About

Welcome to my website.

I have been living in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa since June, 2021, although, I am not new to the region. A few years ago I moved here to study at the University of Ottawa. I have also been a resident of Quebec City, Port Colborne, and Peterborough.

I have earned a college degree in Social Work from Niagara College and a B.A. in Social Work from Trent University.

My first language is English. My second is French.  I am half of French-Canadian ancestry, the other half being Irish, English and Scottish.  This has irrevocably shaped my world view and my outlook on life, especially concerning my views on Canada and Quebec affairs.

I grew up in the 1960s and 70s during the tumult of the language and separatist issues which were raging at the time between René Lévesque and Pierre Trudeau.  I was a native English speaker growing up in a majority French-speaking province which was in the process of asserting its economic, cultural, and linguistic autonomy after 200 years of English-speaking domination. I, and people like me, were therefore the designated “bad guys”, therefore I had to fit in at all costs.

My parents sent me to a French-language public Catholic school where I often had to literally fight to be respected and accepted. I later ended up taking on many manual labour jobs, purposefully seeking out the acquaintance and friendship of working class French-Canadians so as to become better acquainted with their way of thinking, their preoccupations in life, aspirations, etc.  I felt I had to learn how to talk, act, and think like them so as to better empathize with their plight.

I have worked in Québec as a secretary in a Roman Catholic Parish and moonlighted at other occupations including: tourism, translation, customer service in a call center and care-giving for the elderly.

I’m an active volunteer in my community as well as one of Canada’s major political parties during elections.

I am passionate about life and I hope that my writing and blogging reflect it. I also have a strong desire to help others and that is why I pursued a career as a clinical social worker.

See my Linkedin professional profile.