James (Jim) Egan was born on September 14, 1921, in Toronto, Ontario, and is considered Canada’s pioneering gay activist for his newspaper and magazine publications and correspondence during the period 1949 to 1964. One of his correspondents in 1951 was Henry Gerber, the early U.S. gay rights activist. Egan’s greatest fame came in 1995 through a Supreme Court of Canada case that pressed for same-sex spousal pension benefits under the Canada Pension Plan. Though Egan’s case was unsuccessful, the Court ruled unanimously to include sexual orientation as a protected ground of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Egan's autobiography, Challenging the Conspiracy of Silence: My Life as a Canadian Gay Activist, was published in 1998. He died on March 9, 2000. You can learn more about Egan’s correspondence with Gerber here: When Henry Wrote to Jim: The Letters of Henry Gerber to Jim Egan, 1951, by Donald W. McLeod.