Montreal Friendship Centre looks to get back on track

A group of prominent Native leaders in Montreal is trying to reorganize a multiservice Native Friendship Centre for the city after the current centre was hit by funding cuts due to its exclusive focus on housing issues for homeless urban aboriginals.

An eight-member steering committee led by Eric Cardinal is consulting the community for ideas and analysis to help design the functions of a reborn centre in the city’s downtown.

“Montreal is the most important crossroads for Aboriginals in Quebec and it is experiencing a demographic growth,” Cardinal said July 16 in a communiqué announcing the new effort. “It is more important than ever to promote the primacy of collective rights and to work together towards the improvement of the quality of life of Aboriginal citizens in Montreal.”

The focus for a new centre is to involve families, children, youth and Elders and to foster a sense of community. The effort is endorsed by the Quebec friendship centre alliance, known as the Regroupement de centres d’amitié autochtones du Quebec.

The steering committee is looking for a variety of partners to help launch the project. “The development of a promising community project for the whole Aboriginal community in Montreal requires the collaboration and consultation of all the stakeholders involved,” said committee member Ida Labillois Montour, who is a former Friendship Centre executive director.