Sydney Malcolm Harris (June 23, 1917 – January 17, 2009), was a Canadian jurist and civil liberties advocate who worked as a lawyer, both for the federal government and then in private practice for over 30 years before being appointed to the Ontario Provincial Court in 1976.
His father owned a dressmaking business and raised Sydney and his sister in their Yorkville Avenue home in Toronto.
Harris won a scholarship as a student of Jarvis Collegiate Institute and attended the University of Toronto before enrolling in Osgoode Hall Law School in 1939.
"[1] Harris was a supporter of and fundraiser for the US civil rights movement and met with Martin Luther King Jr. three times in 1963.
"[1] Notable rulings include his landmark 1979 acquittal of the gay magazine Body Politic and its publishers, Pink Triangle Press of obscenity, his 1988 decision to imprison NHL player Dino Ciccarelli for his on-ice attack of Toronto Maple Leaf Luke Richardson and his 1983 decision to acquit furrier Paul Magder for violating the law against Sunday shopping by opening his store.