Author’s Note

Disclaimer

I knew Léonard Kapia prior to doing this project because he is the priest in my grandmother’s hometown. I attended a few of his mass celebrations when visiting her. That said, before I interviewed him I had only ever spoken to him once or twice and did not know him well.

Notes about the project

I am not a religious person, but I became interested in the immigration of religious workers several years ago after attending my cousin’s baptism celebration in Sacré-Coeur, Que. The priest was Congolese and he had never seen snow before moving to Quebec. He stopped the mass halfway through, getting frustrated at us for not paying attention. He was a very kind man and the first migrant priest that I met. I immediately wondered how a Black African priest would connect with this small, dominantly white Quebecker community.

I conducted most of the interviews for this project in French. Many of the quotes that I used are English translations of what was said in French. I did the translation myself, being fluent in both languages. I am also the one who wrote the subtitles in the videos.

I would have liked to include the voice of an Innu community member in my project. I acknowledge that it is less than ideal to speak about issues concerning a community without having a member of that community included in the discussion. I was not able to get ahold of someone before the deadline, however I am hoping to come back to this project and add their voice at a later time.

Thanks and acknowledgements

I would like to thank everyone who agreed to participate in this project. You can find a list of all the sources I interviewed here. I am especially grateful to Nnaemeka Ali and Léonard Kapia for accepting to be interviewed and filmed.

My special thanks also go to the Conseil des Innu de Ekuanitshit for allowing me to visit their community and their church in November, and to the Innu people of Ekuanitshit for their kindness and hospitality while I filmed their mass celebration. Their church is truly one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in, and I encourage you to go visit it if you can (when it is safe to do so, of course).

I am also thankful to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for providing me data on religious workers.

Finally I would like to thank my supervisor Allan Thompson for his guidance and help throughout the year; Roger Martin for his tremendous help with designing this website; my fellow MJ students for their tremendous support throughout the year; and Eric Maia for being my rock.