President, National Unity Association

Hugh Burnett started as a carpenter before becoming a prominent civil rights activist, eventually becoming a key figure in the fight for anti-discrimination legislation in Ontario. Through the 1940s and early 1950s, he rose to prominence as a leader and organizer of the National Unity Association (NUA), pushing for equal rights in Dresden and the surrounding area. By 1954, the NUA began working in earnest with the Toronto Joint Labour Committee for Human Rights to push for further anti-discrimination legislation in Ontario.