We have lost a giant, and a hero to countless social justice activists across Canada and around the world. 

I first heard Stephen Lewis give a speech at a peace conference in Montreal when I was 16 years old. I am 57 today, but I can still clearly see and hear it in my mind. I was spellbound. His command of the English language was unlike anything I had ever heard.

In the ensuing years I heard Lewis speak many times. Without question, Stephen Lewis was one of the greatest orators of recent decades. It wasn’t just the beauty and precision of the words – the man was a walking thesaurus – or the gripping cadence. It was the emotional journey on which he took you. When you listened to a Stephen Lewis speech, you would most certainly learn a lot, but you were also sure to laugh and to cry, and you would be moved to act. His ability to commit to memory both statistics and story was unparalleled — he often spoke without notes.

If the younger folks among you have never heard Lewis give a speech, or for those seeking a fond memory, treat yourself to this one from the 2016 NDP convention (for those with a special interest in the climate crisis, stay tuned at the 20 minute mark), this one from the 2018 meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (for more insight into Lewis’s global work confronting the AIDS crisis), or watch the unforgettable eulogy he gave at the state funeral for former NDP leader Jack Layton.

When I heard Lewis that first time, he – a lifelong New Democrat – had recently been named Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations by none other than........

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