Honourable senators, today I ask you to join me in celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the Antigonish Movement. Let me start by asking you the following question: What might historical leaders Jimmy Tompkins, Moses Coady, Kay Desjardins and Irene Doyle have in common with our contemporary leaders, Membertou First Nations Chief Terry Paul, John Celestin of Haiti, Ela Bhatt of India and South Africa’s Ruth Bhengu?

These effective leaders all share a connection to the tiny yet vibrant town of Antigonish — the highland heart of Nova Scotia, home to St. Francis Xavier University, and my home for the past 21 years.

In 1918, a group of priests gathered in that rural town to consider the severe social and economic deterioration of their communities. Fathers Jimmy Tompkins and Moses Coady, both faculty members at the university, started to reach out to people in the community. In 1921, Tompkins published his famous pamphlet, Knowledge for the People.

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As priests, Tompkins and Coady heeded papal encyclicals addressing the ethical implications of the social and economic order of the day. They were also influenced by Rochdale Pioneers in England, Frederich Raiffaisen in Germany, Danish folk schools, and Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins of Quebec.

In 1928, the university established the Extension Department to carry out the work of the social entrepreneurial priests. With Coady at the helm, the Extension team started people’s schools, study clubs and kitchen meetings to achieve what they referred to as The Big Picture, a picture in which the people created, owned and managed their own economic institutions according to their own priorities and starting with their own talents and resources.

Ahead of their time, there was a women’s division in that movement. The movement’s results, which spread far beyond the region, included many successful credit unions and agricultural, fishing, consumer and housing co-operatives along with a heightened sense of community pride.

In 1939, Coady’s book, Masters of Their Own Destiny, was published. Word of the movement spread throughout the world, and people establishing new nations in the global south came spontaneously to Antigonish, attracted by the movement’s respectful philosophy and its practical, successful approach.

In response, the university created the Coady International Institute in 1959.

Since its inception, the institute has provided relevant, campus-based programs to over 7,000 community and organizational leaders from 130 countries. It has trained many tens of thousands overseas and has established key innovation partnerships reaching millions.

As evidence of the viral spread and durability of the Antigonish Movement, I returned this past Monday from South Africa where Coady Institute staff joined 170 of its graduates, partners and others from 23 countries at the ABCD Imbizo gathering, where we celebrated the centenary of the movement.

It was a joyful time in South Africa as the people welcomed their new president, Cyril Ramaphosa. South Africans are marking the centenary this year of the birth of Nelson Mandela and of Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu by renewing their commitment to building a democratic, just and equitable South Africa.

As Moses Coady said:

In a democracy people don’t sit in the social and economic bleachers; they all play the game.

Thank you.