At the Annual General Meeting of the CCSD in May, Hector Ouellet, a professor at Laval University's School of Social Work, was elected President of the CCSD Board.

Hector has taught at Laval since 1990. He currently teaches research and social policy at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He holds a PhD in developmental sociology from Cornell University and an MA in social work from Laval.

After teaching in the Social Work Department at the University of Sherbrooke (Québec) from 1969 to 1978, Hector worked for the Fédération des CLSC for 12 years, during which time he helped develop the CLSC's information systems and served as Director of Research. He also founded the Centre de recherche sur les services communautaires and served as its director from 1985 to 1995. The Centre was the first institution of its kind in Quebec to be developed in partnership with those working in the field.

Hector is a board member of Centraide Québec and a member of the Comité d'action contre la pauvreté de Centraide Québec. He has published works on poverty, accessibility of social services, reforms to health and social services, and on help-seeking and service-utilization behavior among the elderly. In addition to numerous activities related to the fight against poverty, Hector has been a member of the CCSD Board since 1996.

In order to introduce Hector to Perception readers, we asked him to answer a few questions. Here is what he said:

Perception: What do you think will be the most pressing issues in social development during your term of office?

Hector: It seems to me that even more dangerous than the rise in inequality in our society is the threat of a certain exhaustion on the part of intellectuals and decision-makers on the question of poverty. It is possible that the continual back-and-forth about how exactly poverty is defined will cause some people to decide that poverty is simply a matter of interpretation. We saw this happen in the 1970s when it became passé to talk about poverty, and it could happen again. We're already seeing some signs of this.

To avoid this, we must constantly renew the discussion on poverty by showing just what it means - in concrete terms - to be poor and by stressing that the cost of poverty in terms of outcomes is borne by all of society. We have to stress that fighting poverty is not merely a question of "helping the poor," or helping those who lack the intelligence to get themselves out of poverty, but first and foremost, it means improving the functioning of our whole society. Showing how poverty impacts on children is an especially good idea, because obviously children can't "get themselves out of it." We must continue to show how poverty seriously impedes child development.

Perception: Is there anything in particular you hope to accomplish during your term?

Hector: I would like to ensure that the CCSD is able to renew the debate about inequality in Canada. I would like to contribute to that ability by ensuring that the CCSD remains on a sound financial footing.

Perception: Your career has been marked by involvement in social development beyond the university, particularly in the areas of community services and the fight against poverty. What lessons from this work at building social change do you think will be most useful during your term as president of the CCSD?

Hector: The fight against poverty must be based on the best possible data and analysis. We should be able to identify effective practices and know the issues in-depth. This will allow us to counter those people who try to dismiss the problem.

Perception: Public awareness about growing inequality in Canada seems to be increasing. Given the current economic and political climate, how soon do you think we can hope to see things moving in the other direction, towards a narrowing of this gap between rich and poor? In other words, will things get worse before they begin to get better?

Hector: I'm afraid the situation may very well get worse before it gets better. In the current climate, it seems likely that politicians will not act on the problem of poverty without being forced to do so. Protests will probably increase, and we may very well see more violent protests similar to those against globalization that we saw in Seattle earlier this year. I hope I'm wrong, but that's what I suspect might happen.

Perception: Do you have a message for the members of the CCSD and the other readers of Perception across Canada?

Hector: I hope that more and more people will get involved in the struggle against poverty. I think we must never again allow politicians and decision-makers to ignore the consequences of their decisions on the poorest among us. We currently have laws that oblige governments to consider the environmental consequences of their decisions. Why shouldn't we also have laws that require a review of government actions to ensure that they will not push citizens into poverty? And we won't get such laws unless we demand them. Finally, I hope that we will no longer let the poor be blamed for their poverty.

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