Jean-Pierre G. & Thérèse M.

Some of my encounters this summer have been very brief and somewhat feverish. For example, the one where Ginette moves her glasses away from her face to give me a “Têtes-à-claques” look! Other meetings took more time as they required a second meeting. These allowed, however, deeper conversations. This was the case with Jean-Pierre and Thérèse.

I first met them briefly in Montreal-North’s Pilon Park, at La Place de l’engagement (The place for commitment). We reconnected a few weeks later when I attended, at their invitation, the monthly luncheon of the Montreal North section of the Quebec Association for the rights of retirees and pre-retirees (AQDR-MN). The event was not only crowded with local pensioners, but also attended by the borough’s mayor, a city councilor and the assistant to a MPP, who were there to shake hands.

The program was pretty busy that day. Jean-Pierre, who is a former member of the executive, had a few minutes to talk about an upcoming 'croissants & coffee' event with people from the Dulcinea Langfelder company. As part of the tour of her dance-theater show entitled Victoria, Ms. Langfelder herself was to present her creative process and encourage participation to workshops on Alzheimer's and the role of caregivers and health workers.

The couple met in St-Donat. Originally from Joliette, Thérèse was then a member of the community of the Good Shepherd Sisters of Anger and working at a summer camp for young women in difficult situations. It was at a group’s outing that they got to know each other. At the time, Jean-Pierre, who is from Montreal, was working for the insurance company Les Prévoyants du Canada. He remained with this company for 39 years surviving the numerous changes in ownership and corporate names. Following her release from the order and the secularization of social services at the turn of seventies, Thérèse became a social worker.

Because of their common religious beliefs, Thérèse and Jean-Pierre initially started to volunteer in their local parish, St-Rémi. Longtime residents of Montreal-North, they now live in a modest postwar home built in the late forties. Believing in community mutual aid, they also participated in the Christian Workers’ Movement. Jean-Pierre, who is at ease with words and not afraid to speak publicly, often took the lead socially. Still, both spouses worked hand in hand in all their commitments.

Jean-Pierre has one piece of advice for people who plan to volunteer only after they retire: start young! This type of activity requires a certain form of culture which can only be acquired through practice. Most retirees however will certainly not have a schedule like theirs: they have been working as volunteers practically full time since their simultaneous retirement!

One of their important commitments came following a call from the director of Radio Ville-Marie, who had heard of Jean-Pierre and his social activities. This call led him to present three series of radio broadcasts over a period of three years. Their titles translate to: “Faith in movement”, “Witnesses and builders” as well as “The steps of wisdom”. The couple spent their weeks doing the research, preparation, interviewing and recording of the programs. I learned to my surprise that these broadcasts were prerecorded with the help of a single technician in a small room of the St. Benoit Church rectory on Fleury Street West. This modernist style church has been known as the Church of God of the Prophecy of Montreal-North-West since 2009.

Among the remarkable people they have met through their volunteer activities, Jean-Pierre mentioned Yves Lapierre of the Christian Movement of Workers and Claude Émond, who was for 27 years the musical accompanist of Fernand Gignac.  Mr. Émond, who became their personal friend, passed away in 2013.

More recently, they met a young man, François Boucher, who was campaigning for the environment and thought inconceivable that Montreal-North was one of the few Montreal boroughs without an Eco-Quartier (as local center for environmental services to the citizens). With a group of 6 or 7 people, Jean-Pierre and Thérèse started ECONORD in 2009, a non-profit organization (NPO) that, at first, developed a program and raised the necessary funds so that young people could get paid to start environmental projects in Montreal-North. This NPO initiated by Jean-Pierre later became the local Éco Quartier’s fiduciary. Having for motto “The environment ... a treasure that must be protected”, its mission was to improve the quality of urban life for Montreal-North residents and to promote an ecological society.

The couple is still a member of this organization, which became a solidarity cooperative in 2014. Much of its actions now aim to improve access to fresh and healthy vegetables at affordable prices for low-income households. Public markets, seedling in a mini-greenhouse and maintaining a community garden are some of the recent initiatives of the ECONORD volunteers.

In addition to all this, Jean-Pierre and Thérèse regularly attend the activities of the Maison culturelle et communautaire de Montréal-Nord and go to shows in the cultural centers of neighboring boroughs.

Retirees like them have no time to get bored!

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Jean-Pierre and Thérèse at La Place de l'Engagement (the Place for commitement), Pilon Park, Montreal-North

Isabelle P.

