Your absence in our lives, particularly on this, your birthday and Human Rights Day, cuts deep - but is softened by the memories of your lifelong commitment to bettering and illuminating the lives of others. Many of your sisters and brothers in the anti-psychiatry struggle have since joined you these past two years incl Ruth, Graeme, Linda, Celia -- the light, love and solidarity in your part of the universe must be unfathomably immense.
We love and will miss you always.

You are forever cherished, forever in our memories, and forever held close in our hearts. The void your absence has left is immeasurable, but we also celebrate the beautiful legacy and powerful lessons you left behind—love, compassion, pursuit of social justice, and tirelessness – for that, we are forever grateful.

I just learned of your passing and am so very sorry. The world is a far better place for having had you in it and you helped the Survivors of Medical Abuse greatly with your strength of conviction and enlightening wisdom you brought to us.

I'm sure you are surrounded with love and affection by the many you have helped and I pray that you continue to be blessed with peace. I miss you.

Love & Blessings,
Sharon Danley, Survivors of Medical Abuse.

This tribute to Don is in the form of lyrics from a song he inspired, entitled 'Shame', lyrics by Ken Innes, music Bill Yurick. The song was presented in the play Marked, Living With A Stigma, The Friendly Spike Theatre Band, 1993

Thirty unmarked graves in the town of Penatang
We don't know whar they died from
We don't even know their names
Maybe they're just lost souls that noone came to claim
and that's a shame, shame, double shame

Happy Birthday Dear Friend, you have been gone for more than a year, yet your spirit lives on in all who loved you. You gave this world so much, and i am incredibly grateful to have known you, to been inspired by you. Thank you so very much for the strength and confidence you gave me, and continue to give me through my precious memories of you. I am so much better to have known you and i will love you forever, ruth ruth

Remembering you today on your birthday Don and doing has much has I can do has a Buddhist woman activist for human rights today. Hope that would make you smile.

My heart goes out to your family has I know it is so difficult that you are not here with us physically but you are still a spiritual force in our lives and so onward we go in working for human rights. Never forgotten we will continue in the stream of love and justice you believed in .

Ah, Don, I wish you were with us to celebrate this Human Rights Day, your 92nd birthday. I wish you were here to join us in shouting from the (virtual) rooftops that psychiatrists are violating people’s human rights, today and every day. We miss you so dearly. But it helps a lot to be working on the Legacy Project; to feel your rebel spirit shining on in so many of us psychiatric survivors and our allies; and to know that we will keep on keeping on in the struggle, in your name and in the name of justice and humanity.

In memory and celebration of dad’s powerful and purposeful life, our family, together with psychiatric survivor activists Irit Shimrat and Judy Nordlund, have created a legacy website www.donweitzlegacypro.org . We are still adding content. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy his books, magazine, radio shows, articles and videos. We miss you so much, Dad. Love always.

Remembering you often- and particularly today, your birthday, so appropriately international human rights day - the depth and of your breadth of your concern embraced so many issues!

Happy Birthday Don, it was a good universe to birth your wisdom

It has been a tremendously sad and difficult day but our hearts are lifted knowing that dad’s tireless work fighting for human rights touched so many, and still does. He is forever loved and his voice lives on in all those who choose never to remain silent in the face of injustice.

It doesn't seem a year. A blessing that Don's words and presence made a difference, and continue to do so.

Remembering Don on his Yorzeit - the anniversary of his passing - with so much love and sorrow and respect. He was the greatest man I ever knew, and helped me, and so may others, in so many ways. Standing strong against psychiatry and all other forms of social control, injustice, and evil, we honour him. Rest in power, Don.

Still remember you Don. A huge absence...love to all who love you

Don was a kindhearted friend who fiercely advocated to put an end to all shock therapy practices. He gave all of us who had suffered this barbaric treatment the courage to speak of our experiences.
Your fire and compassion Don will be truly missed

To a life well purposed 
May you continue to light the way from where ever you are
which I assume, is everywhere

Don's inspiration to see things as they are, motivate people to get up off their butt and work to improve the lives of those mangled by injustice, is not thwarted by the grave!

I had the honour, over many years, of working with Don, doing tech for him on his radio show on CKLN, sharing joys of victory, and facing occasional defeats, marching in the streets, and celebrating many of those people we both worked along side, both in & out of OCAP (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) to which we both belonged. He lives on in my heart & mind, the hearts & minds of all of us who lived, loved and valued him- in this sense, this most important sense, he will live on forever.
'Presente' Don Weitz! Travel well my friend~!

