Mark Satin was born November 16, 1946:  a member of the Baby Boom generation, he grew up in Minnesota and Texas.  His grandparents fled the Pale of Settlement during the 19th century pogroms against Russian Jews, and they started their life in America in New York.  Those family origins gave Mark a sense of disconnectedness, and his relationship with his own parents – which was difficult – added to Mark’s alienation, especially against the backdrop of the conformity-driven 1950s.  Mark became aware of injustice as he grew older, and he was drawn to the civil rights movement:  he secretly joined a demonstration in Dallas in 1964, and as the decade wore on and he got older his activism only increased.  Mark left the University of Illinois after his first year as he had decided to join the SNCC in Mississippi, joining in voter registration drives and fighting to integrate the schools.  That decision really fractured his relationship with his parents, and it also exposed him firsthand to the realities of the South, including the threats and violence that many civil rights workers faced.  Mark was jailed on a number of occasions, and his activist spirit continued to develop, eventually taking him into the SDS.  Civil rights protest was not Mark’s sole focus; the war in Vietnam was another major concern of the time.  Mark didn’t attend his induction and he evaded the draft, a serious offense at that time.  This is when he came to Canada, first to Vancouver and later Toronto.  Mark became active in the draft resistance movement in Canada, and he became an active member of the Toronto Anti-Draft Program, aiding many American men in their efforts to come to Canada.  In that capacity he authored the Manual for Draft Age Immigrants to Canada, which offered practical advice to men in that group.  Mark did choose to return to the US later, where he continued to develop his political theories, advocating for a “radical middle”.  He also worked to mend his familial relationships as he again found his way in America.  Mark Satin was interviewed over zoom by Mr. Masters’ Grade 11 American History class in May 2025.