Philip Givens

Who was Philip Givens?

Philip Gerald Givens, QC was a Jewish-Canadian politician and judge. He was the Mayor of Toronto, a Member of Parliament and Member of Provincial Parliament. He was born and raised in Toronto and attended high school at Harbord Collegiate Institute. He studied law at Osgoode Law School and graduated in 1949. He became a judge after leaving politics in the late 1970s. He retired from the judiciary in 1988, and died in Toronto in 1995.

A Liberal, Givens was a longtime member of Toronto's city council. As the senior controller on the city's Board of Control, he was appointed Toronto's acting mayor upon the sudden death of the incumbent, Donald Summerville, on November 19, 1963. He served the remaining 13 months in Summerville's two-year term, and then was elected as Mayor in the 1964 municipal election. He led a public campaign to purchase a sculpture by artist Henry Moore, The Archer, for placement in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto City Hall. Although vigorously opposed at the time by traditionalists, Givens got his way and the sculpture has become a beloved piece of public art.