This doctor treated HIV/AIDS patients when no one else would. His advocacy continued as he prepared to die - Action News
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Manitoba

This doctor treated HIV/AIDS patients when no one else would. His advocacy continued as he prepared to die

A Winnipeg doctor hopes his legacy of providing health care to LGBTQ patients one of only a few local physicians doing so at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis extends beyond his life.

Dr. Dick Smith, 80, provided health care to gay, bisexual men at height of HIV/AIDS crisis

A doctor with glasses and a grey bear is seen in a doctor's office.
Dr. Dick Smith, seen in a photo from a CBC profile of his career when he retired in 2019, died via medical assistance in death on Tuesday after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 80. (Warren Kay/CBC)

A Winnipeg doctor hopes his legacy of providing health care to LGBTQ patients one of only a few local physicians doing so at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis extends beyond his life.

Dr. Dick Smith, who had pancreatic cancer, died with medical assistanceonTuesday. He was 80.

"My biggest thing that I want people to really get a grip on is that no minority of any kind, whether it be religious or sexual or racial, is ever safe," Smith told CBC News in an interview 24 hours before he died.

"Democracy is a wonderful thing, but there is always a risk of a majority of people suddenly thinking this or that.... Bevery careful and be aware that everything that has been achieved could be taken away in a single election."

The gay doctor and activist helped many men who have sex with men throughout the HIV/AIDS epidemic and beyond.

Smith played a key role in founding the Village Clinic, which became Nine Circles Community Health Centre.

He retired at 65, but it didn't stick. He kept seeing patients and founded the Gay Men's Health Clinic, later renamed Our Own Health Centre.

His career spanned over half a century; he finally hung up the stethoscope in 2019.

Several people hold up a sign that reads Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights.
Smith, second from left, stands with others in the streets of San Francisco holding up a 'Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights' sign in 1978. (J.R.M. Smith Archival Collection)

Smith facilitated fundraisers for LGBTQ health care and educated patients on safe sexin the 1980s and '90s, when fears and stigma around HIV/AIDS were heightened.

He also understood the importance of meeting those most at risk where they were at. He held testing clinics for sexually transmitted infectionsinside a Winnipeg bathhouse, O'Bee's Steam Bath, where gay and bisexual men socialized and hooked up.

A trailblazing doctor who treated HIV/AIDs patients when no one else would died on Tuesday via medical assistance Tuesday. The CBC's Bryce Hoye spoke with him 24 hours before he died about his life and legacy treating the LGBTQ community in Winnipeg.

'Easy to be bold'

He arrived in Manitoba in 1972, a few years after graduatingmed school, and practised for a time in Neepawa. He opened a clinic in Winnipeg seven years later to serve lesbianand gay patients.

"Whether it was internalized homophobia or whether it was a genuine shunning while I was in medical school, I had a very emotionally traumatic time, and from that came my tenacity not to give up on this job," he said. "Sothat turned out, strangely, to be good."

Two men embrace in an undated photo.
Smith, left, and his partner, Doug Arrell, around the time they got together over four decades ago. (J.R.M. Smith Archival Collection)

He was further propelled toward LGBTQ health care and activism when he met his husbandDoug Arrell. They came out together.

"That was a great 46 years," Smith said.

"I had no immediate family in the city, I had no one I had been in school with, I had no one I had to be ashamed to at all, and it was easy to be bold."

He told CBC News in 2019 that somewhere in the range of 100 of his patients died of HIV/AIDS over the years.

His patient Jim Kane survived.

WATCH | Jim Kanerecalls how Dr. Smith countered 'fear and stigma':

Patient recalls how Dr. Dick Smith countered 'fear and stigma' around HIV/AIDS

11 months ago
Duration 1:02
HIV/AIDS survivor Jim Kane recalls how his longtime physician, Dr. Dick Smith, devoted his career to LGBTQ health-care and fighting stigma. Smith died Tuesday at the age of 80.

Patients heap praise

Kane tested positive in 1986. He credits Smith not just for the love and care he received, but for inspiring him to be open about his statusand who he wasto help pierce through a veil of secrecy and stigma.

"Dr. Smith was the doctor who treated me for HIV but he did more than that though. He treated the whole community," said Kane, 69.

"I always remember Dr. Smith doing educational seminars for health-care professionals with some of his colleagues so that he could reduce some of that stigma. He was front and centre when it came to prevention."

Jim Kane spoke with Faith Fundal about what type of legacy Dr. Dick Smith leaves behind after dying from medical assisted in dying. He nominated Dr. Smith for an order of Manitoba and he received that this past August.

Former patient John Lawrie, who lost his brother and several friends toAIDS, credits Smith with saving his life.

He andKane nominated Smith to be inducted into the Order of Manitoba, an honour bestowed on the doctor this summer.

WATCH |'He's looking over the rainbow at us':

'He's looking over the rainbow at us': LGBTQ community mourns loss of trailblazing Winnipeg doctor

11 months ago
Duration 3:02
Dr. Dick Smith died via medical assistance in death on Tuesday. The Winnipeg doctor leaves behind a legacy of helping LGBTQ patients, including many of gay and bisexual men at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Barry Karlenzigbecame one of Smith's patients shortly afterhe came out as bisexual in 2008.

"He has been there for the community, no matter what," said Karlenzig,president and chair of Pride Winnipeg.

"If Manitoba Health wasn't funding something, it came out of his own pocket until such time policy changed. He has been a trailblazer."

A man with short hair and a black sweater that reads 'Pride Winnipeg' stands in front of a building.
Barry Karlenzig is president of Pride Winnipeg. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)

Roger Tam, a pharmacist at Our Own Health Centre, was a collaborator with Smith at the clinic in the past decade.

"I feel like I've lost a grandfather," Tam said. "I feel that he is telling us [we] should be using his memory to carry on what he's done."

Tam also was a patient of Smith's years earlier, after he was attacked outside a nightclub for being gay, he said.

'Gay hero'

A man with a bead and glasses stands outside a medical clinic.
Smith outside his Fort Rouge Medical Clinic on Corydon Avenue in Winnipeg in 1979. (J.R.M. Smith Archival Collection)

Smith is a "gay hero" who saw "the pendulum move back and forth multiple times in his life" in terms of public acceptance of the LGBTQ community, Tam said.

That illuminates why one of his final messages to the public underscored how the fight for human rights must continue with each generation, he said.

"He embraced me. I was in a safe place," he said. "I think that's what he always wanted. You should be loved and you should be aware of where we liveand that some people around the world don't have that luxury."

A man with black short hair wearing a black blazer and a bald man wearing a medal around his neck put their arms around each other and smile at a table.
Our Own Health Centre pharmacist Roger Tam, left, poses with Smith, who is wearing his Order of Manitoba medal, in a recent photo. (Submitted by Roger Tam)

Smith said on Monday that he "felt tremendous reward" from the many kind words of patients over the years.

Smith planned to undergo medical assistance in death from the comfort ofhomein a bedroomthat overlooks the yard, with a soothing rendition of Laudate Dominumby Mozart playing in the background.

He hoped the next Our Own Health Centre annual fundraiser on Dec. 2 would see the highest financial support yet to help carry on his legacy.

"I just hope that Our Own Health organization will be amongst the many groups protecting all different kinds of groups."

A sign reads 'our own health centre.'
Our Own Health Centre, located at Confusion Corner in Winnipeg, will hold its annual fundraiser on Dec. 2, the day after World Aids Day. (CBC)