This is our first report. I thought I’d share it with you, seeing as it’s about the neighborhood I live in. Don’t feel forced to read it. It’s a lot of history and statistics. But it’s interesting.

AHUNTSIC

Ahuntsic, located in the northeast end, is your average Montreal neighborhood. With 76,000 people, this district comprises nearly 5% of the total island population. Statistically, it is a mirror image of the city as a whole. Small differences that might exist are usually favorable to Ahuntsic. In areas such as poverty and education, for example, the unemployment rate in Ahuntsic is 8.7%, compared to 9.2% for the rest of the island. The average household salary is $57,699, three thousand dollars higher than the island average. Similarly in education, the percentage of people living in Ahuntsic without a high school diploma is 25%, as apposed to the 26.5% of Montreal.
So it comes as a surprise that we found family problems and juvenile delinquency in Ahuntsic. There are more single-parent homes per capita than in the overall city, which already has a lot. And percentage-wise, Ahuntsic has a worse juvenile delinquency problem than it’s neighboring district, Montreal Nord, which is known for its poverty and criminal activity.
Daniel, the owner of a local dépaneur, doesn’t like what he’s seeing. “I’ve lived in the area [for] 15 years and it’s changed a lot,” he says. “There’s more trouble now, more gangs.”
We’ve given you a pretty clear picture of what Ahuntsic is like today, but how did it all begin? How did we get here? Well, it began much the same way Quebec began, with French explorer Jacques Cartier sailing down the St. Lawrence River. We walked through the parc-nature de L’Îlle-de-la-Visitation to see how the first settlers established themselves. Walking through that part of the neighborhood, it didn’t take long for us to find Cartier’s name. The tallest church in the area had a large engraving by its doors, which spoke of his journey through the area in 1615. A lot of Ahuntsic’s history has to do with economics and religion. The Huron people traded with the French while the Catholic Church set up a mission to bring the Good News to the natives. The neighborhood is actually named after a young Huron boy who drowned with a priest, Father Nicolas Viel, in the river (we found this out by walking through another park, parc Ahuntsic).

The expansion of water transportation on the Rivière-des-Prairies formed Ahuntsic as Quebec developed, and continued with the opening of the metro in 1967. It officially became a municipality in 1897, by a proclamation of the Quebec provincial government. The council of the new village operated until 1910, when the province passed laws creating the charter of the City of Montreal. It was then annexed and later combined with Nouveau-Bordeaux, forming the district of Ahuntsic-Bordeaux. The city of Cartierville and Sault-au-Récollet were added in 1918. In 1952, following a land exchange, Ahuntsic took over part of Saint-Laurent. On January 1, 2002, Ahuntsic-Cartierville became one of the 27 boroughs of Montreal during the amalgamation.

Today Ahuntsic has become a mixing bowl for all the different people moving to Montreal. The growing immigrant population is a blend of Haitians (23%), Italians (22%) and Algerians (4.5%), mostly. This creates diversity, but it, along with neighboring poverty in Montreal Nord, also breeds violence. Gangs have become a problem in the district. There is a need for youth programs and/or ministries. Another concerning issue, which affects all of Montreal, is the number of single-parent families. Support for single parents is important in this neighborhood.
In a way, both of these things, multiculturalism and single-parent homes, are the cause of the gang situation in Ahuntsic. Single parents don’t have the support of a spouse, so their kids find community with their peers from their culture. And because all the different cultures are clashing, they form groups and fight each other. Helping mend this situation is where I think the Church can step in. By giving support to single parents and building relationships with the young people, we can give them an alternate community that doesn’t result in violence.

It’s a welcoming place, Ahuntsic. That’s why so many immigrants have made it their home. And with a little initiative from the local churches, Catholic, Marmon (Lebanese), Orthodox and Protestant alike, it can become as peaceful as it was back when Maurice “The Rocket” Richard was growing up here. There’s a lot of hope for Ahuntsic.

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