Beryl Wajsman is editor-in-chief of The Suburban Newspaper Group, founder and president of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal – a national advocacy organization bringing together leaders of business, labor and community action to tackle issues of civil rights and the protection of the vulnerable – and publisher of The Métropolitain, the journal of the Institute, a bilingual monthly of politics and the arts. He holds two law degrees from McGill University, and has spent over twenty-five years combining the worlds of politics, community activism and media.  His involvement in federal politics has ranged from on the ground organizing and service in riding positions, policy development including directing national justice studies in Ottawa, and serving as former Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler’s first Executive Assistant.

For three years he broadcast the critically acclaimed “Last Angry Man” radio newsmagazine on the Corus network and then hosted a weekly Suburban news hour on Astral Media’s CJAD. He has won many Quebec, Canadian and North American newspaper honors for his writings on racism, the abuse of state authority and the teaching of contempt including two Bob Philips Memorial Awards for Best General Editorial Writing, the Charles Hawkins Trophy for Best National Editorial Writing and first place honors in the LMA North American  competition for Best Editorial Writing and for Best Opinion column.  He placed third In that North American competition for Editor of the Year. Under his leadership The Suburban Newspaper became the first Canadian recipient of first-place honors for community service in the SNA North American newspaper competition.

His activism has earned Mr. Wajsman a Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for the promotion of human dignity, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for Community Service, a Parliamentary Certificate of Recognition for contributions to Canadian democracy  and a Medal of Appreciation from The Association for the Welfare of the Soldiers of Israel. He has served as a member of the advisory council of the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Foundation, was co-president d’honneur of UNICEF Quebec’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, co-chairman of the “Taste of the Caribbean” festival and a judge at the St. Patrick’s Day parade. His Institute work extends beyond Quebec . To cite just two examples, his was the first Canadian advocacy group that formed a working partnership with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under the latter’s President Dr. Charles L.  Steele, Jr and helped send dozens of paramedics to the Delta Relief Project   following Hurricane Katrina. The institute also helped Toronto’s “Lawyers feed the Homeless” program by sending truckloads of food to that organization that served some 1500 meals a week. His Institute conferences brought personalities such as former CIA Director R. James Woolsey and anti-Islamist activist Brigitte Gabriel to Canada for the first time.

A frequent lecturer at academic and communal institutions, Mr. Wajsman is also a regular commentator in the electronic media. He has appeared on CNN on a panel on terrorism with Peter Bergen and Steve Emerson, as well as all major English and French television and radio news and opinion programs in Canada. In addition to Montreal`s English and French dailies,  his opinions and views have appeared in TIME, The New York Times, The National Post, The New York Forward and The Jerusalem Post. Mr. Wajsman is a member of the McGill Faculty Club  and the Montreal Press Club.