A federal public servant who became an ardent anti-tobacco advocate is being remembered for his role in helping Canada and other parts of the world in their efforts to curb smoking.

Neil Collishaw died at his home in Ottawa this past Thursday after a fight with bladder cancer, according to his family. He was 77.

Collishaw’s contributions spanned his time as a bureaucrat at Health Canada to his later years as research director for the Ottawa-based non-profit Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.

They included helping draft legislation in the mid-1980s that restricted the promotional abilities of tobacco companies, as well as assisting with the passage of a separate act that outlawed smoking in federal workplaces, trains and airplanes.

Collishaw also toured Canada in the early 2000s with an Ottawa restaurant worker suffering from lung cancer, in order to put a face to the health effects of exposure to second-hand smoke.

“One of his mantras was, if you don’t worry who gets the credit, a lot can get done,” according to his longtime friend and coworker Cynthia Callard.

“He was usually in the back rooms helping [others] figure out what they wanted to get done.”

Collishaw was a frequent commentator on tobacco issues through the years. He’s pictured here during an appearance on CBC in 1986. (CBC)

Working the system

Callard met Collishaw in the mid-1980s in the leadup to the passage of the Non-Smokers Health Act, a private member’s bill that banned smoking in federal government offices, and the Tobacco Products Control Act, which required health warnings on tobacco products.

Both acts went through an all-party legislative committee. At the time, Collishaw was with Health Canada under former prime minister Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government, while Callard worked for an NDP MP who had introduced the Non-Smokers Health Act.

Callard said she called Collishaw asking for help and he obliged by sending her a big parcel of articles and background information.

“You know, before the internet,” Callard said. “And this was a narrow field [of study]. So it was that ability to kind of work the system that made him so effective.”

Colleague Cynthia Callard took this photo of her and Collishaw 11 days before he died. (Submitted by Cynthia Callard)

Collishaw was also instrumental in the formation of a national strategy to reduce tobacco use, she said.

In the 1990s, after the Berlin Wall came down, Collishaw worked for the World Health Organization.

There, he helped train government officials in former Communist countries on how to stand up to tobacco companies trying to push through “aggressive” advertising, Callard said.

He was also called behind the scenes to help lawyers defend Canada’s new anti-tobacco laws against legal challenges, she said.

‘He realized the value of storytelling’

In the early 2000s, Collishaw and Callard were working at Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada when they met a woman named Heather Crowe.

A non-smoker, Crowe was a longtime waitress in Ottawa’s Westboro neighbourhood. She was the first person to win an Ontario Workers Safety and Insurance Board claim for full compensation because her cancer was caused by occupational exposure to cigarette smoke.

Collishaw went with her on a cross-country speaking tour, again working in the background, Callard said.

“He realized the value of storytelling,” said Ottawa city councillor Theresa Kavanagh, who was related to Collishaw by marriage.

“It’s one thing to read off statistics. It’s another thing to talk face-to-face with somebody who’s going through a terrible disease that was caused by people smoking around them.”

Collishaw died last week with his family by his side, Kavanagh said.