Beyond his civic engagements, Kaufman was a member of the Eugenics Society of Canada and a vocal advocate of birth control to address social and economic hardship.
Her legal fees covered by Kaufman, and Palmer was acquitted on the basis that her actions had passed the criminal code's pro bono publico (for the public good) clause.
[4][5]: 123 Prior to the sale of the company, he served as an apprentice and as an office administrator, after which he travelled in the United States and Europe to observe operations at other rubber factories.
[10] Believing a privately owned company would be in a weaker bargaining position, the employees pushed forward more extensive demands that Kaufman refused to discuss or take seriously for the majority of the strike.
The agreement dissolved when Kaufman explained that he had only agreed to the terms until December 1, after which time labour historians Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker quote him as saying there would be "plenty of discrimination".
[12] Amid Kaufman's continued threats to close the factory for the winter, the workers ultimately gained nothing with wages and work conditions remaining in line with those in place prior to the strike.
[11] Another strike occurred in July 1960 with the union seeking a 15-cent-an-hour wage increase, a contract that ensured job security and the introduction of a grievance process.
[14] On August 17, 1960, the union submitted an application to the Ontario labour relations board to prosecute Kaufman for failing to bargain in good faith.
[19] Visits to family homes by a company nurse supported that those with the most children and the poorest living conditions were struggling compared to those who remained employed.
[19]: 219 Ruling out the financial feasibility of keeping seasonal employees on year-round, Kaufman determined the best long-term assistance was to provide family planning services.
Originally from Chicago, where she worked in the birth-control movement, Weber was tasked with starting a birth control program for the factory workers.
[17]: 336 The organization employed approximately 50 people in locations across the country who worked to distribute birth control and family planning information in women's homes rather than at clinics.
[26] He further believed that the socially and mentally deficient were unable to reliably use alternative methods of birth control such as properly inserting a diaphragm, making sterilization the best way to prevent them from reproducing.
[20]: 61–62 In September 1936, Dorothea Palmer, an Ottawa-based PIB employee, was arrested and charged under section 207 of the Criminal Code, which stated that the selling or advertising of contraceptives was illegal.
[5]: 130 Kaufman testified during the trial, disputing a claim that his interest in birth control was commercially driven, explaining his actions were philanthropic in nature.
[22] On March 17, 1937, Palmer was acquitted based on the conclusion that her actions passed the criminal code's pro bono publico clause and were carried out in the interest of the public good.
[34] Kaufman was honoured along with Elizabeth Bagshaw, Lise Fortier, George C. and Barbara Cadbury, by Ortho Pharmaceutical Ltd. in 1973 for their roles in advancing family planning in Canada.