Canada’s social sector remembers lifelong social justice activist Stephen Lewis
Lewis was towering advocate for global justice , leaving a legacy that reshaped humanitarian action and community‑led responses to HIV-AIDS.
Why It Matters
Stephen Lewis’s lifelong insistence that human rights, gender equality, and community‑rooted solutions belong at the centre of global policy helped shift how governments, NGOs, and multilateral bodies understand their responsibilities. His death marks the loss of a rare public voice who consistently demanded moral clarity and accountability in the fight against inequality.
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Canadian non-profit leaders and politicians, as well as advocates around the world, are mourning the towering loss of Stephen Lewis, a lifelong social justice advocate who tirelessly championed human rights, African families devastated by HIV-AIDS and women.
Lewis died March 31 at the age of 88 from stomach cancer, his family said in a statement released after his death.
“Stephen spent the last eight years of his life battling cancer with the same indomitable energy he brought to his lifelong work: the unending struggle for justice and dignity for every human life,” the statement read.
“The world has lost a voice of unmatched eloquence and integrity.”
“Today, I join Canadians in mourning the loss of Stephen Lewis, a pillar of compassionate leadership in Canadian democracy and a renowned global champion for human rights and multilateralism,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“Mr. Lewis moved millions with his appeals for a compassionate and just society. He helped position Canada as a principled leader in ending apartheid in South Africa and believed that proper health care was key to reducing poverty and growing economies.
“As the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and later as the co-founder of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, he pressed the world to see the human toll of this horrific epidemic not as a distant tragedy, but as a shared responsibility that demanded global action.
“I offer my condolences to Stephen Lewis’ wife, Michele, their three children, and all those whose lives he touched. He will be deeply missed.”
Former federal NDP leadership candidate and activist Charlie Angus spoke to CBC of the moment he understood Lewis’ impact.
“I remember I was outside playing and my grandmother said ‘You come in here, and you listen to this man,” he said, voice cracking.
“And it was Stephen Lewis, and he was talking about the widows. And he was talking about industrial disease and how we have to fight it, and my grandmother said ‘Nobody has ever spoken up for us before.’ And that was the moment that I realized politics has to be about, about serving people who have no voice. And that was Stephen Lewis. That’s what he did his entire life.”
“He was very engaged, right up to the very end,” climate activist and friend David Suzuki told CBC’s Power and Politics Tuesday.
“He hung on until he could see that Avi won, and then his legacy was complete, that that work will continue on…again, that’s an indication of what a powerful guy he was.
“The last hour we spent together, we just held hands and told each other how much we loved each other,” he said, choking up. “But his legacy is there and we all should be so grateful.”
“I was raised in a society with sexist narratives about women and girls, and as much as I learned to reject those narratives as I grew older, some of them just got into my psyche,” said Megan Leslie, President and CEO at WWF Canada.
“Like the narratives from Hollywood (and my hometown) about women being conniving, and using sex to get ahead, and as hard as I tried to reject it part of me had bought into the sl*t shaming narrative.
“But he said: *women were resourceful, and would do anything to protect their families*. Women are protectors. Women are fierce and strong. Women do what it takes to survive.
“What Stephen said didn’t just make a lightbulb go off in my head. It detonated an atom bomb in my brain, melting all the bullsh*t I’d been fed and had internalized for decades. It’s like my DNA realigned right there on stage.”
Manitoba premier Wab Kinew said Lewis is the reason he is a New Democrat.
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