Don You were a champion and will always be,,a awesome human being that gave his all to give a voice to those who end up voiceless and alone yet you are always with them ,,you were a wonderfully amazing individual and it was my pleasure knowing and serving with you for so long only wish it could have been much longer until we get those *&%#@ as you would say to wake up.. You were simply Fantastic ..#KevinClarkeMayor #ThePeople #LoveuDon

Whenever I think of you, I remember your sparkling eyes and sweet, generous, slightly impish smile. But behind that smile was a fiery orator, social critic, thought leader, writer and poet. Granddaddy of the anti-psych movement in Canada. Thank you for all your years of sacrifice, commitment and leadership. Keep on sparkling Don! xoxo

I only spoke a few words in emails with Don in the last few years. I knew of him for some years before and read his writings. I was and remain saddened that he is no longer here to be the powerful steadfast voice, yet his past life left a strong influence and his words remain. I know his words and wisdom were not in vain.

Don lived his values loud and proud throughout his long life. He graciously consented to participate in a committee I staffed to help draft the first Ontario policy document on Community Mental Health Alternatives in the late 70s, when we were both much more hopeful about community mental health being supported robustly. Don showed up for vulnerable people all the time, and spoke out whether anyone was listening or not. Good for you, Don; I will miss you. 

Remembering Don Weitz, 1930-2021

By Irit Shimrat

My hero, mentor, and very dear friend Don Weitz died comfortably, in his home, on the afternoon of September 1, attended by his loving twin children, Lisa and Mark. He was 90 years old and had recently been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.

Of all the many amazing activists I have been privileged to know, Don was by far the fiercest, most passionate, dedicated, determined, courageous and persistent. His lifelong fight against oppression and for human rights – not only of psychiatric survivors but also of Black, brown and Indigenous people, women, refugees, immigrants, prisoners, and all poor people – has always set a shining example for the rest of us.

Any ordinary person would likely have been crushed by the forced administration of the more than 100 sub-coma insulin shock “treatments” to which Don was subjected as a young man. But Don was no ordinary person. He survived and thrived, and spent the rest of his long life defending and helping the victims of psychiatric torture and so many other forms of injustice.

I first met Don in 1986, when I was 28 years old and still suffering from some pretty grim emotional after-effects of the psychiatric incarceration and torture I had endured at the beginning of my twenties. A friend notified me that the magazine Phoenix Rising: The Voice of the Psychiatrized – which Don had co-founded in 1980 – was in need of an editor. I’d had no idea Phoenix existed, or even that there was anyone else on earth who shared my conviction that psychiatry was stupid and evil. Within minutes of meeting we each knew we had found a lifelong friend and colleague. Don’s rage against the psychiatric machine perfectly matched my own. Our work together on Phoenix and on so many other projects since then – including his 2019 e-book Resistance Matters: The Radical Vision of an Antipsychiatry Activist (madinamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Resistance-Matters-April-2019.pdf), where you can find out much more about his many struggles, accomplishments and honours – completely transformed me. Without him, I would never have found my life’s work.

Thanks to Don’s wonderful daughter Lisa, who has become a close friend even though we have yet to meet in person, I was able to speak with him on the phone a few times since he got so sick. We got to tell each other how glad and grateful we both were to have each other in our lives. He has always addressed me as his beloved sister and most trusted editor. I am so deeply honoured by his love and trust, and I miss him so much.

Don Weitz was a mensch. He was the best kind of human; so consistent in his commitment to creating a better world. A core member of OCAP - fighting to win; I always appreciated the way he spoke up on the issues that he cared most about, and even when they weren't made front and center he was solid in his solidarity. My most recent email from him enquired about the family, and shared a poem. He has made the world better, as all these testimonials show.

I've known Don since I started practicing law in 1993. As the Institutional Advocate at ACE, Don would write me fairly regularly regarding some issue or other - either to let me know or to seek my input. I will miss his input on these many important issues.

We have lost a giant in Don.
His commitment in activism with Consumer Survivors and Homelessness and speaking out as he did, helped to make people understand this is a problem and he will be missed.

Don was one of the people who pretty much saved my life when I was a 22 year old young Mad person. He was, as so many have said, blunt and no bullshit when it came to fighting the powers of oppression, but incredibly kind, welcoming and loving to other Mad people, psychiatric survivors and poor people, and anyone he was in community with. Hanging out with him and other people in the psychiatric survivor movement was the first time in my life where it was explicitly okay to be Mad, neurodivergent (a word we didn't have then)- there was no shame, and there was community, fellowship and a palce for you in the movement. He embodied a kind of activism that can be hard to find- one that was never about his ego or gaining power, but about doing the right thing and serving the people. I'm so sad he's gone, but I'm so glad he lived. As a now 46 year old writer and advocate myself, I take what I learned from him into my work everyday. Like many people, I think, he was kinder to me than my own father was. (Also, a friend who Don never met, with whom I shared his last book, refers to him as "that very kind looking man with the rainbow sweater" which warms my heart, and I thought might warm others.)