The day before Halloween, I noticed a homemade print pasted on a streetlight post at the corner of Fleury and St. Charles. The poster was announcing that the neighbors of the St-Charles Avenue and Péloquin Street back alley between Sauvé and Port Royal, were inviting us to visit their "Haunted Alley" the following evening.

I passed by the lane a little before dusk at the beginning of the parade of the young and old in costumes, curious to see how this initiative would take shape. Many residents were working feverishly to finalize the decorations. I approached some people to learn more and, as was often the case this summer, I was referred to the person who had spontaneously assumed the leadership of the event: Isabelle Payant.

I then took a few pictures of Isabelle and her spouse Stéphane in a butcher’s disguise, along with Marie-Noël in the role of a good witch. I found out it was Marie-Noël, a neighbor, who had taken charge of promoting the event and pasted the poster that I had read. As they had a lot of things to do, I left, but dropped in again later to see how the evening was unfolding. It was a success: because of the influx of small costumed beings, many of the parents had had to leave to refuel their candy baskets!

Isabelle and I met again the following Monday at Le Goût des Autres, a caterer’s shop with a few tables in the vicinity on Sauvé Street East to talk some more. That’s how I enriched my vocabulary with a French word unknown to me: castelier. This somewhat antiquated word describes a puppeteer. Isabelle is a castelière. In fact, this actress by training is the co-founder with Stéphane, of the Théâtre des petites Âmes (Little Souls’ Theater). She is the artistic and managing director of this puppet theater company specialized in shows for very young children.

Isabelle spent her childhood in Laval and her adolescence in Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa. She studied interpretation at CEGEP Lionel-Groulx. During a year off from her studies, she realized that while theatrical play was not an absolute necessity in her life, she wanted to practice it as long as she could do so with happiness and pleasure. This spirit animates everything she does. As she experiments in every aspect of her productions, she clearly has great curiosity and diversified interests.

After CEGEP, she performed in "Le prince serpent", a production of Parminou, a socially committed popular theater company. Dedicated to a high school public, this play was aiming to contribute to the prevention of teenage prostitution. She also collaborated on productions of the Théâtre des yeux, where she became familiar with the art of puppetry.

Like many artists, commitments being irregular, she began, in a quiet period, the process that led to the creation of a first show, PEKKA, and to the foundation of the company Le Théâtre des petites Âmes. Stéphane, who has been part of the project from the beginning as administrator and manager, had long been coordinator for the Association Québécoise des marionnettistes. The company's plays are designed for intimate settings and audiences of no more than 75 children to maintain the toddlers’ attention. Created in 2008, PEKKA is still performed today by Isabelle and her puppets.

The Théâtre des petites Âmes presented its creations in Western Canada, the US, France, Spain and the Czech Republic, in French, English and Spanish (and exceptionally in Czech!). Having an excellent reputation in the community, the company is a regular at festivals, cultural centers and cultural centers. As a result of the tours, the company managed to establish a good exchange network, which led to the creation of POMME, a joint creation with Garin Trousseboeuf Company, in coproduction with Casteliers, The Puppet Theatre World Festival of Charleville-Mézières (France) and Le Théâtre de Laval (France). The play was shown both in France and in Quebec.

A true jack-of-all-trades, Isabelle also works on the writing, directing, decors and music of her shows. For the company’s latest creation, OGO, which will tour in early 2016, three puppeteers-actors are on stage, a first for the company.

Sincerely believing in the importance of citizen involvement and culture in community life, Isabelle and Stéphane sponsored the first Little Free Library of the borough via the Théâtre des petites Âmes. Locally known as a “Croque-Livres”, the first one is located inside the Ahuntsic Arena. Another has been added since in front of 9762 St. Charles Avenue.

You will certainly hear about them in the community over the next few years, especially since the Haunted Alley will likely return next year.

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Isabelle

Félix M.

I met Félix in the Gouin Park, the green space along the river behind the Sophie-Barat School, where he had just completed high school. He worked there for the summer at the site of the Association Récréoculturelle Ahuntsic Cartierville (ARAC). I talked to him while he was busy servicing rental kayaks. He is an active young man who loves outdoor sports like rafting and canoeing, as well as winter camping that he has practiced in the Lac St-Jean region. I spontaneously thought that his family had a cottage near a lake where he would have developed this passion, but this was not the case.

