CHERNIACK, SAUL MARK

CHERNIACK, SAUL MARK (1917– ), Canadian lawyer, soldier, community leader, politician, and public servant. Cherniack was born in Winnipeg in 1917 to Alter and Fania Cherniack. Like his father he went into law, graduating from the University of Manitoba in 1939. During World War ii he served in the Canadian Army, promoted to the rank of captain in the Canadian Intelligence Service as a Japanese-language specialist. In 1950 he was elected a Winnipeg School Board trustee; he then served as a Winnipeg Beach councilor, City of Winnipeg alderman and councilor of the greater Winnipeg Metropolitan Corporation before being elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 1962.

In 1969, Cherniack became minister of finance in Manitoba's first ndp government. He also served as deputy premier and as minister of urban affairs. In the latter role he led the way to creating a single metropolitan area out of Winnipeg and its adjoining suburbs. On retiring from elected office in 1981, he was appointed chairman of Manitoba Hydro. He was named to the Privy Council of Canada in 1984, and in 1993 to the Order of Canada, with a citation crediting him with a "significant contribution" to Canada's Security Intelligence Review Committee, which he was "instrumental in establishing" and where he served from 1984 to 1992.

In the Jewish community Cherniack followed the example set by his parents in serving as a leader in the I.L. Peretz Folk School (from which he graduated), as Western Region chair and national vice president of the Canadian Jewish Congress (of which his father was a founder), and as president of the Winnipeg Jewish Welfare Fund.

[Abraham Arnold (2^nd ed.)]