program and spent two summers training in Shilo. I was then posted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in 1952. It was there that I became a Jew as I spent hours erasing the swastikas painted by hateful people.

I received my M.A from the U of M in 1954. The subject of my thesis was the emergence of the German political parties after World War II, which I researched at the University of Bonn and in the archives of the Bundestag.

While on summer vacation in Winnipeg I met Carol Genser. I studied law in Oxford from 1954 to 1956 but returned in the summer of 1955 to marry Carol. After receiving my call to the bar in England in 1957, we returned to Winnipeg together with our first child Charles, who was born in England. I joined the Pitblado Hoskin law firm where I practiced law until 1970. We were blessed by the birth of three more children, Erin in 1959 Adam in 1963 and David in 1964.

I had contracted TB during my stay in England and lost the use of one lung. The cold winters in Winnipeg caused deterioration in my health and the doctors insisted that I move to a warmer climate. As a result, we moved to Israel in 1970 and purchased a farming plot in Moshav Kfar Netter where I became a farmer. Our four children finished their schooling in Israel and they all served with the Israel Defense Forces. Each of our children returned to North America to study after completing their army service and when the youngest also left in 1989, we decided to return to Canada. As I was unable to tolerate the extreme winters in Winnipeg, we settled in Vancouver where I took my call to the bar and opened a storefront law office under the name The Open Door Law Corporation.

I retired from the practice of law in 2010 and in 2012 we moved to Montreal to be with our daughter Erin and her family. We presently spend the winter months in Israel. We are the proud grandparents of Zach, Robbie, Ben and Liam Battat in Montreal, Thom and Max Slater in Singapore and Ilai and Emmanuel Slater in Israel.

My life has been colourful and interesting, full of wonderful relationships and opportunities. My character and my perspectives were forged in Winnipeg, and I am forever grateful to the city of my roots.

2015