Family, friends, notable figures pay final respects to Thomas J. Baťa

Around 800 people in Toronto, Canada on Friday paid their final respects to the late Thomas J. Baťa, who died this week at the age of 93. Mr Baťa, born in Zlín in what is today’s Czech Republic, made Canada his permanent home after the Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia in 1948. He oversaw a shoe-manufacturing empire that was first founded by his father. Attendees at the funeral service on Friday included not only family and friends but also political figures such as the Czech Deputy Prime Minister Jiří Čunek and the former premier of Ontario, Bob Rae.