The Research Project

2007-06-22: Quebec City, QC

Getting ready for the next big bash

I had worked in Quebec City the summer of 1975, running a theatre on the grounds of the Anglican cathedral, right near the Chateau Frontenac, and I had not been back since 1977. My loss. It is one of the most fascinating cities in Canada, both for its age and its beauty - and also because the remnants of so much of Canada’s early history live here. Besides, the food is outstanding! All that, however, was not what we were here about.

Next June, Quebec will celebrate its 400th birthday, and the city is all about preparing for the big party. In any city, whenever a big event like this is about to happen, the city fathers (and mothers too, I guess) direct their attention to pushing “undesirable” people off the street. ‘Twas ever thus, and Quebec is no different. This civic behaviour is pressuring the “target groups” and also the people who provide front-line services. Dealing with it demands tenacity, dedication and political acumen - which the agencies we visited showed in spades. The wheels of government are powerful and well oiled, however ...

I ask you to bear with me in this piece, because I do not do well with French - as I mentioned earlier. Often I just do not understand at all, sometimes I get the gist of what is being said, and on rare occasions, I clearly understand what is being said (I think). A fuller report, in French, will in due time come from Lynne. And of course, we will publish all our findings from this trip in a final report, sometime in January.

On this trip across Canada, we visited three organisations which work with people in the sex-trades, all of them quite different. Projet intervention prostitution de Québec (PIPQ) felt like the most grass-roots of the three, with a lot of volunteer activity going on even at the top of the morning.

PIPQ is located in a house in a residential working-class neighbourhood. There is signage on the door, but it is minimum. From it, however, it is clear what the organisation stands for. The neighbourhood is used to social service agencies, and there have been no attempts to close this one down or drive it out.

The space is rented. Our guide, Julie, explained that PIPQ likes this arrangement; it is not tied down to a location and can follow the clients. That is, it can pick up and move with the scene, which, given the effort to “clean up” the city, might just happen.

PIPQ provides nursing care, needles, safer sex supplies, food, clothing, and extensive personal support. As with PEERS at Victoria, you can sense that the women who use PIPQ are empowered to make decisions about and to be in control of their lives. Their services may be for women in the sex trades, but PIPQ is not anti-male. Men - those associated with the women - receive services from PIPQ as well.

PIPQ has a number of interesting projects, but of all of them I was most taken by “Le projet Catwoman”. Here, two women with sex-trade experience - one older and one younger - do outreach to escorts, dancers and masseuses to help ensure their safety and security. They also provide a link between the women and the PIPQ work site, where they can access services they may need.

You can reach PIPQ’s excellent web suite at http://www.pipq.org/. It is very informative. However, it is only in French.

Point de Repères is a community-based organization, and its main mission is health promotion, disease prevention and the delivery of care and services related to sexually and blood transmitted infections, as well as to drug use. It is located in the basement of the church of St. Roch. We were hosted by Mario Gagnon and the staff nurse, Daniele - whom Mario describes as a “deviant” because she is such an activist. Mario has been with Point de Repères since 1991 and is currently its director. He is also on the advisory committee for this project.

Point de Repères is a busy place, spacious and welcoming, with lots of posters and art work on the walls. It is a drop in, offering needle exchange, support, information and education about safer drug use and sex, nursing and medical care, etc. Approximately two thirds of its clientele are male.

A couple things set Point de Repères apart from other drop-in / needle distribution programs we visited. It is the only one which has on staff a community development worker. Her mandate is to develop a better relationship with the neighbouring community. Right now this is crucial: Not only is the preparation for the city’s 400th birthday ramping up, but this particular neighbourhood is gentrifying very quickly. In fact, much of it is already pretty high end. Though there appears to be overt support for Point de Repères, it also seems that there may be some carryings-on behind the scenes which could put it in jeopardy. Unfortunately I could not get a handle on whether this was duplicity on the part of certain individuals, or if it is due to a conflict between people with differing goals. Or both.

Another project which caught my mind was this: Point de Repères is close to the final stage in the development of a very interesting interactive computer program to provided self help for people who are using drugs. I wish I could say more about this; however, here is where my French utterly failed me. I await material from the researcher. When I get it I shall pas it on.

The website for Point de Repères is http://www.pointdereperes.com/. Check it out.

One final point about Quebec City. We were there for the Fête nationale (St-jean Baptiste day) and attended the huge gala concert on the Plaines d'Abraham the evening before. It was truly a bonus. The concert was excellent - as anyone who was there or who saw it on television will attest. It drew a huge crowd, and the spirit in the crowd was truly loving and celebratory. In the ‘70s, I was at a number of St-jean Baptiste day parades in Montreal, and they almost all ended in disorder and, in one case, in destruction. This was different. Was it the place? The temperament of the people who attended? Or have times changed?

– Walter