THE EXTENSION DEPARTMENT

St. Francis Xavier University

JUNE 1970-JUNE 1971

T H E E X T E N S I O N D E P A R T M E N T St. Francis Xavier University

"It is the story of a seminary that became a college, of a college that be-came a university — of a university that began without wealth or tradition and built for itself an unique kind of fame that has spread to most of the countries of the world.

"It is a Roman Catholic institu-tion but it has served all creeds, all classes and all races without discrimina-tion or limitation.

"It was, in its early years of social struggle called materialistic by the church that sponsored it. It was bran-ded communist by those who made little attempt to understand its social mission and it was called black reaction-ary by the Communists it chased from their Nova Scotian footholds.

"It has had no easy time and the struggle still goes on but today it is dif-ferent in character.

"But it is better understood.. It has been thrice commended by the Vatican and the simple social doctrines that were added to its academic pro-gram to assist the people of its constitu-ency have become known as 'The Antigonish Movement' and have found their way round the globe to aid some ten million emerged people.

"It is a story told largely in people and it is impossible to record all those who led and those who learned."

by Brian O'Conneil "The St. F.X. Story"

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REVIEW OF THE WORK OF THE EXTENSION DEPARTMENT June 1970-June 1971

E X T E N S I O N D E P A R T M E N T

S T . F R A N C I S X A V I E R U N I V E R S I T Y

A N T I G D N I S H , N O V A S C D T I A

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When the Extension Department began taking the univer-sity to the people some 40 years ago, its activities were directed toward the desperate condition of our fishermen and other pri-mary producers.

The seeds of discontent, cast from a callous economic sys-tem, had produced bitterness and despair in,the fishing, farming and industrial communities of Nova Scotia.

Extension workers were accused of waging a class struggle by some critics of their program of social and economic reform. But the ordinary men and women responded with such vigor and high ideals that their self-help concept of development became known throughout the world.

The Antigonish Movement is needed as much today. Not in terms of economic reform, perhaps — although many primary producers need new marketing systems, and the new consu-merism will demand redress of old greivances — but in helping our people to use the new technology and new economics to build healthier and happier communities rather than become the casualties of change.

At a time when an increasingly activist public is demanding more say in the handling of its affairs, and the integrity of all of our institutions is being questioned openly, the Extension Department is being challenged to help our people demonstrate that they have the ideals and ideas to operate a civilization responsibly.

This review is a modest record of how our workers met the challenge during the past year, using new and time-tested tech-niques and programs. It is a record of achievement in the setting of standards of social responsibility. And it would have been impossible without the cooperation and goodwill of "all those who led and those who learned."

Rev. George Topshee Director

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FOREWORD

CONTENTS

Foreward 3

Introduction 5

Development Conference 7

Pulpwood Marketing Board , 8

Adult Education 9

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Fishermen's Strike 13

Communications 12

Labor Education 11

Municipal Reform 10

Consumer Education 11

Social Housing 8

X-Project 9

Day Care Centre 10

Interdenominational Institute 10

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INTRODUCTION

This was no easy year — for anyone.

High unemployment. Fiscal restraint. Higher taxes and a shrinking dollar. A political tragedy in Quebec, and suspension of civil liberties.

Labor and management unrest.

In the Atlantic Provinces, where the per capita income is the lowest in North America, a wallowing economy hurt that much more.

Inflation-fighting policies for the richer provinces swelled the ranks of our unemployed.

A fishermen's strike ravaged several Strait of Canso com-munities and split the ranks of labor.

Labor-management relations deteriorated so badly in the construction industry that the Nova Scotia government intro-duced short-term compulsory arbitration.

Education costs were cut sharply. Several programs to develop the full potential of our people were suspended.

Dozens of communities provided fewer services because they no longer had the resources to operate efficiently as single municipal units.

But out of these bleak conditions and social amenities and perhaps partly because of them — there is a growing aware-ness that the key to a better future rests with the people them-selves.

The restraints to progress may be as much in the people we are as in the resources we have!

Dr. " J immy" Tompkins, a pioneer extension priest, ex-pressed it plainly to farmers and fishermen 50 years ago:

"It 's no use going hat-in-hand to government, boys. You've got to do it yourselves."

It remained the fundamental philosophy of the university's adult education program to this day.

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The people must first be informed, said Father J immy. They must learn how the system works. Only then could they begin to have some influence over those forces that so caprici-ously controlled their lives.

