1. Avram David "Avi" Lewis was born on May 1967 and is a Canadian activist, documentary filmmaker, former host of the Al Jazeera English show Fault Lines and former host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation current-affairs programs CounterSpin and On the Map.
Avi Lewis is currently an associate professor at the University of British Columbia.
Avi Lewis is the great-grandson of Moshe Losz, an outspoken member of the Jewish Bund who left Svislach, Poland, after being interrogated by the Russians and threatened with death or the Gulag for his political activity, he left for Montreal in 1921, with his wife Rose and three children.
Avi Lewis is the grandson of former federal New Democratic Party leader David Lewis and the son of former Ontario NDP leader and diplomat Stephen Lewis and journalist Michele Landsberg.
Avi Lewis is married to journalist and author Naomi Klein; his sister Ilana Landsberg-Lewis was the executive director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Avi Lewis grew up in Toronto, Ontario, and attended Jarvis Collegiate and Upper Canada College.
Avi Lewis graduated from the University of Toronto in 1988.
Between 1996 and 1998, Avi Lewis was host of The NewMusic, a music magazine show on MuchMusic and Citytv.
Avi Lewis became host of Frontline USA for Al Jazeera television in 2008.
Avi Lewis was a participant in the CBC's Canada Reads 2009.
Avi Lewis directed the 2015 feature-length documentary This Changes Everything, which finished second in the audience voting, for the documentary category, at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
Avi Lewis discussed such issues as the "Oil Law" that the United States wished Iraq to adopt, women in Afghanistan, and what exactly is meant by the phrase "ungoverned spaces".
Avi Lewis conducted a June 11,2007, interview with political writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Avi Lewis has stated that Hugo Chavez's actions do not match his rhetoric and has criticized Chavez for not doing more to close down the "laboratory" of policies which he had inherited from previous administrations.
Avi Lewis presented, and successfully defended, the winning book, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes.
In 2016, Avi Lewis spearheaded a motion at the New Democratic Party of Canada's federal election which would have had the party endorse the manifesto - in the end, the motion was amended to refer the manifesto to constituency associations for debate.
Avi Lewis and other manifesto signatories launched an organization to promote the manifesto's vision in 2017, called The Leap, which operated until 2021 and was a key convenor of Canada's Pact for a Green New Deal in 2019.
Avi Lewis came in third behind incumbent Liberal Patrick Weiler who has represented the riding since 2019 and Conservative John Weston, who had previously represented the district from 2008 until 2015.
In September 2024, Avi Lewis was acclaimed as the NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre for the next Canadian federal election, expected in 2025.
Avi Lewis was speculated as a potential candidate in the 2017 NDP leadership race, but declined to run.
Avi Lewis has endorsed and campaigned for several progressive candidates in internal NDP elections.