Montreal Mosaic WebMagazine

--September 3, 2015.

The City of Montreal is flanked on both sides by the towns of Montreal East and Montreal West, each with their own different character. Even after the municipal mergers of 2002 , the former city of Montreal North remains a separate borough on the island map.

Did you know that maple syrup is the oldest agricultural product in Quebec? It all began with the Indigenous peoples who called it “Sweet Water.” When spring returned and the maple sap was running the Indigenous peoples offered the boiled thickened syrup as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit. “Sugaring off” was largely a woman’s function in Iroquois communities. The men cut notches into tree trunks and small wooden troughs were stuck into the bark.

The Redpath Museum, one of the oldest museums in Canada, was opened in 1882 to preserve and display the valuable collections of Sir William Dawson, a noted Canadian natural scientist.

“It is ironical that America, supposedly the cradle of democracy, is forced to send the first two Negroes in baseball to Canada in order for them to be accepted.”

-Chicago Defender editorial, April 13, 1946.

In response to a plan to connect Montreal’s airport to the downtown by diverting the existing CPR tracks around the Bell Centre and old Windsor Station to a new elevated terminus with multi-story commercial and office space, Michael Fish has publicly expressed his opinion that it would be cheaper to demolish the Bell Centre and reopen the old Windsor Station as a commuter