However, information by itself is not enough. The people must be shown how to participate in community affairs and how to make their social, economic and political structures more responsive to their needs.

This involved breaking the "mindse t , " said Dr. M.M.Coady, the Extension Department's first director. Old, established struc-tures that no longer work must go. People should understand the need of making sacrifices for the common good.

Although severely limited by funds, the Extension Depart-ment has during the past year defined new priorities, sharpened its thrust in information-giving, and expanded its programs in housing, labor education and municipal reform.

In a sense, the department has become more strongly acti-vist in the old tradition of providing leadership in community development. A position with its share of danger, perhaps, but an old, familiar — and productive — one just the same!

Finally, while the department's ranks have dwindled, it has another "staff" of hundreds who have worked closely with it over the year: the various government departments, volunteer agencies, friends in industry, the labor unions, cooperatives, credit unions, on the farms, fishing stages and woodlots, and in the mines, mills and offices of the province.

They include those who labor in the continuing education programs of the Department of Education, the Nova Scotia Housing Commission, Central Mortgage and Housing Corpora-tion, local regional, provincial and national labor unions, welfare departments and family service agencies, civic governments, Department of Lands and Forests, departments of fisheries, labor, agriculture and municipal affairs, Sydney Metropolitan Action Committee, other community development groups, and the Planning Secretariat of the Nova Scotia Cabinet and others.

We are grateful to all of them.

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DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

During a sunny weekend in late June , the Extension De-partment brought back the old rural and industrial conference under a new name: the Eastern Development Conference.

Like the early ones, the program was for leaders and ordin-ary men and women "from all walks of life who were anxious to inquire into the economic difficulties of the people of Nova Scotia."

The economic facts were not comforting. One observer reported that they had never been presented publicly with such candour. Delegates discussed the issues with experts.

The conference was the culmination of a six-month study program for 10 regional development councils set up in January, 1971, in communities from New Glasgow to Glace Bay.

The councils probed topics scheduled for the conference — federal development policies, managerial and labor productivity, decision-making by the people or bureaucrats, and the economic prospects of the province — and delegates brought their views to the sessions in Antigonish.

This was a full-time project for one extension worker, and the department anticipates the development councils forming the nucleus of much larger study groups in the future.

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T H E P R O G R A M

PULPWOOD MARKETING BOARD

Three years of organizational work among Nova Scotia woodlot owners ended in late June with a vote to determine public support for a proposed pulpwood marketing board.

There are more than 50,000 woodlot owners in the pro-vince and those with at least 50 acres of growing wood were eligible to vote.

The pulp and paper companies and sawmills fought the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners Association's efforts to establish collective bargaining within the industry.

Heaviest opposition came during the provincial marketing board's registration of voters, when the buyers bought news-paper advertisements and distributed brochures in an attempt to discredit the Associations's work.

85% of those who voted were in favor of the pulpwood marketing board. At this time no decision has been made by government or the proposed board.

The Extension Department will continue its efforts to obtain a more just return for the woodlot owners' investment in land and labor, regardless of the government's decision about the proposed board.

SOCIAL HOUSING

Cooperative housing has always been one of the most im-portant aspects of The Antigonish Movement, and the Exten-sion Department is primarily responsible for establishing one of the better low-cost housing programs in North America.

During the last year, however, the Department has also been working actively with the Social and Welfare Workers of Cape Breton to provide home ownership for low-income families who do not have the resources to purchase a cooperative home.

The social housing program is the first of its kind in Canada. It involves the purchase and rehabilitation of existing

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housing units in industrial Cape Breton Communities, and making them available under a tenant-purchase arrangement to families now living in poor housing.

The program is so successful that Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation has asked that it be expanded within the next year.

One extension worker is also an executive member of the Nova Scotia Housing Commission and spends at least one day a week in Halifax on policy discussions affecting all aspects of housing in the province.

ADULT EDUCATION

Adult education in the form of credit and non-credit cour-ses continues to play an important role in Nova Scotia. Five members of our staff were teaching such courses last year. One member attended an adult education research conference in New York in February.

XPROJECT

With no fanfare, 130 students from St. Francis Xavier Uni-versity worked in Lincolnville, Sunnyville, Upper Big Tracadie, Afton and Pictou Landing to motivate a desire for learning in the young people.

