Kevin  O’Neill was born in New York  City in 1950. After leaving    to attend college in Boston in 1968, he became active in the antiwar movement, attended Woodstock, and left the United States for Canada in 1972 with his wife, Susan. Winding up in British Columbia, he became a commercial salmon fisherman, eventually settling in the remote coastal community of Bella Coola. There they raised three children.

Today he spends part of each year in Bella Coola tending to his garden, while winters are spent in Vancouver with his two remaining children  and three grandchildren. His passion for activism of all kinds remains undiluted.