Don Weitz 1930-2021
We Can't Forget You – We Won't Forget You
He was a self-described anti-psychiatry psychiatric survivor, and an anti-poverty shit-disturber activist, all to the benefit of so many, including The Friendly Spike Theatre Band (FSTB). Don Weitz was also an actor and a playwright. He passed away on Wednesday September 1st, with his grown twins Lisa and Mark by his side.
Don became involved with The FSTB in 1993 and he remained an active member until 2007. His contribution helped define the company as being the feisty activist theatre it is, working with passion, like him, toward social justice.
We met Don while conducting research for our play Marked: Living With a Stigma; A Woman's Journey Through The Psychiatric System (Innes, 1993). Impressed with our production he agreed to play a cameo role in the film adaptation of the story. Seeing that he was an outstanding actor as well as a compelling activist, we invited Don to collaborate with the company and develop Angels of 999; Psychiatric Patients' History at The Toronto Hospital for the Insane (Reaume/Stackhouse/Innes 1999, 2000). It was presented at The Theatre Centre (1999) and The Great Hall (2000) in Toronto, and an abridged version was performed at The American Association of the History of Medicine Conference (2000) in Bethesda MD, and Disability Culture Night (2000) Ryerson University, Toronto. Don played both a psychiatrist and a farmer who was the caring father of a psychiatric patient. Ironically, Don did embody both the "patient" and "professional" realities in his lifetime. After earning a Masters degree in psychology from Boston University he worked for 15 years as a psychologist in Cleveland and Toronto. But in his youth he was a psychiatric patient, forcibly subjected to 110 insulin sub-coma shock treatments at McLean Hospital. He raged against this and other injustices for the rest of his life. He was in a unique position to challenge "the system", and he did challenge it, constantly. In 1977 Weitz co-founded the Ontario Mental Patients Association, which was later renamed On Our Own. This was the first self-help survivors group in Ontario. In 1980 he co-founded the magazine Phoenix Rising, which gave voice to survivors in Canada for a decade. He is the author of the e-book Rise Up/Fight Back: Selected Writings of an Antipsychiatry Activist (2011). Many other projects followed – including his 2019 e-book Resistance Matters: The Radical Vision of an Antipsychiatry Activist (madinamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Resistance-Matters-April-2019.pdf)
In late 2000 Don shared with us his seminal rant: Nameless/Homeless. This epic poem about psychiatric survival, homelessness and police brutality inspired our next production The Edmond Yu Project (Weitz/Innes 2001/2007). Edmond Yu was a former medical student and homeless psychiatric survivor who was shot and killed by Toronto police on the Spadina bus in 1997. And then came A Common Cause (2003) for which both Don and his good friend Mel Starkman worked with our collective to develop the story. It was based on Starkman's psychiatric review board hearing.
Don was also a very caring person – for his daughter Lisa, his son Mark, and for friends who were struggling at times, such as Mel Starkman, whom he helped on several occasions to obtain a place to live. The support from Don allowed Mel to continue his active life in the community and with Friendly Spike.
In later years Don's busy schedule kept him from being onstage, but he continued to support the company. Many of us will remember one of his last readings, a fiery passionate tribute at a memorial dinner for Mel Starkman after he passed. It was held at The Hot House in 2019. Don closed his piece with “ Rage, rage against the dying of the light”. *
We now remember Don, our dear friend and fellow thespian, with his own words, from a poem he wrote for Edmond Yu : “We can't forget you. We won't forget you”. **
* “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Dylan Thomas, 1947, from the poem Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night)
** Originally recited for Edmond Wai Kong Yu as "We can't forget Yu. We won't forget Yu." (Weitz, 2000).

Don was a very kind and caring human being who championed the people and was a mentor for all anti-poverty activists. He really was dedicated and motivated every moment of his life. I was lucky to march and organize with him throughout the years . I will miss him greatly and we must continue the work with he believed in and continue the advocacy . Our friend Don has just changed form and may his energy and memory among us always be a blessing ! To his family , I thankyou for sharing him with us in the activist community. Always remember his spirit. Continue his energy!

Don was an inspiration to all of us in his efforts to build a better world, and in his caring for so many people, such as Mel Starkman. I remember driving Don to see Mel in Newmarket at a half-way home, and persuading Mel to come back to the City where he could be active again. We will miss your monthly letters Don in the Toronto Star reminding our politicians that they are accountable for their actions. May you rest in peace.

Don was a humble giant of a man.
May his memory be a blessing.

Thank you, dear friend, for your inspirational leadership in the fight toward social justice and equality. Thank you for working with me, helping me, and encouraging me to make a difference. I am heart broken you are gone, yet empowered by your legacy. Like Joe Hill, you will live on. Love, Ruth

Don was a mentor, champion for Mad Pride, editor and activist. Rest in Power!! Solidarity Rev.Dr.Cheri DiNovo CM

Rest in power, Don. You were an inspiration. Blunt, fierce, and confrontational toward forces of oppression, but everlastingly kind and generous toward those who suffered in this society and those who fought back. We will not forget you. And those you mentored and inspired will take up your torch.

I am so saden of this news. .I've known him for over 25 years. He was an honarable fighter and activist! He never stopped fighting! This cruel world will be darker without him. His place is in our heart. Rest in Power Dear Comrade