David A. Kahn

David Kahn is a past-chairman of the Canadian Justice Review Board.

Born in the UK, he graduated with a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the Universities of Wales and Southampton respectively and spent the first 14 years of his career carrying out applied contract research. He came to Canada in 1979 to help propel the fast-growing high-tech initiative led by Bell-Northern Research (now part of Nortel Networks). A specialist in telecommunications and optical technologies, he later spent 10 years with the Federal Government Agencies CSIS and the NRC before returning to the private sector as VP Engineering with Plaintree Systems Inc.

He also taught postgraduate courses on Optical Communications Systems at Carleton U. and later Ottawa U. Since 2002, he has been an independent technology consultant. David has about 35 patents some of which relate to an eye-controlled computer keyboard that he and a colleague developed for the benefit of people with severe physical disabilities. They set up H.K. EyeCan Ltd. in 1990 and its VisionKey product now serves clients in over a dozen countries.

He has been active in social and justice issues subject to the limitations imposed by family and career priorities. In England, he was one of the early members of Amnesty International where he learned that good people may have very different world views but can effectively collaborate within areas of common ground.

Although he is keen to see certain changes to the Canadian Justice system to re-emphasize the dominant role of Parliament in law-making, his personal experiences with the system have been generally positive. He counts himself privileged to have had the benefit of the wisdom and integrity of several good lawyers and judges.

Originally Anglican, he became a Roman Catholic in 1960. He and his wife have five adult children, all graduates of Ontario universities. They are also enjoying two grandchildren.