He served as a director of the International League for Human Rights; served as a member of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women; a member of the team that launched Amnesty International's chapter in Canada; and, with colleagues from McGill University, was instrumental in creating the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, now renamed Equitas -International Centre for Human Rights Education. He took part in a number of international commissions of inquiry, including a mission to the Philippines investigating human rights violations under Ferdinand Marcos and the International Commission of Inquiry into the 1932-33 Famine in Ukraine. At the UN, he sought compensation for Korean women forced to act as sex slaves. He also campaigned with the War Amps for reparations for Canadian prisoners of war under Japanese captivity.