John S. Keenlyside was born and raised in Vancouver and attended UBC and graduated with a degree in economics and political science. In 1973 he founded the investment counseling firm John S. Keenlyside & Co. which he manages with his two sons.
Stamp collecting was Keenlyside‟s initial collecting interest. Keenlyside is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Societies of London and Canada. He is also a director of a number of national philatelic societies and is a qualified national philatelic judge.
Keenlyside has been collecting 19th Century historical papers for over thirty-five years with his primary collecting interest being the history of British Columbia with an emphasis on the colonial period (pre-1871). He has also collected documents relating to the fur trade and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Keenlyside collects manuscripts, documents, maps, books and ephemera relating to B.C. He has also donated two collections to Simon Fraser University: a substantial collection of Doukhobor material and a collection of HIV/Aids material.

The fonds consists of legal documents collected by John Keenlyside over the last thirty five years. The documents give insight into the formation of British Columbia's legal system when it consisted of two colonies.

Also consists of documents related to the British Columbia Provincial Police force and various Japanese-Canadian and civil rights groups.