X-Project programs made use of sports, music, crafts, films, Cubs, Girl Guides, 4-H and field trips to develop new interests. The university's education department offered students the use of its resource centre, and also served as advisors to the group.

X-Project field trips took the youngsters to Sydney, where they visited Xavier College and a dairy; Glace Bay, and the Miners' Museum; Port Hawkesbury, the trade school; Truro, the Nova Scotia Agricultural College; the city of Halifax; Shu-benacadie and the wildlife park; and Antigonish and the univer-sity campus for sports, drama and a carnival day celebration. As in previous years, a member of the Extension Department staff supervised X-Project.

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DAY CARE CENTRE

The Cooperative Day Care Centre of Sydney was organized by a member of the department. It was badly needed, and early indications are that it will be self-supporting.

INTERDENOMINATIONAL INSTITUTE

An institute on communications in rural parishes was held at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in May, sponsored by the College, the Extension Department and the major religious de-nominations in the Atlantic region.

MUNICIPAL REFORM

The department actively promoted the need for better-integrated municipal government throughout the province, where more than 60 units with very limited resources are mili-tating against social and economic progress.

The province will be better served with fewer but better-coordinated municipalities. The public is just becoming aware that units designed to serve narrow, parochial interests can no longer meet its needs, particularly in the more heavily populated areas.

Extension workers attended municipal council meetings in five counties, and the department was asked for assistance with several problems.

Two leadership seminars were held at Gardiner Centre, sponsored by the Department, Xavier College and the Depart-ment of Education. They were designed to develop the potential for political leadership in eastern Nova Scotia. Sixty candidates attended.

For the past five years, the department has been working with the Cape Breton Medical Society and other groups to ap-praise hospital and medical services in Cape Breton. As a result, a 10-month study is in progress.

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CONSUMER EDUCATION

Consumer education courses were offered in x\ntigonish County during February and March. They covered the role of consumer agencies, shopping practises, price wars, total discount and direct-charge cooperatives, budgeting, food standards and grades, the role of advertising and the new consumerism.

A valuable portfolio of consumer literature was assembled during the year, including study kits on food buymanship, credit, advertising and insurance.

The department is studying consumer attitudes and behav-iour in the Antigonish-Guysborough area. It is particularly inter-ested in the social and psychological factors associated with participation or non-participation in consumer cooperatives in Antigonish town.

LABOR EDUCATION

St. F. X. was a champion of the labor movement from the times of some of its earliest and most notable struggles in Nova Scotia, and its support of the movement continues to this day.

Labor-management activities occupied one member full-time and two, part-time, during the past year, when relations be-tween the unions and management were badly strained, particu-larly within the construction industry.

Short courses were held in Cape Breton, Richmond, Inver-ness and Pictou counties.

The department assisted the employer of a relatively large labor force who was having labor-management problems. After a series of meetings, the Department recommended, among other things, that the company appoint a full-time director of personnel relations. The ucompany established the position and conditions are now reasonably harmonious."

The department is assembling a tool box of materials for labor education, with the contents varying to the needs of each group of trade unionists. The objective is to reach the ex-perienced trade unionist as well as the young worker. Prelimi-

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nary discussions have been held with authorities to explore the possibilities of having our syllabus used in:

(a) regular adult classes (b) high school social studies courses (c) vocational schools (d) Point Edward training courses and satellite classes (e) the Nova Scotia Institute of Technology

Audio-visual aids should accompany the material.

COMMUNICATIONS

The Department broadened its program of strengthening the critical judgment and social awareness of our people with adult education programs on radio and television.

It also produced two half-hour films for the provincial De-partment of Education, and a 30-minute colour documentary on social housing for Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Films on forest management and pollution are in produc-tion.

The People's School television series was joined by the radio series of the same name after an absence of more than ten years.

The 34 radio programs were broadcast from CJFX, Antigo-nish and CKEN, Kentville from October 20th, 1970, to June 22, 1971, covering such topics as: Power and the People, People Power II, The Fishermen's Strike, Expose of the "Deep Dis-count" Price War, Alcoholism, Regional Development, Patro-nage and Consumerism, Port Hawkesbury-Superport, Role of The People's School, Plain Talk About Auto Insurance, The Growth Centre Philosophy, Social Housing, Pulpwood Marketing Plan, the Progressive Conservative Convention, Abortion, Forest Management Program, Municipal Reform, The Developing Mic-macs. Future of the Fisheries, Adult Education, The St. F. X. Student Revolt, The Jesus Freaks and Eager Beavers, Pollution, The Drug Scene, the Indians' Oyster Program, Town Planning, Antigonish Sewerage Problem, Clergyman's Role in Community

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Development, Anatomy of a Highway Accident, and the Pulp and Paper Companies v.s. The People.

