ERNEST TATE

TATE, ERNEST (ERNIE) Ernest (Ernie) Tate, born May 24, 1934, died on February 5, 2021, at home in Toronto, from pancreatic cancer. Raised in the Shankill Rd., Belfast, N. Ireland, he left school at 14 and worked in Belfast Flour Mills and, at 21, he immigrated to Canada. Within a year became a member of the Socialist Education League. It was a life-changing event, and Ernie dedicated himself to changing an economic system that he felt was not favourable to working people. In the 1960s, he was deeply engaged in the formation of the New Democratic Party's Youth wing and in consolidating union support for the new labour-based party. Inspired by the 1959 Cuban Revolution, he helped build the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a broadly-based alliance to publicize Cuba's historic advance and help defend Cuba against U.S. aggression. In 1965, Ernie returned to Britain for four years to help build the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, in opposition to Britain's collusion with America's war in Vietnam. He also worked during that time with the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and The War Crimes Tribunal. Ernie graduated with a diploma in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Toronto's Ryerson Institute in 1975. He joined Toronto Hydro in 1977 as a stationary engineer and he worked in marketing and energy conservation until his retirement in 1995. An ardent trade unionist he was Vice President of the Toronto Hydro CUPE Local One for several years. In 2014, Ernie published a two-volume memoir entitled "Revolutionary Activism in the 1950s and 60s" and toured Canada and the U.K. to promote it. In 2020, he was a core participant in the ongoing Undercover Police Inquiry in the U.K. to expose secret police surveillance of protest groups from the 1960s to today. He was a supporter of the Ontario Health Coalition, The Fight for Fifteen Campaign, and the Socialist Project. Ernie Tate was an important figure in the Canadian and international socialist movement: combining personal modesty, a great sense of humour and enjoyment of life and the arts, he was a leader, orator, strategist, writer, memoirist, comrade and friend to many. Thanks to Dr. Mark Bernstein, Nurse Maria Petrova and all the team members from the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care who made sure that Ernie was cared for and comfortable. He leaves his partner of 55 years, Jess MacKenzie and son Michael (Norma).