TORONTO — He had a gentlemanly demeanour and was soft-spoken. Still, Lou Ronson was a fighter.

An elder statesman in Canada’s Jewish community, Ronson spent the better part of his life fighting for human rights and against discrimination. He was subjected to – and battled – anti-Semitism when it was rampant in Canadian society.

 Ronson died Oct. 5 at Toronto General Hospital. He was 99.

He was the driving force behind the creation of B’nai Brith Canada’s Anti-Defamation League, later the League for Human Rights. Ronson also served as national co-chair of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, and he was a member of The CJN’s advisory board.

In 1984, then-Ontario premier Bill Davis appointed him a commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Ronson later served as the commission’s vice-chair.

He was president of B’nai Brith Canada in 1979-1980 and held several executive positions with B’nai Brith International, including international vice-president from 1988 to 1992. He was B’nai Brith Canada’s longest-serving member.

Those of a certain age may recall that in 1970, Ronson led the fight to persuade (some might say force) Toronto’s Granite Club to admit Jews.

When the Anti-Defamation League learned that the club was planning to relocate from St. Clair Avenue and would need approvals from the Ontario Municipal Board, it mounted an opposition campaign.

“Our basic premise was that any club which discriminates against any Canadian citizen isn’t entitled to seek public favour before the OMB,” Ronson told the Toronto Star at the time.

“Eventually the media got hold of a piece of the story and that brought it to the attention of some members who weren’t in agreement with that kind of policy… Some said they weren’t even aware,” Ronson said.

Club executives at first said Jews were being admitted. But asked to produce a list, Ronson said, they were unable to do so. “Their chief person said, ‘Let’s put it on the table. We’ve been anti-Semitic and what would you like?’ We asked for a press conference. Some of their people felt a little queasy about that.

“But we agreed to make simple joint statements and avoid detailed questions from the press,” Ronson said.

The Granite Club, founded in 1876, amended its policy to admit Jews of “good and compatible character.”

Ronson was born Louis Rosenblatt in 1915 in Toronto to Russian Jewish immigrants. He was 10 when the family moved to Port Colborne, Ont., where he first encountered anti-Semitism.

“My first day at school, during recess, five kids came charging across the schoolyard, pointing to me and shouting, ‘There’s the new Jew,’” he recalled in a 2008 CJN profile. “And then I was attacked.”

His sole friend was the only other Jewish boy at the school. That, he said, left an indelible mark.

In 1927, the family moved back to Toronto. At Jarvis Collegiate, he was shocked to see that all the Jewish students were lumped into one class, known as “the Jewish class.”

“Soon I was to learn that anti-Semitic taunts and jibes by students, and even some teachers, were not beyond the norm.”

Jewish pupils, he noted, fought back by achieving the highest class averages in each of their five years of high school and winning a number of scholarships.

In 1932, at a time of strict quotas, Ronson was among just six students admitted to study chemical engineering at the University of Toronto. Unable to find employment after graduation, he accepted a menial job at a dry cleaning plant that was a division of Sunshine Uniform Supply Co. Ltd.

His father, Julius Rosenblatt, had been a member of B’nai Brith Canada, and from childhood, Ronson recalled, he read all the B’nai Brith material that came to their house. Following in his father’s footsteps, he joined B’nai Brith District 22 Toronto Lodge in 1939.

He joined the army in 1943, and the enlistment officer suggested he change his name. He became Lou Ronson. Flat feet prevented him from going overseas; so he taught chemical warfare at bases in Ontario.

After the war, Ronson returned to Sunshine Uniform and rose to become president and chief executive officer. After the firm merged with other companies, he assumed the presidency of Work Wear Corp. of Canada Ltd. in 1975. From 1982 until his retirement in 1987, he served as chairman of the board.

Ronson was involved with many community organizations, including Mount Sinai Hospital, Canadian Jewish Congress, the Jewish Community Centre of Toronto, and the Canada-Israel Committee. He was a director of Bank Hapoalim (Canada) and a past president of the Canada-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

As well, he was a director of Canadian Technion Society, Canadian Society for the Weizmann Institute of Science and Canadian Friends of Haifa University. In 1983, the University of Haifa established the Hilde and Lou Ronson Foundation for Overseas Students.

He was a recipient of the League for Human Rights’ rarely bestowed Special Human Rights Award and inaugurated the Lou Ronson Human Rights Scholarship Fund, in conjunction with its annual Media Human Rights Award ceremony.

But in 2008, things turned soured with B’nai Brith Canada. By then a vocal critic of the way the organization was being run, Ronson was among eight outspoken members to be expelled for “conduct unbecoming a member” and was stripped of “all rights and privileges of membership.” He and other expelled members later launched a lawsuit against B’nai Brith seeking damages and reinstatement.

The case was settled out of court earlier this year, according to Lou’s son, Jeremy. “He just put it behind him,” Jeremy said. “He didn’t dwell on it. That’s the kind of guy he was.”

Ronson’s gentle manner was “misleading,” his daughter, Rhonda, said.

“He listened and was respectful, but he had very strong opinions and never backed down from anything. He never backed down from his principles,” she said.

His toughness was perhaps best revealed when he successfully resisted a movement by the Teamsters to unionize the dry cleaning industry.

In his 2008 CJN interview, Ronson acknowledged that his life had been “very rewarding. There were many challenges and we would meet them. It’s helped me to grow and to contribute to the building of a society where there will be no discrimination."

He added: “There have been great improvements, but we still have a ways to go.”

Ronson’s wife of 60 years, Hilde, died in 2007. He is survived by his son and daughter.