Fred Kaufman was born on May 7, 1924 in Vienna. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from
Bishop's University and then spent six years as a reporter for the
Montreal Star. He graduated from the
McGill University Faculty of Law in 1954, where he was the second ever editor-in-chief of the
McGill Law Journal. Following law school, Kaufman founded the law firm Kaufman, Yarosky & Fish. In 2005 he published the memoir
Searching for Justice: An Autobiography. After retirement as a judge, he was appointed by the Ontario government to preside over an inquiry into the
wrongful murder conviction of Guy Paul Morin in 1997-98. Later in 2002-04, he presided for the Government of Canada over an inquiry into the murder trial of
Steven Truscott, which led to Truscott's conviction being overturned by the
Ontario Court of Appeal. ==Honours==