It’s confirmed, the review Relationships will not be back on newsstands anytime soon. The board of directors (CA) of the Centre justice et foi (CJF) announced on September 20 that its activities, interrupted for six months and including the production of Relationshipswere going to remain pending for another four months. He said he needed more time to think about his restructuring project, a project from which he excluded his temporarily laid-off employees and several partners.
This announcement was the fact that the director, Isabelle Lemelin, left the ship recently. In its initial version, there was not a word about the review Relationships and on the situation of employees; this was subsequently rectified. Generally, when a layoff lasts more than six months, either the employees remain unemployed (here, the CA states that additional benefits would continue to be paid), or the employment relationship is terminated by paying severance pay (but, in this case, it is referred to as providing support during this “transition”). What is this specifically and what does it mean?
Consult or pretend?
In any case, the CJF Board of Directors announced a “broad consultation” that would finally involve team members and partners. The problem is that after the staff’s refusal to participate in the discussions, this consultation comes more than late. The problem is also that the bond of trust is broken and nothing has been announced to restore it and correct an injustice. This applies to employees, but also to certain partners who were consulted last June – via a questionnaire sent by email. The approach, so flawed, was denounced by many, even boycotted.
Molly Kane, André Beauchamp and Jacques Grenier (co-signatories of this letter) are among those who learned that their opinion sent to the Board of Directors was not communicated by its interim president at the time, the Jesuit Peter Bisson, to all the members of the Board of Directors. From there to thinking that many other opinions, not to mention the letters of interpellation sent in recent months, would never have been transmitted either, there is only one step… which we are taking. Because a request for a meeting with the Board of Directors, made by the editorial committee of Relationshipswas rejected by the president without ever having been communicated to all members. Knowing this, how can we believe that the announced broad consultation will finally be conducted with ethics, openness and transparency, respecting not only people, but also the professional practices that have, until now, made the reputation of the CJF?
We are concerned that the reduction in size (the downsizing) of the CJF has not yet been decided. Its Vivre ensemble sector — unique in its kind due to the quality of its achievements and its desire to include racialized people in discussions on pluralism and migration issues in Quebec — risks being hit hard. The fact that this reduction is justified due to financial constraints has been contested for months without the CA and the Jesuits of Canada agreeing to discuss it with all the main stakeholders concerned.
Relationships digital only?
Based on surveys, we know that the magazine’s subscribers Relationships have no appetite for a digital format. However, rumor has it that we are considering ending its print version. How can we consider this when we have refused for six months to discuss it with our team and editorial board, and without knowing its production and marketing? When we risk wasting the work and investment (including public subsidies) that led to its current print version and its Web version that meets today’s standards? In the fragile market for Quebec cultural and social magazines, Relationships is no more likely to survive a disruption of more than 10 months commercially than a poorly thought-out digital shift.
Relationships also represents, and above all, a living heritage that plays a valuable role in social and intellectual reflection in Quebec, offering inspiration to transform the world in solidarity with all those who aspire to greater social justice. Beyond the primary circle of progressive Christians who are very attached to it, it reaches a diverse and broader readership that favors its paper version, the one that is collected, read with attention, the one that has stood the test of time for 83 years.
What is certain is that it remains unclear why the Jesuits are acting as they are toward this recognized organization and what they want. Without transparency and meaningful collaboration with staff and partners, they are likely to bear the odium of a betrayal of its mission and spirit.
* Co-signed this letter: four researchers associated with the CJF (André Beauchamp, diocesan priest and former president of the CA; Jacques Grenier; priest member of the Société des Missions-Étrangères du Québec; Deirdre Meintel, professor emeritus at the Université de Montréal; and Jean-Claude Ravet, former editor-in-chief of Relations from 2005 to 2019 and member of its editorial board); five members of the steering committee of Vivre ensemble au CJF (Geneviève Dick, André Jacob, Louis-Philippe Jannard, Jean-Michel Landry and Lilyane Rachedi); the former director of the CJF from 2007 to 2022, Élisabeth Garant; the former director and former coordinator of Entraide journalistes, Suzanne Loiselle and Molly Kane.