History of D.A. in Canada

With more than 31 million people, Canada’s population is about 10 percent of the US total. Many Canadian cities have thriving DA groups, which have sprung up since the 1990s all across our vast country. Today there are more than 20 registered DA groups and Intergroups throughout the ten provinces and three territories of Canada, including meetings in Brantford, Calgary, Maple Ridge, Montreal, Oakville, Ottawa, Regina, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria and Winnipeg.

In light of our primary purpose, it seems important in today’s world of global travel to let recovering debtors know more about DA in Canada. It also seems equally important to let Canadian debtors know more about DA around the world.

The Toronto Area Intergroup sponsors a website which has been running since 1999 with up-to-date Canada-wide meeting information, as well as a link to the Web site of the General Service Office of Debtors Anonymous. Since January 2006, there have been close to 7,000 visitors to this site, www.debtorsanonymous.ca.

The history of DA in every city in Canada has not yet been written, and the information in this article is in no way the whole Canadian story. It is one debtor’s best attempt to collect and share some of our experience, strength, and hope with you, and is offered in the spirit of progress, not perfection. If you have information to share about DA in Canada please email it to info@debtorsanonymous.ca.

DA has existed in Canada’s capital since January 2001. For almost a year there were often just two members attending a single meeting. Slowly people started to hear about the group.

In the spirit of service, members began to spread the word to local treatment centres and community resource centres. People came and went, especially around Christmas-time.

In 2005 the fellowship had grown enough so that a second group began to meet. In 2007 a “closed” step-study group was started and the good news is that debtors in Ottawa have now joyously celebrated 6,5,3,2 and one-year solvency anniversaries.

Ottawa DA has twice contributed to the Toronto Area Intergroup so that a delegate could attend the World Service Conference to share our Canadian experience, strength, hope, and gratitude with the international fellowship of DA.

A French-speaking meeting in Quebec City began in the late 1990s and lasted for a few years. A bilingual DA meeting has existed in Montreal since the late 1990s. Today meetings exist in both French and English in Montreal and these groups support each other as they continue to grow.

There has always been a great need for a francophone meeting (as opposed to a bilingual meeting) so, in support of our primary purpose, the meetings have divided by language, sharing the universal message of 12-Step recovery. The French-speaking meeting continues to receive support from DA meetings in France, particularly Paris. Both meetings accommodate either language as much as possible, and all are welcome.

Members from Burlington, Vermont, continue to share their recovery with their Canadian neighbours by making trips to Montreal to support both these groups. Many debtors from Montreal also come to Burlington a couple of
times a year to attend meetings, share-a-days, and to participate in PRGs.

DA in Toronto began in 1994 with a meeting in a church basement in the downtown core. Although this meeting had a short life it gave birth to what is now a thriving DA recovery community in Toronto.

In 1995, when the first meeting folded, a small group of people from various 12-Step backgrounds began a “closed” DA support group through phone and Internet contact with each other. Without access to Conference-approved DA literature, the group read from the Big Book of AA. Eventually this informal “support” arrangement transformed into the first official Sunday DA meeting that still exists today.

This meeting, like all meetings, has had an ebb and flow of attendance over the years but has always kept its door open to the debtor who still suffers. These early groups also received online support from a long-term DA friend in New York City who graciously made a few trips to Toronto over the years speak to the group and help get things going.

In the late 1990s a meeting of what was then known as BODA was started after the World Service Conference in Albuquerque. That meeting eventually closed but its legacy is that a new BDA group is currently meeting.

The first Toronto DA Intergroup was formed in the early winter of 2003, and continues to support new groups, communicate with the GSO, support a delegate to the WSC, and provide outreach throughout Canada. Since 2003 there have always been at least five active meetings in the Toronto area.

Today DA is growing in Toronto. The first Toronto DA Share-A-Day was held in June 2006 with about 40 in attendance, and the first Step Study Retreat was a success in November 2007.

Most Canadian DA groups were started by people with previous 12-Step experience. In these early days DA meetings in Toronto were few and far between so some debtors attended local “open” AA meetings to share the
experience, strength and hope with sober people in recovery. This practice still continues today and members remain ever grateful to the AA support offered to debtors around the globe.

Several DA members from Canada have attended World Service Conferences since the 1990s, and these trusted servants have served on the Resource Development, Internal Operations, and Literature committees.

DA’s trustees made their first-ever international trip when they met in Toronto in 2007 for the annual General Service Board “face-to-face” meeting. During the visit the trustees met with local DA members and generated much support for their efforts to include Canada as a vibrant part of the international fellowship of DA. Many debtors from around the world come to Canada to work and to play.

Please know that you are always welcome at our meetings and special
events!

This article includes contributions from many Canadian DA members, including Roger, Mary Ann, Charlie, Diana, Liz, Kathryn, Sandy, and Mel.

This article originally appeared in the Q1 2008 Issue of the Ways & Means.