Early broadcasting career Between 1996 and 1998, Lewis was the host of
The NewMusic, a music magazine show on
MuchMusic and
Citytv. He also served as MuchMusic's political specialist, doing extensive special events coverage for the channel, covering the
1993 Canadian federal election and the
1995 Quebec referendum. Lewis won a
Gemini Award for Best Event Coverage. He also worked for
Bell Media's
CP24.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation From 1998 to 2001, he hosted
CBC Newsworld's current affairs discussion show
CounterSpin, where he presided over 500 debates. He was later the host of
Counterspin Sunday. Lewis began hosting
The Big Picture with Avi Lewis in the autumn of 2006 and
On the Map in 2007. In the latter program, Lewis conducted interviews with
Ayaan Hirsi Ali and
John Bolton, among others. He was a panellist on
Canada Reads, which aired from March 2 to 6, 2009, where he presented, and successfully defended, the winning book,
Lawrence Hill's
The Book of Negroes. In June 2007, CBC Newsworld debuted
On the Map with Avi Lewis, a daily (Monday to Thursday) half-hour of international news commentary.
On the Map 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 on
CBC Television,
The Hour, hosted by
George Stroumboulopoulos aired.
Al Jazeera Inside USA was first telecast on
Al Jazeera English on February 8, 2008, with the episode "Politics of Race". Al Jazeera describes
Inside USA as "an in-depth look at the real issues at stake in the
US presidential election." "Politics Of Race", released on February 22, 2008, focused on the situation in New Orleans and the disenfranchisement of Black voters. "Native Americans", released on March 1, 2008, focused on
Lakota Sioux separatism and the social and economic issues surrounding the Lakota Sioux,
Navajo and the
Shoshone peoples. The last few minutes were devoted to the role online videos play in US elections, including a clip from "Yes We Can". Following the presidential election, Lewis became a co-host of
Fault Lines in 2009, a program known for investigative storytelling examining the United States and its role in the world.
Documentary films In 2004, Lewis and his wife
Naomi Klein collaborated on
The Take, a documentary that detailed the "
recovered factory" movement in
Argentina.
The Take, winner of the International Jury Prize at the
American Film Institute festival, was nominated for four Gemini Awards. Collaboration between Lewis, Klein, and Brendan Martin led to the creation of The Working World/La Bas foundation, a
non-profit microcredit aimed at
cooperatives active in the United States and Argentina. which finished second in the audience voting, for the documentary category, at the
2015 Toronto International Film Festival. With his organization, The Leap, Lewis co-wrote a short film titled
A Message from the Future with
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019. It was nominated for Outstanding News Analysis: Editorial and Opinion at the
41st News and Documentary Emmy Awards. A sequel, titled
Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair was also co-written by Lewis and was released in 2020 by
The Intercept.
Academics and journalism He was a journalism and media studies lecturer at
Rutgers University in
New Jersey and an associate professor in the geography department of the
University of British Columbia, where he taught courses on social and political change, communication and documentary filmmaking. ==Political beginnings==