The Bois-Francs Experience: Reflections on Two Decades of Community Development and Empowerment

Introduction

The seeds of the Bois-Francs community development experience were not any different from those planted elsewhere in Québec. All were sown in the 1960s, the product of a multitude of intense changes occurring simultaneously in Québec’s political, religious, and educational institutions and culture.

It was during those years that I moved from Ontario to Québec. The experience was actually much more than just a change of provinces — so much so that “emigrated” might be a more accurate verb. I soon discovered another world altogether, one being shaped by a variety of influences, some of which were familiar to me and others that were less so. For example, I found that the Kennedy years that I had lived through in Welland and Ottawa had also been those of the “Quiet Revolution” in Québec (1960-1966), and that both of these periods, albeit primarily the latter, brought about significant reversals of thought and perception throughout the québécois population. They played a major role in changing the way that the people of Québec — especially the younger generation — saw themselves, individually and collectively, as well as their relationships among themselves and with their governments.

The Second Vatican Council, which opened the way for ecumenical upheaval all over the world, also shattered the traditional structure of authority in Québec by introducing a free-thinking democratization of sorts in the rigidly hierarchic Roman Catholic Church. It might even be argued that this religious Council unwittingly fanned the flames of nationalistic fervour by recognizing the importance of one’s native language in that most fundamental of all communications, making it possible for francophones here to officially speak to God in French. On a more secular level, while most North American campuses were preoccupied with non-violent protest to racial oppression and halting the Viet Nam war, many students in Québec took their cues instead from the more radical soixante- huitards in France, the national liberation struggles in Africa, and the revolutionary movements in Central and South America.

In those years, Québec’s progressive elements weren’t really motivated by the laid-back “flower- power” culture prevailing elsewhere. Indeed, their orientation was by far essentially political and nationalistic — one of “taking charge” instead of “dropping out” — with reforms taking place in almost all spheres, on both structural and cultural levels. I can recall one of the first times that I saw a priest facing his congregation while saying mass, his back turned towards the altar. It became readily apparent who was where to serve whom. If the almighty Church could swing around 180 degrees, couldn’t other institutions be made to do the same? Other examples abound — the nationalization of hydroelectricity, the replacing of high schools with polyvalentes and community colleges, and the secularization of most hospitals. It is where these examples converge, however, that enables us to identify many of the factors which shaped community development during the second half of the 1960s and in the following decades: a belief that changes could be made on most levels, that the québécois have the knowledge and ability to manage their own destiny, that governments exist to serve the people, that no one is going to do it for us and that we have to take control of our own situation. Even after the 1970 October Crisis, while some naivety was lost, resolve for change only increased. It is essentially within this context that community development flourished in Québec and nowhere are the results as striking as in the Bois-Francs.

Complete document

pdf The Bois-Francs Experience: Reflections on Two Decades of Community Development and Empowerment William A. Ninacs 1993William A. Ninacs, The Bois-Francs Experience: Reflections on Two Decades of Community Development and Empowerment, dans E. Shragge (Editor), Community Economic Development: In Search of Empowerment and Alternatives (Revised Edition), Montréal, Black Rose Books, 147-181 (texte soumis), 1997 - Il s’agit d’une bonification du chapitre dans la première édition de ce livre dont la référence est la suivante : Ninacs, W. A. (1993).  « The Bois-Francs Experience: Reflections on Two Decades of Community Development » dans E. Shragge (Editor), Community Economic Development: In Search of Empowerment and Alternatives, Montréal, Black Rose, 93-114.