Writer and activist fought for justice, decency
The Canadian writing community was shocked by the sudden passing of Vancouver poet and community activist Jamie Reid, at his home in North Vancouver on June 25.
An inspiration to generations of poets, Reid was a proud bohemian living life to the fullest and whose death is a significant loss, particularly to the ranks of the West Coast writers who participated in the legendary Vancouver Poetry Conference of 1963. He was featured in a number of the era’s films, including a 1967 CBC documentary, What Happened Last Summer, and a short film about the inaugural Stanley Park Be-In.
Born 74 years ago in Timmins, Ont., Reid lived in various parts of Canada but was primarily identified with the West Coast literary scene. A co-founder of the TISH poetry movement, along with future Parliamentary Poets Laureate George Bowering and Fred Wah, his first volume, The Man Whose Path Was On Fire, was published in 1967. His 1994 book-length poem, Prez: Homage to Lester Young — a paean to the great saxophonist — was a testament to his lifelong love of jazz. An edition of his selected poems, I. Another. The Space Between., was published by Talonbooks in 2004, the year he and his wife established a household for themselves and two First Nations women with Down syndrome, Leslie Leo and Colleen Sound.
Reid was an activist for various leftist political movements with a wide field of friends. Surrey poet Phinder Dulai recalled: “I once asked Jamie why he had not continued specifically on the path that the TISH poets began; he noted how important it was to be fully engaged in the worker rights movement, and specifically cited people like Darshan Singh Sangha, one of the founders of the IWA and an early activist in the Communist party of Canada.”
Survived by Carol Reid, his partner of 51 years, friends knew Reid as an artist dedicated to literary excellence, whose humanism both created and galvanized communities. He was a fiery orator on justice and decency and embodied the ideal of living one’s dream, forging one’s own mythology, leaving a better world. Those who knew this lion of a man will keep his words and works alive in their memory. We will not soon see his like pass this way again.