Education
Kaplan attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute in Toronto and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1958 and an Bachelor of Laws in 1961 from the University of Toronto.
Kaplan attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute in Toronto and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1958 and an Bachelor of Laws in 1961 from the University of Toronto.
In 1963, he was called to the Ontario Bar. He lost to the Personal Computer candidate, Jim Gillies, in the 1972 election. In 1978, he failed to implement Bill C-215, which would have stripped Canadians of their citizenship if they had been convicted of war crimes.
He was re-elected in the 1979, 1980, 1984 and 1988 elections.
He was the Solicitor General of Canada from 1980 to 1984 and oversaw the creation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Security Intelligence Review Committee and the termination of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Security Service. Kaplan was also responsible for bringing in the Young Offenders Acting in 1984 which established 12 as the minimum age for criminal charges, brought in shorter sentences for most offenders under the age of 18 and banned the publication of youths charged or convicted of criminal acts in most circumstances.
He also pressed for and oversaw the extradition of Helmut Rauca to West Germany for war crimes. After leaving politics in 1993, Kaplan served as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Canada and was awarded the Order of Kazakhstan by its president in recognition of his service to the Republic.
He was a director of PetroKazakhstan Incorporated., Platexco Incorporated., and Rex Diamond Mining Corporation
In 2004, he joined the Board of Directors of European Goldfields, a Canadian-based resource company involved in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Romania and the Balkans. Kaplan died on November 5, 2012 at the age of 75 from cancer.
He was first elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament for the Toronto riding of Don Valley in 1968, beating the Progressive Conservative candidate, Dalton Camp.