Stephen Lewis, former Canadian politician and lifelong social activist, dies at 88

TORONTO (AP) — Stephen Lewis, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations and a lifelong social activist and former politician, has died. He was 88.

The Stephen Lewis Foundation announced his death on Tuesday. He had been diagnosed with stomach cancer eight years ago.

Lewis held multiple posts with the U.N. after his four-year stint as Canada’s ambassador, including as a special adviser to then secretary-general Kofi Annan.

He is the father of Avi Lewis, who was elected leader of Canada’s leftist federal New Democrat Party on Sunday.

Lewis spent a lifetime fighting for causes close to his heart — including human rights, equality for women and the plight of African families decimated by AIDS. His weapons of choice were words.

“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,” his family said in a statement released shortly after his death.

“The world has lost a voice of unmatched eloquence and integrity,” it said.

Lewis was a prominent writer and orator in Canada, and spent decades championing the economically downtrodden and disenfranchised, warning the world of the threat of climate change and railing against physical and sexual violence against women and children everywhere.

He began working for the federal New Democratic Party and in 1963, at the age of 26, was elected to the Ontario legislature. In 1970 he became leader of the provincial NDP, which in 1975 became the official opposition. In 1978, a year after the party suffered an electoral setback, he resigned as leader and became a media commentator, lecturer and labor arbitrator.

In 1984, Canada’s then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Lewis as the country’s ambassador to the U.N., a post he held for four years. He was then named special adviser to the U.N. secretary-general on African affairs, a post he held until 1991. From 1995 to 1999, Lewis was deputy director of UNICEF and from 2001 to 2006 served as the U.N. special envoy for AIDS in Africa.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he “joined 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.”

“As a member of Ontario’s legislature, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, and Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Lewis moved millions with his appeals for a compassionate and just society,” Carney said in a statement.

Carney said Lewis 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.

Lewis was married to journalist and social activist Michele Landsberg. The Toronto couple had three children, Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, Jenny Leah Lewis and Avi Lewis, who is married to writer Naomi Klein.