Portuguese Canadian History Project | Projeto de História Luso Canadiana

The Portuguese Interagency Network’s records have been processed and are now open for consultation (with some access restrictions) at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries (CTASC).

Founded in 1978, the Portuguese Interagency Network (PIN) was a community-based, non-profit organization that connected social service providers and other civic professionals who worked with Portuguese-speaking individuals in Ontario. Its membership would grow to include over 200 member agencies, along with many individual members. PIN’s areas of action were reflected in the make-up of its working committees, which included Adult Education, Child Education, Family and Community Services, Health, Special Needs, and Seniors. Other ad-hoc committees included: “Ready or Not,” “Youth Committee,” “Lusophone,” and “Employment Equity.” PIN also produced multiple studies and reports about Toronto’s Portuguese-Canadian community, with the goal of influencing government policies. It lead education campaigns on issues of health, adult education, literacy, sexual assault, and skills training. The Kensington Clinic, Portuguese Mental Health Clinic, Downtown Employment Services, Portuguese Family Crisis Centre, Access Alliance Multicultural Health Centre, Bradford Immigrant Community Services, and the Portuguese Canadian National Congress are some of the organizations that PIN helped develop. In the mid-1990s, funding cuts during Premier Mike Harris’ government would strike a fatal blow to PIN’s operations, leading to its closure in 2009.

This is one of the most important collections that the PCHP has helped transfer to the CTASC, with extensive information about a wide range of social, economic, educational, political, cultural and other important aspects of Portuguese-Canadian life in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, and across Canada, in the 1970s-2000s. That is reflected in the collection’s “subject access points,” which include: Conflict of generations; Multiculturalism; Substance abuse; HIV/AIDS awareness; Violence — Adolescence; Education; Immigrants — Services for; Equity, Pay; Domestic Violence; Occupational Health and Safety; Citizenship; Canadian Task Force on Mental Health Issues Affecting Immigrants and Refugees; Unemployment; East Timor; Alcoholism; Undocumented workers; Gender Equality. Lots of Master and PhD thesis waiting to be written here.

This is also one of the largest Portuguese-Canadian record collections at the CTASC, with a total 1,471 folders, containing:
10.9 m of textual records
143 photographs : b&w and col. ; 18 x 24.5 cm or smaller
416 photographs : b&w negatives ; 35 mm
6 computer disks : 9 x 9 cm
34 U-matic videocassettes
17 VHS cassettes
19 audiocassettes
6 Hi8 video recordings
1 micro-cassette audio recording

See the complete finding aid here (.pdf) and here (atom database).

The PCHP once again thanks Cidália Pereira for having donated these records to the CTASC, and all the archivists who have helped process them, in particular Christopher Long.