Why Did You Do That?is an autobiography of David Matas, an international human rights advocate. The book sets out his human rights activities and then attempts to explain why he did them.

People are focused on their immediate environment, their family, their friends, their work or their neighbourhood. Why should they go to the bother of trying to address a seemingly intractable situation in order to try help those with whom superficially they have nothing in common, who may be living in a country far away to which they have never been, speaking in a language they do not understand and part of a culture which is both foreign and strange?

The reason for the autobiography is an attempt to answer that question. By trying to explain why he did what he did, the author hopes to mobilize others, not to do what he did or is now doing, but rather just to do something, to shed feelings of indifference and impotence, to join the international human rights cause.

David Matas is a refugee and human rights lawyer in Winnipeg. He is senior counsel to B'Nai Brith Canada and the author of several books. Amonths his other books are Justice Delayed: Nazi War Criminals in Canada (1987) with Susan Charendoff; Closing the Doors: The Failure of Refugee Protection (1989) with Ilana Simon; No More: The Battle Against Human Rights Violations (1994); Bloody Words: Hate and Free Speech (2000). He has an honourary doctorate awarded in 1996 from Concordia University.

David Matas' profile page