An inexhaustible source of imagination and innovation

MIRA, as is the province of Quebec, is an inexhaustible source of imagination and innovation.

When I founded MIRA in 1981, I was convinced that I had an infallible recipe to help people affected by important visual disorders.

At the time, no Canadian guide dog training facility existed. MIRA, located in Sainte-Madeleine in the province of Quebec, was the first training centre to open its doors. Before 1981, people had to contact American organisations to receive a guide dog. However, these resources did not provide services in French.

The MIRA journey began when I received a call from a friend working at the Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille (INLB). She wanted me to take a look at the erratic behaviour of a dog from an American training center. I certainly had expertise on canine behaviour, but was a novice when it came to commenting about visual disorders or blindness. Thus, I was cautious when writing up my report. The dog was visibly confused and unprepared to the climate of our magnificent but sometimes difficult province, particularly during winter.

Subjugated as Ulysses the traveler, I had finally found a relevant reason to ask my dogs to leave aside their reality as domestic dogs to dedicate themselves to the service of humans mistreated by Mother Nature.

MIRA, as is the province of Quebec, is an inexhaustible source of imagination and innovation: "The barriers we see are the ones that we can cross. The insurmountable are invisible!"

In 29 years, MIRA collected “firsts”. The first Canadian guide dog (for the blind) training centre, the only French-speaking organisation in North America, the first and only school in the world to provide guide dogs to teenagers and children aged of less than 15 years old, and the first breeding centre to develop the first highly specialized guide dog and assistance-trained dog race.

MIRA is 29 years of love and passion of concocting a recipe which feeds the one forgotten by Mother Nature.

MIRA is yours. The foundation is part of Quebec’s heritage. May you support and protect it for the next 25 years.

Éric St-Pierre, O.C. CEO and Founder MIRA Foundation