Eddie Goldenberg, who served as chief of staff to former prime minister Jean Chrétien, has died.

A statement from Global Public Affairs CEO Randy Pettipas, where Goldenberg worked, says Goldenberg died “after a hard-fought battle with cancer.”

Originally from Montreal, Goldenberg was a lawyer by trade and spent a decade as a senior policy adviser for Chrétien before ultimately being named his chief of staff.

Goldenberg was a contributing author to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and was invested into the Order of Canada in 2014 for his decades of public service.

He’d been seen as an elder statesman in the Liberal party.