According to legend, Philip Joshua Rubin once punched Montreal-based fascist leader Adrien Arcand so hard that he knocked him out.
Arcand had apparently attempted to block Rubin from entering a movie with his family, calling them "dirty Jews."
Rubin just pulled back and decked the blueshirt leader with a haymaker.
Arcand ended up on the floor with an aching skull and a bleeding mouth.
Rubin was also known to enter restaurants that had signs reading No Jews Or Dogs and loudly bark like a dog in protest.
Rubin grew up attending boarding school where everybody assumed he was Irish. "We Irish have to stick together," they told him. He just nodded.
He went on to become a champion wrestler in the Canadian Army Wrestling League but he was not permitted to serve in WWII due to his poor eyesight.
His teeth were no better, being so nasty that his wife wouldn't kiss him.
He once went into the woods with a man who invited him to fight. The opponent was wielding a knife but Rubin, unarmed, didn't flinch from battle. The surprised rival ran away screaming because he figured Rubin was insane for being willing to fight a man wielding a knife.
Rubin was a salesman but not a good one.
He was too trusting and ended up losing a large amount of money by allowing Port Daniel, Gaspe furniture shoppers to purchase his goods on credit, which they didn't pay.
Rubin had other eccentricities. He'd go to park and eat an entire pie on his own. He would scratch the plastic coating off of pills, believing the substance to be dangerous.
When his daughter started dating a non-Jewish suitor, Rubin refused to give his blessings based on the religious differences.
They married nonetheless and remain married.
Rubin died of a heart attack in his early sixties.
Thanks to Pat Shearing for sharing this story of his grandfather.