10/10/2026
Friendship centres that change lives, 50 years after their creation | Radio-Canada
Journalist: Shushan Bacon
Date: October 5, 2026
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For 50 years, the Regroupement des centres d'amitié autochtones du Québec (RCAAQ) has played an essential role for First Nations and Inuit people living in cities. Present in several cities across the province, the centres offer services, but above all a place of welcome, support and cultural safety.
Michel Goupil, an Innu originally from Matimekush-Lac-John, belongs to the second generation living with the effects of residential schools. His mother attended the residential school in Sept-Îles. For many years he was homeless, moving from one community to another without a real anchor. He started drinking at 17 and later turned to hard drugs. "I hit rock bottom once," he said.
Last year, he decided to leave Mani-utenam and move to the city. After calling people he knew in the Quebec City region, mostly Innu, he was directed to the Centre d'amitié autochtone de Québec, where a worker supported him and guided him toward a stay in therapy. "People need to know. The friendship centres are there for us and they help us. We have to use these services," said the 58-year-old.
Today he works 40 hours a week for a private company in Wendake and rents a room he can afford. His greatest joy is that his close and extended family have started talking to him again. "Now I realize that I don't lie anymore. That's it, I feel good."
The first Indigenous friendship centre in Quebec opened in 1969 in Chibougamau so Cree and Atikamekw people could gather in the city. There are now 11. The RCAAQ was created in 1976 at the request of the three centres that existed then, in Chibougamau, Val-d'Or and La Tuque. Its executive director, Tanya Sirois, an Innu from Pessamit, says the centres have always offered spaces where Indigenous people can feel safe. More than 60 per cent of Indigenous people now live in urban areas.
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