Avi Lewis is the great-grandson of Moshe Losz (Lewis), an outspoken member of the Jewish Bund who left Svislach, Poland (absorbed by the Soviet Union during World War II, and today in Belarus), after being interrogated by the Russians and threatened with death or the Gulag for his political activity, he left for Montreal in 1921, with his wife Rose (née Lazarovitch) and three children.

In 2004, Lewis and his wife Naomi Klein collaborated on The Take — a documentary that detailed the "recovered factory" movement in Argentina.

[9] In June 2007, CBC Newsworld debuted On the Map with Avi Lewis, a daily (Monday-Thursday) half-hour of international news commentary.

Lewis discussed such issues as the "Oil Law" that the United States wished Iraq to adopt, women in Afghanistan,[10] and what exactly is meant by the phrase "ungoverned spaces".

After repeatedly and openly sniggering at Hirsi Ali's complimentary remarks about the United States, Lewis sharply questioned some of her views - including her denial of the existence of Islamophobia, her belief that Islam was inherently misogynistic, and her positive opinions concerning American democracy.

Lewis compared Islamophobia to Anti-Semitism, seeing both as equally real, to which Ali replied: "Racism is a universal trait, so is antisemitism, by the way.

Naomi Klein, who credited Avi Lewis for his input into her book The Shock Doctrine, links both stifling of dissent and concentration of power with the implementation of these earlier economic policies.

[citation needed][17] From October 8–18, 2007, Avi Lewis hosted the ten-part international documentary series Why Democracy?

[24] In September 2015, Lewis, Naomi Klein, and others launched the Leap Manifesto - which proposed broad changes to Canadian society and economics in order to respond to climate change through a policy framework that also addresses issues of wealth and income inequality, racism, and colonialism and in hopes of influencing the policy debate during the 2015 Canadian federal election campaign.

[27] In May 2021, Lewis was nominated as the NDP's candidate for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, British Columbia for the 2021 Canadian federal election,[28][29] which was subsequently called for September 20, 2021.

[30] Lewis' run for federal parliament was endorsed by environmentalist David Suzuki,[31][32] actress Jane Fonda,[32][33] playwright Eve Ensler,[34] folk singer and activist Billy Bragg,[35] and biologist Alexandra Morton.