He said his “Secret Path” project was aimed at Canada’s decades-long government policy of requiring aboriginal children to attend residential schools, where physical and sexual abuse was often rampant.īorn in Amherstview, Ontario, Downie said he “always had a keen ear for music” and while all the other kids were spending their allowance on baseball trading cards, he was buying records “from the fathers of rock ‘n’ roll.” “God knew this day was coming - his response was to spend his precious time as he always had - making music, making memories and expressing deep gratitude to his family and friends for a life well lived, often sealing it with a kiss … on the lips,” the Downie family said in a statement.ĭuring his final show, Downie called out to Trudeau, who attended the concert, to help fix problems in Canada’s aboriginal communities.Ī few months after that concert, Downie released a solo album with an accompanying graphic novel and animated film inspired by the tragedy of state-funded church schools that Canadian aboriginal children were forced to attend from the 19th century until the 1970s. But through it all, Downie remained the consummate showman, rocking out on stage in distinctive leather suits.
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Millions tuned in.ĭownie later said that he needed six teleprompters during the concert series so he would not forget lyrics. Tickets for the 2016 summer tour sold out almost immediately, culminating in a national broadcast of the band’s final tour stop at Kingston, Ontario. That same day, the band said it would mount a Canadian tour despite Downie’s cancer.
When the band made the news public the following May, expressions of sorrow poured in from across the country. Downie was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable brain cancer, in December 2015.
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