Community activist.
Born at Ste-Geneviève on 9 February 1920, one of sixteen children to Noëlie Brisson (1894-1967) and Ferdinand Fiola (1885-1967), she was a member of the religious Congregation of the Missionary Oblate Sisters of St. Boniface for 65 years.
Her primary mission was serving the deaf community. Wanting to have people with hearing disabilities treated equally in the church, she learned American Sign Language in 1966 to strengthen her efforts. She then became a part of the Manitoba Co-ordinating Council for Hearing Impaired (MCCHI)—14 organizations that in the early 1970s began planning for a centre and residence for the aged deaf, as well as providing resources to the younger deaf. The proposal also included a recreation space for 250 people, as well as a joint church for four different religions. A key figure in seeking out support and funding for the project, she eventually approached the Kiwanis Club, and their membership agreed to supervise and fund the project, with guidance from the MCCHI. In 1972, the group decided on a location at 285 Pembina Highway, which in 1976 became the Deaf Centre Manitoba.
She was called the guiding spirit behind the Manitoba Catholic Church of the Deaf in Winnipeg. Her 44-year devotion to the concept resulted in a weekly mass every Sunday, as well as pastoral home visits and a monthly mass in the personal care section of Deaf Centre Manitoba. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Réseau Award, an award presented by the Réseau action femmes, a political action organization that seeks to improve the social, economic, cultural, educational and political situation of Franco-Manitoban women. She was also honoured in 2010 with a room at the Deaf Centre being renamed the Fiola Room.
She died at Winnipeg on 15 March 2012 and was buried in the St. Boniface Cemetery.
Archdiocese of Winnipeg newsletter, written by Olivine Fiola in 1972.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 21 Mach 2012.
Sister Olivine Fiola, “An indelible mark,” Winnipeg Free Press, 5 January 2013.
Réseau Award, 6 March 2008, Raymond Simard, Open Parliament.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 14 March 2026
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