Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and social activist, dies aged 88 | Canada
Canadian diplomat, politician and human rights advocate Stephen Lewis, who worked tirelessly for decades to draw the world’s attention to the HIV/Aids epidemic, has died of cancer.
Lewis, who served as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations and also chairman of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Ontario, was 88 years old.
“Stephen spent the last eight years of his life fighting cancer with the same indomitable energy he brought to his lifelong work: the never-ending fight for justice and dignity for every human life,” his family said in a statement. “The world has lost its unique voice of eloquence and integrity.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney paid tribute to Lewis in a statement, calling him “a pillar of compassionate leadership in Canadian democracy and a renowned global champion for human rights and multilateralism.”
The son of former federal NDP leader David Lewis, Lewis was also the father of Avi Lewis, who was elected leader of the federal NDP on Sunday.
Avi Lewis paid tribute to his father in his victory speech before his death, saying his father was “not doing well” but was waiting in his hospital bed to see the next chapter of “the movement.”
“My father, always a political fanatic, requested that daily updates on our organization be delivered to his hospital bed—a veritable IV drip of campaign data,” he said. “At 88, he is more passionate about the promise of democratic socialism than he has ever been in his life.”
Stephen Lewis led the Ontario NDP from 1970 to 1978 and served as official opposition leader from 1975 to 1977.
After leaving politics, Lewis was appointed Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations. He was later appointed special advisor to the UN secretary-general on African affairs and later became deputy director of Unicef and the United Nations special envoy for HIV-Aids in Africa.
What shook him was his work in a part of the world devastated by disease and neglected by nations that had the means to help.
“I cannot remember such an excruciating scene of human loneliness in my entire adult life, it was heartbreaking,” Lewis said in his first speech to the UN in 2006.
A gifted orator and writer, he directed his harshest criticism at wealthy nations and global institutions that could end most suffering.
“It’s not just the fact that people are going to die; it’s the fact that the people who made that decision are going to die, too.” To know that people will die. How can this be rationalized?” he said in a speech at Yale University in 2011, after donor countries cut funding. “How is this issue being addressed in the inner quarters of development ministries and cabinet discussions? What on earth do they say to each other?”
Driven by the desire to make fighting disease and poverty his life’s work, Lewis subsequently co-founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation with his daughter Ilana Landsberg-Lewis and frequently traveled to countries in Africa disproportionately affected by epidemics.
Lewis called on countries like Canada to recognize the need for vaccine equity during the coronavirus outbreak and criticized the government for accessing doses from an international vaccine-sharing pool. “It was always understood from the beginning that this was not a source of vaccines for the rich and wealthy countries of the world,” he said in a 2021 interview.
There are two schools named after him in Toronto, and Lewis holds 33 honorary degrees, among the highest in Canada. In 2002, he was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honour.
