{"id":436428,"date":"2026-01-27T12:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/436428\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:27:23","slug":"former-liberal-cabinet-minister-kirsty-duncan-dies-at-59-after-battle-with-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/436428\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Liberal cabinet minister Kirsty Duncan dies at 59 after battle with cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirsty Duncan in her office in Ottawa in July, 2018.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Former cabinet minister, scientist and champion for safe sport Kirsty Duncan has died at the age of 59.<\/p>\n

Duncan had made public her multiple operations, radiation and chemotherapy to treat her cancer since she was diagnosed in 2023.<\/p>\n

Born on Oct. 31, 1966, Duncan was elected five times as the Liberal MP for the Toronto riding of Etobicoke North between 2008 and 2025. She opted not to be on the ballot again when the federal election was called last year.<\/p>\n

Tributes to Duncan flowed Monday after news of her death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of my friend Kirsty Duncan, a devoted public servant and a champion for the people of Etobicoke North,\u201d wrote Ontario Premier Doug Ford on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe served our community with dedication and conviction. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making a public statement at a news conference in Toronto Monday, Ford said Duncan was a friend and a \u201cwonderful, wonderful person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t know this, but our family had a rule: we\u2019d never run against Kirsty,\u201d said Ford, who represent an Etobicoke riding provincially in Ontario.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members of Parliament held a moment of silence in Duncan\u2019s honour Monday afternoon, after Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux announced her death on the floor of the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

Deputy Speaker John Nater said all parliamentarians send their condolences to Duncan\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us who had the privilege of serving with her … will never forget her hard work, her courage, her compassion, and above all, her kindness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Members of the House of Commons committee on science and research also held a moment of silence Monday. Liberal MP Salma Zahid said Duncan was the first chair of the committee, which she said came into existence after her private members\u2019 motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zahid said Duncan was a great member of Parliament and an \u201camazing person.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was one of the first two, three colleagues who called me when I was diagnosed and all the support which she provided me will never be forgotten,\u201d said Zahid, who is a cancer survivor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau described Duncan as curious, generous, and deeply committed to helping others.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe believed in knowledge, compassion, and service, and she brought those values into every conversation and every fight she took on. I learned a great deal from her, and I was lucky to call her a friend,\u201d Trudeau posted on social media.<\/p>\n

Duncan served in cabinet between 2015 and 2019 as the minister of science, and from 2018 to 2019 she also was the minister of sport. For a brief period in 2018 she also held the role as minister for persons with disabilities.<\/p>\n

After the 2019 election, she became the deputy government House leader, a role she held until 2021.<\/p>\n

She took a medical leave on Jan. 26, 2023, but continued to serve as MP.<\/p>\n

While she served in the sport portfolio for less than two years, Duncan made safe sport her priority both during her time as sports minister and afterward.<\/p>\n

During an appearance before a Heritage committee hearing on safe sport on June 15, 2023 in Ottawa, she called on MPs to eliminate abuse from sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must do everything in our power to address the many, many years of abuse, and entrenchment of that abuse \u2013 emotional, physical, psychological, sexual and verbal abuse,\u201d Duncan told the committee as she called for a national inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Canada gets it right, we can better protect our athletes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During her time as sports minister, Duncan established a national toll-free confidential helpline for victims and witnesses of abuse in sport.<\/p>\n

She also announced the federal government would draft a code of conduct for sport in Canada and introduce a gender equity secretariat to address abuse, harassment and discrimination in sport.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the federal budget committed $30 million over a five-year period to support safe sports, but her ministry was then folded into the Heritage department.<\/p>\n

A dedicated sports minister wasn\u2019t assigned again until Pascale St-Onge took up the post in October 2021.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media Monday that he joined Canadians in mourning Duncan\u2019s passing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKirsty\u2019s life was defined by kindness and service,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer curiosity and generosity inspired Canadians across the country. My deepest condolences to Kirsty\u2019s family, friends, colleagues, and all who learned from her work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan was a lifelong athlete. She was a competitive gymnast as a child, and later in life, a devoted runner. She ran the Boston Marathon multiple times as an adult and also competed in half-Ironman triathlons.<\/p>\n

She was a coach, a dance teacher and an athletics judge throughout her life, advocating for physical fitness and working to end what she once called \u201cthe darker side of sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan spoke publicly about the constant pressure to achieve and maintain a low weight when she was a child gymnast.<\/p>\n

Duncan came to politics with a science background.<\/p>\n

A graduate of Kipling Collegiate Institute, she studied geography and anthropology at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

She earned her geography doctorate at the University of Edinburgh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Duncan taught meteorology, climatology and climate change at the University of Windsor from 1993 to 2000.<\/p>\n

In 2003 she published \u201cHunting the 1918 Flu: One Scientist\u2019s Search for a Killer Virus,\u201d based on the expedition she undertook to research the origins of the Spanish flu virus.<\/p>\n

She served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won a Nobel Prize in 2007.<\/p>\n

As science minister, she appointed a national chief scientific adviser.<\/p>\n

Duncan said in an interview her government \u201cunmuzzled our scientists\u201d and that she brought back the long-form census \u201cbecause you need evidence to make good decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan spoke of her cancer treatment at the Heritage committee hearing in June 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo those living with cancer, know that you\u2019re not alone and I stand with you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful for the life-saving medicine, science and compassionate and excellent care of our health-care professionals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Kirsty Duncan in her office in Ottawa in July, 2018.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-436428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}