He also plays tennis in his spare time in the neighborhood. This is how I found out that we have a common acquaintance, another Félix who teaches the sport in Nicolas-Viel Park.

When I will publish this photo taken in July, Félix will have begun his studies in Gaspé at theCEGEP de Gaspésie et des Îles in the Adventure Tourism program to become an outdoor activity guide. Amazing for a young man who was born and lived until this day in the city in the district of the Sault-au-Récollet! This choice stems in part from the fact that Felix had chosen the outdoor’s option for his physical education classes, where, as you may guess, most activities take place outdoors. Seeing his natural interest in these activities, the physical education teacher told him about the program for which he clearly seems to have the right profile. Although he does not know what job awaits him when he graduates, he boldly told me he is sure he made the right choice.

To think of it, what would be more natural than a lifelong island resident to introduce neophytes to aquatic activities? After all, Montreal is an Island in a major river that eventually flows into the sea.

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Félix on ARAC's summer kayak rental site, along the river behind the Sophie-Barat school

Élyse R.

Fer et Titane (French for Iron and Titanium) is the title of a song by Gilles Vigneault*, who has also written many more songs then the well known refrain of Gens du pays. It is also the original name of a major industrial polluter that operates a vast metallurgical complex in Sorel, one of the «Heavy Metal» cities in Quebec.

Élyse is a native of that city. What she actually knows is that she was born in the Notre-Dame de Sorel hospital, but was adopted by a Verdun family when she was only a few days’ old. This is quite paradoxical for a lady who is now executive director of Ville en vert, an organization in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, which realizes projects in urban agriculture and biodiversity, healthy eating, sustainable mobility and waste management!

People I've introduced to you so far were generally unknown to me before I met them over the course of the summer, but Élyse’s case is a little different. We first met last year in the backyard of mutual friends who held a big summer BBQ meant to become an annual ritual. As we live in the same neighborhood, I also see her sometimes in the morning with her children on their way to school on foot or by bike. She attaches, by the way, great importance to their education.

It was during the inauguration of the Environmental Showcase in Cartierville, on 28 September, that we reconnected. The group photo with her Ville en vert colleagues was taken on this occasion.

Élyse lived in different Montreal neighborhoods before settling in Ahuntsic. She and her family even stayed a few years in Laval. Even though they lived near an orange line metro station, these Montrealers at heart felt somewhat out of place.

Because her father died when she was young, her mother’s resources were modest. Élyse thus managed to pursue her studies by working twenty hours a week. She has worked at the well-known Ice cream shop in Outremont, Le Bilboquet, while studying in college and at the beginning of her university studies at UQAM in Business Administration (marketing). Like many people today, she held several jobs before reaching her early thirties. While completing an MBA in Strategic Planning and Management at UQAM, she worked as a junior analyst in financial companies, as lecture and as assistant coordinator for operations and marketing in technology firms. Having an entrepreneurial spirit, she also worked as consultant to retailers.

It was while she was studying for her Masters in Environment at Sherbrooke University that she started working in this sector in our borough. From a small Éco-quartier office in Cartierville and an initial budget hardly sufficient for a salary and a half, she has gradually assembled an organization that now employs fifteen permanent employees and a dozen other people on temporary basis. Showing strong will and initiative, this small team of highly educated young people oversees many projects with an environmental and social impact. Passionate about their projects, these people are, however, working in precarious conditions depending on the financing they obtain. Their efforts to ensure the stability of this non-profit organization are always to start over. When I see their status and that of people working in the community organizations, I cannot help but think that there is something wrong in our collective priorities!

You can get an idea of heir qualifications and of the diversity of their projects by visiting the Ville en vert website whose link appears at the end of the article. You can also purchase eco-friendly products at one of their two eco-boutiques either at 10416 Lajeunesse Street or at 5765 West, Gouin Boulevard.

Concurrently, Élyse continues to be interested in other health issues related to the environment. She participated in the "Sabotage hormonal project" of the Réseau des femmes en environnement and continues to raise awareness about the different impacts of endocrine disrupters on human health and reproduction. She also said that with everything she has seen and learned in environment, she would give much more room to science in her studies should she be a teenager today.

A citizen involved in her community, Élyse has also been vice-president and treasurer of the Regional Council of Montreal environment. After our meeting in the Ville en vert offices, she was getting ready to attend a meeting of the Board of the Collège Ahuntsic, where she serves as administrator.

Élyse in the eco-boutique L'Escale verte, 10416 Lajeunesse street