Avi Lewis

Avram David (Avi) Lewis (1968) is a Canadian, social democratic documentary filmmaker and host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) current-affairs program On the Map. He is the son of diplomat and former Ontario New Democratic Party Leader Stephen Lewis and journalist Michele Landsberg, the grandson of former New Democratic Party leader David Lewis, and the nephew of architect Daniel Libeskind.

Most recently, Lewis has been hosting a new show on Al Jazeera English named Frontline USA.

Biography

Family

Avi Lewis is the great grandson of Moshe Losz (Lewis), an outspoken member of the Jewish Bund who left Svishlock, Poland (today Ukraine) for Montreal in 1921, with his wife Rose (née Lazarovitch) and three children, after being interrogated by the Russians for days. Avi Lewis is the grandson of federal NDP leader David Lewis and the son of politician and diplomat Stephen Lewis and journalist Michele Landsburg. Avi Lewis is married to journalist and author Naomi Klein.

Lewis grew up in Toronto, Canada, and attended Jarvis Collegiate and Upper Canada College. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1988.

Avi Lewis was featured on the November 20, 2001 Life & Times episode of The Lewis Family.

Avi Lewis's genealogical search was featured on the January 31, 2008 episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?".

Career

Between 1996 and 1998, Avi Lewis was host of The NewMusic, a music magazine show on MuchMusic and CityTV. He also served as MuchMusic's political specialist — by doing extensive special events coverage for the channel designed to engage youth in the political process. Among other events, he covered the 1993 Canadian federal election and the 1995 Quebec referendum. Avi Lewis won a Gemini for Best Event Coverage.

In 1998-2001, Lewis hosted CBC Newsworld's current affairs discussion show counterSpin where he presided over 500+ debates. Avi Lewis was later the host of Counterspin Sunday.

In 2004, Lewis and his wife Naomi Klein collaborated on The Take — a documentary which detailed the "recovered factory" movement in Argentina. The Take, winner of the International Jury Prize, was nominated for four Gemini Awards.

Lewis is somewhat infamous for a June 11, 2007 interview, he held with feminist political writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali. During the controversial interview he was very outright about his vehement anti-American views.

Lewis began hosting CBC Newsworld's The Big Picture with Avi Lewisin the autumn of 2006 and On the Map in 2007.

Lewis became host of Frontline USA for Al Jazeera television in 2008.

On the Map

In June 2007, CBC Newsworld debuted On the Map with Avi Lewis, a daily (Mon-Thurs) half hour of international news commentary. Lewis discussed such issues as the “Oil Law” which the United States wished for Iraq to adopt, women in Afghanistan [1], and what exactly is meant by the phrase “ungoverned spaces.” The show was officially renewed for November 2007 and then disappeared without ever airing again [2]. On The Map's half hour time slot was replaced with a half hour summary of the daily hour long show 'Politics' by Don Newman.

During the same time period, The Hour, whose mix of news commentary and pop culture provided a lighter fare than "On the Map", became decidedly more oriented to pop culture - even though there has been some creep towards greater news commentary as the season progressed. George Stroumboulopoulos, who had also worked with Lewis on Much Music [3], stated during the opening show, that the modification of format was because The Hour would now be shown right after The National (rather than before in previous seasons) when shown on the CBC main channel.

Lewis faced criticism for a June 11, 2007 interview, he held with political writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali. These critics accused Canadian born Lewis, of being misogynist, racist and anti-American because he openly questioned some of Ali’s views - including her denial of the existence of Islamophobia, her belief that Islam was inherently misogynistic, and her positive opinions concerning American democracy. Lewis compared Islamophobia to Anti-Semitism, seeing both as equally real, to which Ali replied, "Racism is a universal trait, so is antisemitism, by the way. But I want us not to confuse a set of beliefs such as Islam, with ethnicity such as with Jews just because they are Jews, or with blacks just because they are blacks, or with gays just because it’s something you can’t do anything about. Whereas Islam is simply a set of beliefs. It’s not “Islamophobic” to say that Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy. It’s not “Islamophobic” to point to those people who use the Koran and the Hadith to conduct war and to say this is being done in the name of your religion. To do something about it, that’s not “Islamophobic”. That’s fair."

Lewis also faced criticism for his piece on Hugo Chavez to which Lewis responded: “I've been called a lot of things, but Neo-con? that's a first.” It is true that Lewis seemed more favourable to the views expressed by Jennifer McCoy than by Mark Weisbrot concerning Chavez’s spending on social programs (health, literacy, agriculture and housing), treatment of dissenting opinions, and attempts to concentrate of power in the office of President. In the rant that followed, Avi said that Chavez’s actions did not match his rhetoric and criticised Chavez for not doing more to close down the “laboratory” of “market economics” which he had inherited from previous administrations. Naomi Klein, who credited Avi Lewis for his input into her book The Shock Doctrine, links both stifling of dissent and concentration of power with the implementation of these earlier economic policies.

Why Democracy

From October 8-18 2007, Avi Lewis hosted the ten part documentary series "Why Democracy?".

Frontline USA

Frontline USA first aired on Al Jazeera television on February 8 2008 with the episode "Politics of Race". Al Jazeera describes Frontline USA as "an in-depth look at the real issues at stake in the US presidential election."[4]

Politics Of Race (February 22 2008) - focused on the situation in New Orleans and the disenfranchising of Black voters. [5][6]

Native Americans (March 1 2008) - focused on Lakota Sioux separatism, social and economic issues surrounding the Lakota Sioux, Navajo and the Shoshone. [7][8] The last few minutes were devoted to the role online videos play in the American election - including a clip from "Yes we Can".