Canada, a friend since 1971

Knowing that the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, will today be honouring the late Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, with the 'Friends of Liberation War Honour', I cast my mind back to those days in 1971 when, working for Oxfam, I was involved with a large refugee relief programme in various refugee camps in the Indian border areas of Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, West Dinajpur, Balurghat and Bongaon. Although Oxfam was founded in Oxford, U.K. in 1942, by 1971 there were sister organisations in Canada, U.S.A. and Belgium. Oxfam Canada played a significant role in 1971 raising funds for the refugee relief programme in India as well as sending large quantities of relief supplies, including very valuable high protein supplements for malnourished children.

That Oxfam Canada, led by a dynamic director, Jack Shea, played such an important role in 1971, was partly due to the recently appointed Oxfam Field Director for East India, Raymond Cournoyer, who was born in Quebec, and had earlier been Executive Director of Oxfam-Quebec. He was the brains behind Oxfam's outstanding refugee relief programme which I had the honour to administer with Raymond's strong support. In June 1971 and again later that year, Raymond had very successful media visits in Canada which significantly raised Oxfam-Canada's profile.

From my personal archives, there is a telegram sent by Pierre Rivard of Oxfam Montreal on October 22, 1971 to us in Calcutta, asking that Raymond and Jack Shea, who was visiting Calcutta at that time, be available to meet CIDA officials Gerin Lajoie and Clyde Sanger who were expected in Calcutta on October 29 and meeting Oxfam officials was their top priority.

Later on, Raymond became Oxfam's first country representative in independent Bangladesh. He was remarkably well qualified as he had lived and worked in East Pakistan from 1958 to 1965 in his capacity as a Brother of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. In the course of his teaching at different schools, he took great interest in the culture and the music of the country and having mastered the language very well, came to love the country and its people. Raymond instilled a sense of self-belief into the hearts and minds of many of his students, so that they often far exceeded their own expectations. He was also deeply affected by the poverty he saw and at times felt quite helpless to do anything about it. He could, however, identify with it.

The youngest of a rural Quebec family of 4 brothers and 2 sisters (2 other children died at birth), Raymond grew up in considerable poverty in the 1930s. He remembered his two sisters at 12 and 14 being sent away to be maids to help the family income and lessen the expenses. This memory stayed with him to such an extent that he did not feel at all comfortable to have a domestic servant in Bangladesh. He once wrote,

"I carried with me, as well, the deep experience that poverty does not bar anybody from enjoying an enriching atmosphere of frugality and that "peines d'argent ne durent qu'un temps" (money-related problems do not last forever) as my mother would often say. This helped me greatly not to get emotionally involved in front of poverty situations. Too many so-called do-goers, as somebody now wishes to call the do-gooders, walk around villages in developing countries with their hearts in a sling."

When discussing his new role in Bangladesh, Raymond told Oxfam-U.K. that he wanted 'carte blanche' regarding the development activities to be supported in Bangladesh and that he did not want to have any part in distributing relief supplies. "Give them to CARITAS or Mother Teresa!" he thundered, "I want to invest for the long-term in young Bangladeshis with vision."

And so, as we wound up our operations in the refugee camps, the relief supplies were given away, cash was provided to CARE for a massive housing programme and more funds were allocated for the purchase of new ferries and repair of old ones. It was a measure of his great love of the fabric and culture of Bangladesh, that Raymond insisted that the new ferries not be named after famous Bangladeshis or martyrs but be named after Bangladeshi flowers; Korobi, Kasturi and Kamini.

With major funds having been allocated, Raymond was able to get on with what he saw as his 'mission', to support new and emerging NGOs. His strong belief in their aspirations is how Oxfam became BRAC's very first donor and Oxfam supported Gonoshasthyaya Kendra in those early days too. Oxfam-Canada co-funded all the early grants made in independent Bangladesh often with the support of the Canadian Government.

(Julian Francis, who has had an association with Bangladesh since 1971, was the coordinator of Oxfam's relief operation in 1971 which assisted 600,000 Bangladeshis taking temporary shelter in the refugee camps in India. In 2012, the Government of Bangladesh awarded him the 'Friends of Liberation War Honour' in recognition of his work in 1971)