People's History of English-Speaking Quebec: Marjorie Goodfellow

Marjorie Goodfellow, born in Sherbrooke, trained in Library Science and worked as a librarian in Ottawa and Montreal before returning to her home town in 1971. A founding member and early president of Townshippers’ Association, she recounts its beginnings and contrasts its organizational culture with Montreal-based Alliance Quebec. She later volunteered in Sherbrooke’s hospitals and served on the Comité provincial pour la prestation de services en langue anglaise, addressing health service issues for English speakers. Goodfellow passed away at her home in Sherbrooke on October 26, 2024, at age 86.
Recorded on June 10, 2024.
The People’s History of English-Speaking Quebec project provides a counterpoint to historical narratives that represent Quebec’s English speakers as a wealthy, dominant elite. Our project broadens this lens to raise awareness about the history of ordinary individuals, including populations underrepresented in the historiography (populations outside Montreal, ethnocultural groups, workers, and women). We focus on community organizations that serve a broad demographic within the English-speaking minority, and that engage in collective action explicitly aimed at positive social change. More specifically, we examine these organizations’ practices; their culture and identity; their politics; and contextual aspects including their relations with the state, and relations with the majority population. The project reveals how English-speaking Quebec community organizations have been sites of inclusion, diversity, tension, and debate. They have served to build and assert ways for English-speakers to belong in and contribute to Quebec and Canada.
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This project was made possible through the financial support of the Department of Canadian Heritage. QUESCREN also receives funding from the Secrétariat aux relations avec les Québécois d'expression anglaise, the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities and Concordia University.
QUESCREN provides opportunities to promote the understanding and vitality of English-speaking Quebec through research, knowledge mobilization, networking, and outreach. English-speaking Quebec is an Official Language Minority Community of Canada. For more information, visit our website: QUESCREN.ca.
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KEYWORDS: Alliance Quebec, Bishop's University, Charter of the French Language (Quebec)
#communityorganizing Eastern Townships #education #francophones
Godin, Gérald, Health and social services, Laurin, Camille #montreal #partiquébécois Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) #sherbrooke Toponymy, Townshippers' Association