Turcotte is president of Corpus Christi College and principal of St. Mark’s College at the University of British Columbia
At month’s end, Our Lady of the Mountains Parish in Whistler will welcome Dr. Gerry Turcotte for a free-of-charge session about mental health.
Turcotte emphasizes that he’s no psychologist or therapist, but has spent three decades in senior university leadership in both Australia and Canada. Right now he sits at the helm of two Catholic establishments affiliated with the University of British Columbia (UBC): the post-secondary Corpus Christi College and St. Mark’s College, a theological institution.
During his career, Turcotte has worked with a myriad of individuals and groups: from Indigenous communities Down Under to the patrons of shelters and soup kitchens closer to home. He has mentored students, sat on the boards of addiction recovery organizations and helped run non-profit branches like the Mustard Seed.
Furthermore, he is a decorated teacher, journalist and writer.
“In Australia, I won awards at the local, the state, and then the national levels, but it was recognition, in part, of the way I was putting programs together to support students—many of whom struggle when they move from high school into the university world,” Turcotte said. “And I’ve been a columnist for Canadian and Australian newspapers for decades. Often what I write, especially my columns in Canada, are really about how ordinary people can give back to the community or identify struggles and find positive ways through it.”
Turcotte has had thousands of students accompany him on various volunteer exercises. While this is not a one-size-fits-all cure for mental-health issues, he has witnessed many enter a soup kitchen or non-profit to serve for a few hours and depart with a renewed sense of hope or perspective regarding their own lives.
Despite his own ties to religious institutions, Turcotte’s talk is meant to be accessible for all audiences regardless of their belief system.
“Sometimes we assume that because you’re in a faith-based environment, you’re going to be preaching or you’re going to be delivering it only through that one lens,” he elaborated. “What I’ve found is that easily half the people who volunteer with me in parish-led or Catholic university contexts are not even people of faith—but they believe in community. My message is really twofold: one is that we all struggle, right? Twenty per cent of Canadians are experiencing some kind of mental-health challenge … and increasingly, we’re seeing young people are probably the highest demographic.
“I believe, personally, that faith can be something that can help you through these challenges. I’m very clear to say this is not the Band-Aid solution to it. It’s part of the toolkit that you can bring, but so, too, is reaching out to other people.”
Community connection
Turcotte leaped at the opportunity to visit Whistler when local philanthropist Andy Szocs reached out to him.
Having been retired for a quarter-century, Szocs is committed to furthering mental-health education. More than 15 years ago, he put together a speaker-led event at the Maury Young Arts Centre. Skeptics dismissed his idea, anticipating it would draw 20 or 30 guests. Instead, 250 people crowded into the venue that night and another 50 or so had to be turned away.
“Andy Szocs is just one of these big community connectors,” remarked Turcotte. “He’s passionate about important causes, he can make things happen and he is absolutely passionate about the importance of mental health. I’m not getting up there to do an academic talk. I’m a writer. My latest novel, [The Space Between], is set in a school and a community. My central character is a little bit based on me: my father couldn’t speak English, my mother couldn’t speak French, and I was a little kid stuck in the middle.
“I use a lot of humour in my talk and I’ll actually be riffing off some parts of the book that are quite funny, because I think humour can be one way to open the door to difficult conversations. I don’t want people to feel they’re being lectured at and this is certainly not a doctoral thesis. This is a community talk where I hope it opens the conversation for people to contribute their own views on things.”
Come Oct. 30, Our Lady of the Mountains Parish will host mass at 6 p.m. followed by Turcotte’s presentation at 6:30 p.m. Coffee, dessert and an opportunity for audience questioning will be made available.
Visit olom.ca/events/faith-mental-health for more details.