Stephen Lewis Talks Cancer at ConU
Fight Against Cancer Needs Student Engagement, says Former Ambassador
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Updated on Oct 10.
Students have the power to change the face of the fight against cancer.
At least, that was the message Stephen Lewis, a former Canadian politician and UN ambassador, had to deliver at an Oct. 5 stop in the Hall Building’s DB Clarke auditorium.
Lewis finished his People vs. Cancer tour at Concordia, ending a trek that had made several stops at Canadian universities to enlist the intellectual support of students and institutions in the fight against cancer.
“Concordia has an extraordinary history of gathering forces for social change,” said Lewis. “Students have the capacity to move mountains when they want to, and to rally the rest of society in the process.”
One in three Canadians will get the disease, and half of these cases could be prevented. Nevertheless, cancer meets with “astonishing indifference,” maintained Lewis.
A disappointing turnout at the event made this apathy all the more evident. Speaking to a mostly empty auditorium, Lewis called on universities to focus more research on root causes of cancer deaths, like poverty and lack of access to affordable drugs.
Lewis’ tour comes on the heels of last month’s first-ever UN Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases. These illnesses are the leading cause of death worldwide, with cases outnumbering those of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
Lewis said healthcare systems in developing countries are especially overwhelmed.
“There’s something appalling about our inability to come together sufficiently to overcome the passivity and the rigidity with which these diseases are dealt—cancer in particular,” he said.
Lewis also criticized Quebec’s recent decision to resume the mining and exporting of asbestos.
“It is beyond belief that we are exporting death,” he said of the carcinogenic mineral. “It is unimaginable that we are willing to sacrifice lives in developing countries to support a relative handful of jobs in the Canadian economy.”
The evening began with a poignant speech by JMSB student Anthony Hunt, who lost his mother to cancer last year.
“This disease changed me,” Hunt said. “When a person who means so much to you is suffering from such an illness, everything about you is shaken to the core.”
