Camil Dufort and his wife Judith Hodgson, both from Manitoba, met in Victoria more than thirty years ago.
But Camil’s Canadian roots date all the way back to the mid-16oo’s.
In 1666, during the reign of Louis XIV, Camil Dufort’s ancestor Prudent Dufort, left France for Canada.
“He had a farm on the St. Lawrence river, and he married a girl called Marie Etienne, and they had twelve children” explains Camil Dufort.
Prudent Dufort died in Bourcherville, Quebec in 1708.
A descendant of Prudent Dufort, six generations later, headed to Manitoba to farm. That was Dufort’s grandfather.
Camil was born in Manitoba.
At age twenty, while at university in Winnipeg, Camil Dufort travelled to Victoria.
“I thought it was a great place” Camil remembers, “and I hated leaving it to go back to my fall studies!
“I had the feeling that I would come back some day.”
Camil became a priest, and worked in Scotland, Ghana Africa, and Australia.
“It was a great life, meeting people in different countries” Camil says warmly.
He returned to Manitoba when he retired, but he wanted a change.
“So I left Manitoba, and came back, at last, after all these years.”
Came back in his sixties to Victoria – the city he’d loved at age twenty.
Camil is now eighty-four, and he and his wife Judith are very content with their life in Victoria.
“I love gardening. This year’s not very good…but usually it is!
“I also volunteer with the medical students – and so, even when you retire, life goes on, and there’s things to do.”
Veronica Cooper