The 22 television programs were carried over CJCB, Syd-ney, CJCH, Halifax, and CKCW, Moncton. The topics were: Future of the Inshore Fishery, Halifax Container Port, Planning Genius — Len Poetschke, Liberal Premier Gerald Regan, Auto-mobile Insurance, What Power in the Provinces? People on Com-mon Street (housing), Direct-Charge Co-operatives, The Future of Agriculture, Fighting Pollution,Tory Leader John Buchanan, White Paper on Housing, Patronage and Highways Minister Brown, Poor Manufacturing Enterprise, Eskasoni Oyster Pro-gram, Role of Clergymen in Community Development, Pulp-wood Marketing Board, Amalgamation or Die, People Power, Inexpensive Funerals, NDP leader Jeremy Akerman, Growth Centre Philosophy, and Education Budget Cuts.

The Department is thus making extensive use of radio and television for adult education.

FISHERMEN'S STRIKE

"The fishermen of Eastern Canada — of all the world for that matter — have a bad tradition. They have come through and still are in the grips of feudalism. In com-parison with farmers they are still mediaeval, economi-cally speaking, and they suffer all the consequences of an antiquated economic system."

-Dr . M. M. Coady February 1947

Dr. Coady's first job as director of the Extension Depart-ment in 1928 was organizing fishermen. He organized the United Maritime Fishermen and this cooperative is giving good service to its members. But the job of organizing fishermen was never com-pleted. Alexander J. Laidlaw, wrote in The Man from Margaree that "the curse of Maritime divisiveness fell upon the fishermen's cooperatives and they were never able to unite in such a way as to secure the benefits of large-scale enterprise."

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The Canadian labor movement has had no large-scale suc-cesses with fishermen either. However, the fight by the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union with Acadia Fisheries and Booth Fisheries to achieve collective bargaining rights, and the internecine warfare between the UFAWU and the Canadian Food and Allied Workers Union (CLC) to represent the trawler men has finally placed the deep-sea fishermen under the provincial trade union act, at least.

Trawler crews had hitherto been considered as "co-adven-turers" with the companies in sharing the risks and rewards of operations at sea. Inshore fishermen are still poorly organized in the province. The dispute, which ripped at the social fabric of Petit de Grat, Canso and Mulgrave, tied up the trawlers and fish plants for more than seven months.

In the early days, the Extension Department produced a film on the strike which was later carried on the province's two private television stations. The department also made recom-mendations to the Green Commission and worked with the De-partment of Labor in carrying out the commission's recommen-dations. It donated university facilities for three weeks, where negotiations were conducted between an ad hoc committee of trawlermen, the Canadian Labor Congress, the provincial Feder-ation of Labor, and the companies.

An agreement was worked out in Mid-October and a con-tract signed to end the strike. But the controversy lingers, and some observers feel the issue will not be settled until April, 1972, when the CFAWU contracts with the companies expire. Others say the main issue is now settled.

STAFF

Topshee, Rev. George E., B.A., DIRECTOR

Roach, Rev. William, M. A. (Boston College) ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

Brown, Kingsley, Jr . Capstick, Rev. John , M.A. (Toronto University) Chisholm, John Hachey, Jane , B.A.

*LeBlanc, Urbain, B.A. Lord, Richard, B.ScF. MacDonald, A. A., Ph.D. (Cornell) Maclntyre, Duncan, B.Ed. MacLellan,J. H., B.Sc. MacNeil, Rev. M.J . , B.A. MacPhee, Thomas

**Mifflen, Rev. Frank J. , Morris, Rev. Eugene, B.A. Murphy, Edward, M.A. (Wisconsin)

**Rodgers, Rev. Gerard, M.A. (Michigan State) Secretarial: Peggy Maclsaac, Catherine Quick, Lorna MacMullin

OFFICES: Antigonish, Bridgewater, Port Hawkesbury, Sydney

* Leave of absence

**Leave for study