Thetford Mines, Wednesday, September 19, 2007

It is with great emotion that I find myself back in Thetford Mines, the place where I took my first steps in my adopted homeland. Forty years ago, my parents, my sister and I came here to restart our lives, sheltered from injustice and horror, sheltered from a torturous regime we were forced to flee, like thousands of our fellow Haitians.

I will never forget that February night when we first stepped foot on the frozen ground of a mining town thousands of kilometres from our native Caribbean island.

For me, as a child, that was as big a leap as Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. I was stepping foot on the unknown.

I will never forget our little upper duplex apartment not far from here (on St. Alphonse Street), the bottles of milk on the doorstep.

I will never forget the snow the next morning, so bright I had to squint in order to look outside.

I will never forget the first time I felt the biting cold on my cheeks.

Nineteen sixty-eight. One year after Expo. Montreal—Man and His World—was celebrating Quebec’s openness to the world. The whole province was caught up in the excitement.

Thetford Mines was exporting its asbestos all over the world without really knowing what was happening. People were going to work in the mine at a very young age, following in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers before them.

For me, it was the year I would open myself to a country with unlimited horizons, a country where anything was possible, a country I now proudly represent as its Governor General.

For me, Thetford Mines is and will always be a place to seek new surrounding and new beginnings. Families working together in solidarity. Relearning everything, appreciating one another’s differences. Claude Jutras’ film “Mon Oncle Antoine” will always be a cult favourite of mine.

Countless women and men have sacrificed their health to the mining industry that forged the identity of your region, if not their lives.

When the use of asbestos was banned, others lost their jobs and were left with nothing. I cannot underestimate the efforts it took for your community to recover and for you to rebuild your lives.

Thetford Mines has made the most of its mineralogical heritage and has profited from it. It now wears its history with pride.

Facing the future with determination, the asbestos region has become the region of mines and lakes, booming with tourism and industry.

You understood the need to diversify your economy and you relied on your strengths. Thetford Mines is now a leader in Quebec in the field of such cutting-edge technologies as oleochemistry.

You have also given the youth of your community a reason to stay and build a life in Thetford Mines and contribute to its development.

Some examples of this include the Centre collégial de transfert technologique spécialisé en oléochimie industrielle, the Centre de technologie minérale et de plasturgie, and, of course, the Collège de Thetford, which nearly 1,200 students attend every year.

This afternoon, I will have the great pleasure of meeting with young people from the Collège de Thetford, especially students from Réunion taking part in an exchange program. Among other things, we will discuss that openness to the world I mentioned earlier.

Forty years ago, we were the first black family to move to Thetford Mines and the object of everyone’s curiosity. Today, no one gives people of a different background a second glance.

I am so happy to see the support and integration programs Thetford Mines now has in place to better help new arrivals.

Our society now keeps pace with the world. And we work tirelessly to carve out a place where each and every individual can make a unique contribution to our united strength.

It is that place we are talking about; a place where we are called to reinvent ourselves every time we meet new people. A place where living together speaks louder than exclusion.

I look forward to hearing these young people tell me how they are creating more space for dialogue between cultures and generations.

Thank you for once again welcoming me, in this city I once called home, a city that holds a special place in my heart. It was here that I was first introduced to winter. It was here that I first learned the nuances and rhythms of Quebec culture, where I first made them my own.

It was here that I picked up a new accent and where my roots became rhizomes, stretching out further and further to take full advantage of the immensity and wealth of this generous land.

I would like to thank the city for its donation to La Gitée house, an organization that asked me to take part in an important discussion on violence against women on the occasion of its 10^th anniversary in 1993.

The best solutions to the many challenges we face sometimes come from the smallest communities, places with a strong social fabric and well-preserved networks of solidarity.