Abdelkarim M., Zineb E. & Seddik

As you might expect, it sometimes takes a little discussion before winning the trust of the people I meet. For Abdelkarim and Zineb, things were simple. They spontaneously agreed to participate to my project. Zineb even graciously offered me some mint tea with homemade baklavas.

It was a real hot day when I met them at the Ile-de-la-Visitation Nature Park. Sitting on the grass in the picnic area with their son Seddick, they were finishing dinner. They say they plan to visit various parks in the area during the summer to know their neighbourhood better. The river is obviously not their beloved Mediterranean, but there still are beautiful parks along the shore in our area.

Abdelkarim lived for a couple of years in France, where he studied in engineering up to the master’s level. Like other people I've met, he then came to Quebec in the hope of better job prospects. To put the odds on his side, he even went back to university in his field in order to obtain a local degree. It was through a friend that he heard of Ahuntsic. He arrived here with his Québec selection certificate in hand. He was lucky to get through immigration procedures quickly and is now a Canadian citizen.

Abdelkarim was born in Algiers, his wife, Zined, in Djelfa. It was during a trip to Algeria that he met Zineb. Their relationship then developed via internet. Zineb joined him here two years ago and held a job briefly before her pregnancy progressed. Little Seddick, who is beginning to stand with the help of his parents, will soon make his first steps alone. He was born here in the summer of 2014.

Freshly graduated from Polytechnique, Abdelkarim is actively looking for an electrical engineering job. He told me he is ready to move to wherever a job will take him. Proofs of his will, he recently made exploratory visits to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Shawinigan through the organization Place aux jeunes en région. They said they like living in Quebec, but with a young child to bring up, the couple would consider moving to Alberta if Abdelkarim does not find a job here quickly.

I felt that Abelkarim and Zineb were very open-minded and strongly willing to build their future here with us. I hope that a Québec employer will also appreciate these good dispositions!

Zineb, Seddik and Abdelkarim in the Ile-de-la-Visitation Nature Park

Nelly E.

I had originally planned to publish only articles about the residents of a defined territory. I must say I've already made two exceptions to that rule. At this point, Nelly made me permanently loosen it up. She insisted that its rigidity could make me miss beautiful meetings. I gave it some thoughts.

So here is Nelly.

Originally from Douala in Cameroon, she arrived in Montreal less than a year ago from France, where she lived for a dozen years. Her three sisters had preceded her there. She joined one of them in Nancy and they became roommates. While living there, she studied communication in Metz. However, it is in Paris that she had her university internships and found work, the people of the Northeast being, she says, less receptive to foreigners.

She would like to make a career in radio journalism, a profession she experienced in Paris among other jobs. Admitted here as a qualified immigrant, she made many efforts upon her arrival to find work in this field. In particular, she contributed as a volunteer to the radio program Magazine Centre-Ville at 102,3FM, a station for intercultural rapprochement. However, she soon found out that, contrary to what the immigration officers had told her, it is not easy as a foreigner, to make her place in the labor market. As she must make a living, she found a receptionist position in a training institute on Gouin Boulevard. It allows her to pay a modest apartment in the Plateau Mont-Royal. However, she has not given up upgrading her professional skills to improve her perspectives.

Arriving here alone, as she had departed from Cameroon in her late teens, she faces a double parting. It is indeed with a French companion, blond with blue eyes, that she had planned to settle in Quebec. He had initially enthusiastically shared her project, but cooled off as the scheduled date of departure got closer... Nonetheless, Nelly did not change her mind.

Surprisingly, it was her mother who told her about the possibility of a favorable reception in Canada, after hearing it from a person she met in Cameroon. To date, she believes that the people here are less stressed out than in France and that life can be better. For now, she hopes her mother will visit her, as she has already done in France with her sisters earlier this year.

I met her while she was talking in a park with a Congolese nun she met at a retreat in Rougemont. I thought that being the granddaughter of an evangelical pastor was perhaps for something in this recent friendship. She tells me that her friendship with Maria Gabriella rather stems from the fact that she is a true and kind person with whom she shares a similar vision of life.

Nelly E. in  Tolhurst Park

Danielle L.

Despite having long been a resident of the South Shore, Danielle has roots in the Ahuntsic district since childhood. She came here regularly to visit her grandparents who had moved in a home near the Nicolas-Viel Park in the early fifties. Upon their deaths, her father acquired their residence as rental property which he kept as rental property for nearly 25 years. Today, it is Danielle who is the proud owner of the place. She moved into this same dwelling two years ago, after having completed major renovations. 

She is a social worker in a general hospital affiliated to a medical faculty. She is attached to the Department of Obstetrics. Through this job, she meets and assists numerous people.

It is precisely in the Nicolas-Viel Park, on a beautiful Friday early in the evening, that I have met Danielle. N'zi, her husband, and her were sitting together at a picnic table between the children's games and the edge of the river. They were chatting quietly, enjoying the start of what promised to be a beautiful summer weekend. A frequent visitor of this place in her youth, she said that she could remember wading in the water on the banks along the park to pick leeches with a little boy who lived upstairs of her grandparents. In my mind, I would more easily relate this type of activity to a muddy lake somewhere in the Laurentians or in Lanaudière!

I wonder what the two young friends were doing at the time with the leeches they had caught.

Danielle in Nicolas-Viel Park

Danielle in Nicolas-Viel Park

Historical Note

 Until the 50s, there was a brook that flowed into the Rivière des prairies not far upstream of the park. The idea was raised at one point in the public discussion about the Programme particulier d'urbanisme (PPU) Secteur Henri-Bourassa Ouest that its course should somehow be remembered. I imagine that the surface of the park and the banks of the river have undergone some significant changes with the passage of years.

A click on the title below will take you to a bird's eye view of the area at the time.

Source: Les Archives de Montréal

Michel Olivier G., Anie-Pascale R. and their children

When I started this project, I had no preconceived ideas about the type of people I would meet. It was rather a desire to reach out to fellow citizens from different horizons that motivated me. It is in this spirit that I approached a young family enjoying ice cream on the benches of Fleury Street East on a sidewalk sales weekend. I introduced myself to them, looking for their eventual agreement, in the same manner I would have with other anonymous passersby seeming to have a little time for a chat and pictures.

The dark sunglasses of the parents, Michel and Olivier Anie Pascale, should probably have given me a hint about them. Perhaps some of you, more familiar with television productions than I am, would have recognized them. They are both career actors and both part of the distribution of popular series. I admit that I felt a little embarrassed to confess to them my ignorance about their achievements! Modestly, they hadn’t told me more. After a simple WEB query upon my return home, I found out that they have held several prominent roles in theater, in cinema and on TV. Anie Pascale is even a finalist for a Gémeau Award at the Gala to be held in September 2015!

Michel Olivier grew up in St-Sulpice district where his family lived until he turned 7 or 8 years old. He attended the Louis-Colin school. Today, he and Anie Pascale live in Ahuntsic with their children Clara-Rose and Rafaël.

I thank them all for their time and wish the parents a long presence on our screens.

The family on Fleury Street East