Linda Dumont was a McCauley resident with an influence that reached far beyond the neighbourhood she called home. With her recent death from cancer, a powerful force for fair treatment of people living in poverty has been lost.

Dumont is best known as the publisher and editor of Alberta Street News (formerly Edmonton Street News) since 2003, one of the few surviving street newspapers in the world. The paper was her initiative to permit people to have the dignity of earning a living if they were not able to maintain more conventional employment. At the same time, it brought perspectives and personal experiences from marginalized people to a wider audience.

From her arrival in Edmonton in 1989, Dumont was anchored in her Christian faith and always active with urban core missions, her own and others. She loved to organize and host meals and parties for those who had little opportunity for a social life. She loved to share what she was learning about God’s love. And she loved to make a fuss whenever she encountered injustice, once setting up a tent at City Hall for several days to call attention to homelessness.

Dumont’s connection with newspapers began with selling the first street paper, Spare Change, on street corners to make money to support her family. But she went on to study journalism at MacEwan and worked for Our Voice and Boyle McCauley News (where she was Editor) before founding Edmonton Street News, which expanded to become Alberta Street News. As sales of street papers began to decline, Dumont never hesitated to take on teaching a few extra yoga classes to secure the funds to publish for another month.

Dumont had talents in abundance. In addition to journalism, she published several volumes of poetry and was a talented visual artist. She and a friend had the idea of an arts event for people living in poverty that became the Art from the Unknown show, still presented each year by MLA Rachel Notley. She served on the board of Songs of the Street, an organization that published anthologies of poetry by street-involved folks during the 1990s. The writers received awards donated by various organizations, and the anthologies were sold by the street newspaper vendors.

When she was honoured with an award as a peacemaker by Project Ploughshares in 2016, I said in introducing her, “Linda is a peacemaker because she never hesitates to disturb the peace of those who allow injustice. She is genuine, daring, tough, and loving.”

Dumont’s blunt message when something upset her was not always appreciated, but the hundreds of people who were blessed by her practical help when they needed it to survive have a much more generous opinion of her. She will be deeply missed by her children, grandchildren, and a host of friends.

Jim Gurnett is a social justice advocate who is also a former board member of Boyle McCauley News.