Bishop’s University

A world of civic participation opens to young anglos at Bishop’s Forum

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

SHERBROOKE – From Aug. 8-13, about 75 young adults from English-speaking communities around the province gathered at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville (Sherbrooke) to participate in the ninth edition of the Bishop’s Forum, a weeklong civic leadership training program for English-speaking youth.

Participants – mainly university students and recent graduates ages 18-26 – heard speeches from and attended seminars with business, academic and political leaders from across the province. Speakers – whose presentations were off the record – included Minister Responsible for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers Éric Girard and his predecessor Christopher Skeete; Compton-Stanstead MP Marianne Dandurand; Just for Laughs cofounder Andy Nulman; TALQ president Eva Ludvig; Cherisse Vanloo, a prominent engineer and workplace diversity expert; and former QCT publisher Karen Macdonald, in her capacity as an experienced nonprofit administrator.

Throughout the forum, participants also worked on a group project, proposing a piece of legislation about a pressing issue – for example, the health-care personnel shortage, or how to leverage artificial intelligence in public administration without compromising user privacy – and then defending it in both languages to a simulated parliamentary commission and a simulated media scrum; MNAs were role-played by a diverse cast of academics, former politicians and senior civil servants, and journalists were role-played by actual working journalists (including this QCT representative, two CBC reporters and a reporter from the local francophone daily La Voix de l’Est).

Bishop’s Forum associate director Shannon Bell explained that the goal of the forum is to help participants “get an idea of what it’s like to be in civic leadership in today’s world, being a leader and navigating nonprofit and government avenues.”

She said she wanted participants to feel inspired and “see there’s not just one way of participating in society.”

Recent Bishop’s graduate and first-time forum participant Sakshi Gupta said she was afraid she would feel out of place at the forum because of her lack of a political science background. “I thought I would feel dumb, but I wanted to face that fear!” she said. “It was an awakening to get to try new things!”

Montrealer and recent engineering graduate Mauli Patel said she enjoyed hearing from a “diversity of voices” – participants with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. “There were people there who were in law school, others [who were studying] education or computer science,” she said. “We all got together, and everyone was looking at things from a different perspective.”

Sararose Smith-Bourgoin, 26, is the wellness co-ordinator at ECO-02, a relatively new organization supporting anglophone communities in the Saguenay region. According to Bell, she may be the first Saguenay-based participant in the forum’s history. Like Patel, she said she enjoyed the diversity of perspectives around the forum table. “I’m 26 and working, so having young students [in my group] was a bit intimidating, but they brought a lot of knowledge … and I was able to [contribute] my on-the-ground experience.”

The majority of the participants were from the greater Montreal area and/or the Bishop’s University community, although Bell emphasized that the forum is open to English- speaking youth across the province and transportation is reimbursed for those who live outside Sherbrooke. She encouraged would-be participants to follow the Bishop’s Forum on social media to be aware of the dates and sign- up procedures for next year’s event.