![]() The story told of the shameful period in Canada’s history not taught in schools and he created The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, with brother Mike Downie, to continue to right the wrongs and bring together “white” Canadians with the Indigenous Peoples. That multi-disciplinary passion project sought to bring attention to reconciliation by spotlighting the death of an Anishinaabe boy, Chanie Wenjack, 50 years ago who ran away from a residential school. He sweetly started kissing his friends, family and bandmates on the lips, holding their faces between his hands, as seen frequently onstage both with The Hip and when he performed his solo shows for Secret Path. The Tragically Hip had been going strong more than 30 years.Ĭanadians Say Farewell to Dying Tragically Hip Singer Gord Downie Since revealing his diagnosis publicly in May 2016, Downie went full force, creatively and physically: he pushed himself (his doctor advising and monitoring his health) to embark on a farewell tour with The Tragically Hip - with bandmates guitarists Paul Langlois and Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair, drummer Johnny Fay - to promote their latest album, Man Machine Poem (recorded before knowledge of his cancer), and embrace the profound love Canadians of all ages had for him. The line “drop a caribou” was slang for making a phone call - the animal appears on the Canadian quarter.ĭownie, who received the Order of Canada in June, was an unofficial ambassador to the country, the leader of a band that best represented Canada and the nation’s media have been providing wall-to-wall coverage of his death all morning as if mourning a head of state. We sang along to songs referencing Bill Barilko (Toronto Maple Leafs star), Bobcaygeon (a community in Eastern Ontario), Millhaven maximum security prison or the Golden Rim Motor Inn (a quirky hotel in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia). Courage,” he wrote on Twitter.Gord Downie, Frontman of The Tragically Hip, Dies at 53 After Battle with Brain Cancer “Gord Downie is a true original who has been writing Canada’s soundtrack for more than 30 years. Justin Trudeau also weighed in from Japan, where the Canadian prime minister was wrapping up a working visit ahead of this week’s G7 talks. The sentiment was echoed by Canadian indie pop band Stars who tweeted: “Gord Downie is the poet laureate of the Canadian soul.” “No band in our history has embraced/defined #canadianity more than The Hip. ![]() “Gord IS Canada,” said actor Jonathan Torrens, who played J-Roc on Trailer Park Boys. “This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us … So we’re going to dig deep and try to make this our best tour yet.” The tour will coincide with the release of the band’s latest album, Man Machine Poem.Īs the news broke on Tuesday, tributes to Downie poured in from across Canada and around the world with many expressing their shock at the news. The Tragically Hip said plans were in the works for Downie and the band to tour Canada this summer, despite the diagnosis. “For many people, in fact most of my patients, it’s daunting to actually reveal your diagnosis … let alone somebody that is truly a national treasure.” He added it was too early to know Downie’s long-term prognosis and refused to speculate on a timeline. “It’s my difficult duty today to tell you Gord Downie’s tumour is incurable.” I love my idea of this country.”ĭownie’s doctor, James Perry, said on Tuesday that the musician had undergone surgery and six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation after being diagnosed with an invasive brain tumour known as glioblastoma.ĭownie has so far responded well to treatment, but the tumour is impossible to completely remove from the brain, said Perry. “You write about what you know,” the father of four explained in a 2012 CBC interview. The group was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2005.ĭownie, 52, has also released three solo albums.ĭownie’s lyrics are often woven with references to Canada’s history and geography, from explorer Jacques Cartier to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The group swiftly became a mainstay on the Canadian music scene, releasing 13 studio albums – nine of which reached No 1 in Canada – and winning 14 Juno awards, which recognise excellence in Canadian music. The band, which has been together for more than three decades, was formed at an Ontario high school in the early 1980s. ![]() In privacy along with his family, and through all of this, we’ve been standing by him.” “Since then, obviously, he’s endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard. The diagnosis, they said, had come in December. ![]()
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