While I was born in Ottawa, I was raised in Sault Sainte Marie and pursued secondary and pedagogical studies in Sudbury, both Northern Ontario cities, then earned bachelor's degrees in Français and, eventually, in Théologie from universities in Canada's capital.

Although I started off as a school teacher in the Soo and eastern Ontario and finished off doing supply teaching in my hometown, I worked and lived most of my life as an English-to-French translator for the federal government in the Outaouais area.

After travelling through most of Western Europe and parts of Latin America, including for study trips in Spain and Mexico, intermingled with lengthy periods of dedicated gay rights militancy, I spent a few enriching years in Italy where I taught languages and performed in music ensembles at Rome's most prestigious venues, including for Papa Ratzi, whom I avoided, when he was still a cardinal.

I worked a couple of years for Jean Vanier's L'Arche as a live-in care-giver for the mentally-challenged, did church pastoral work for his group Faith & Sharing, lived many months in a Quebec City boarding house on welfare then in a Catholic monastery south of Chicago as a postulant.

I am now living precariously back in the Sault that I was so eager to leave and where I am paradoxically, despite francophobic, homophobic and police repression drawbacks, enjoying life more than ever before.