Paul Dewar remembered after a “year of magical living”

The late Paul Dewar was given a final, song-filled send-off on Saturday morning, as family, friends and a who’s who of civic and political life in Ottawa gathered as Dominion Chalmers United Church for a celebration of life ceremony. Dewar passed away on February 6th, after a year-long battle with terminal brain cancer.

It was day that seemed to resist politics, even as it served as a reminder of the gravity and respect with which Dewar, a long-time NDP member and figure in the progressive movement in Canada, was viewed in political circles. As politicians of all partisan persuasions streamed in — Conservatives, Liberals, NDPers alike — many recognized Dewar, and his death, as a reminder that everyone is, in the end, on the exact same team.

One of the country’s top media consultants, Barry McLoughlin, called Dewar “an antidote to the cynicism of political life” outside Dominion Chalmers. Politicians remembered him as a partner across party lines. “I always called him a brother, because we were political brothers,” said former Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi. “I’m going to miss my brother.”

Inside Dominion Chalmers, there were laughs and tears. One of three singers singing Bob Marley’s classic One Love got choked up during a verse, overcome with the emotion of it all; without missing a beat the crowd picked up the lyrics she couldn’t sing. And there were laughs, as family and friends shared memories of a man who was goofy, sincere, and unabashedly himself.

“My father never stopped dancing,” said his son Nathaniel. “For someone who couldn’t play an instrument, and could barely hold a beat, I swear I’ve never seen someone love music so much.” He remembers his father, he said, as equal parts “music historian, sports everyman, and radio hacker.”

Dewar’s friends and family shared stray bits of wisdom that Dewar had shared with them over the years — little insights seemingly plucked out of the linguistic ether. One of his long-time staff, Kiavash Najafi, remembers that Dewar would call Ottawa Centre a “neighbourhood of neighbourhoods;” his sister Cathy Dewar remembered how he used to say that “darkness cannot drive out darkness.” Dewar will be remembered as a man of a million aphorisms. “When Paul spoke, people listened,” said Najafi.

“His last message to me was to hug my children, ‘hug your children one more time,’” said Senator Jim Munson. “He let Family Day go by to allow us to hug our children. I’ll miss him dearly.”

For Dewar’s family, the celebration was the end of what his wife Julie Sneyd called “a year of magical living.”

“Together we have come full circle on this journey,” she said. “Making sense of your dying was our biggest challenge.”