MCC Canada Quebec Program

Corporate body

MCC Canada Quebec Program

1987 -

MCC Canada’s Quebec Program was officially established in 1987. Even before its official creation as a program, MCC Canada had already established ties with the province. While Voluntary Service workers had been sent to Quebec since the 1950s, MCC Canada became more involved in Quebec in response to the FLQ crisis of 1970. Provincial MCC delegates called on MCC Canada to support the work of churches in Quebec, helping them to become agents of reconciliation between Quebeckers and other Canadians, especially in light of the rising Quebec separatist movement. MCC Voluntary Service workers were sent to the Dixville Home ministry in Dixville, Quebec at this time. In 1973, following consultation, MCC Canada agreed to subsidize a new major project in Quebec, known as the Montreal Project, steadily increasing MCC Canada’s role and presence in the province. The Montreal Project, which became known as the House of Friendship, was a joint project with the Ontario Board of Missions that offered programs for refugees and other immigrants to Montreal; programs were staffed by Voluntary Service workers and included daycare for preschoolers, clubs for boys and girls, coffeehouses and camping programs for youth, women’s meetings, seniors’ programs, and remedial education and language classes. MCC support for the House of Friendship increased in 1977.

In 1979, MCC Canada began exploring possibilities for additional programming in Eastern Canada which included deepening its commitment to Quebec programs. By the early 1980s, MCC Canada had nearly doubled its funding for programs in Eastern Canada. In 1984, greater administrative and programming responsibility was given to Quebec Mennonites at the House of Friendship and MCC Canada began looking for ways to broaden its presence in Quebec through other programs.

In 1987, MCC Canada established an official Quebec Program. The programs at the House of Friendship were expanded to include a camp for children and youth, summer service opportunities, and an expanded Voluntary Service program, encouraging cross-cultural efforts among Mennonites from across the country, and ministry to inmates and ex-inmates.

MCC Canada’s National Program Department is responsible for MCC programs in Eastern Canada through the work of a regional representative in the province.

Quebec.

MCC Canada’s Quebec Program provides programming that is specific to the needs of the Mennonite community and other communities in Quebec. Activities include assisting refugees, running children, youth, and seniors’ programs, ministry to inmates and ex-inmates, encouraging Quebec Mennonite congregations to work alongside MCC Canada, and translating MCC publications into French.

From its beginning as an official program in 1987, the Quebec Program existed as a national program within the Eastern Canada Programs Department. Until that point, it was a project of the Voluntary Service department. Beginning in 2003, it became more closely related to MCC Canada’s National Program Department.

MCC Canada Eastern Canada Programs (1972 -)

MCC CA

Mennonite Central Committee Archives

Draft

Created by Jared Warkentin, March 24, 2020

Epp-Tiessen, Esther. Mennonite Central Committee in Canada: A History. Winnipeg: CMU Press, 2013.