Celya B.

It’s my neighbor Clément C., a music teacher at Collège Regina Assumpta, ideaman and founding president of the Ahuntsic en Fugue festival  who put me in contact with Celya B .. She currently oversees the media relations and social media communications of this young festival organized “to create a concert space dedicated to chamber music” in Ahuntsic. We then met on the forecourt of the St-André-Apôtre Church, site of the 2015 edition’s first concert.

Celya and her older sister were born in Algiers. Their father was a journalist and radio host. The family fled the country in the first half of the black decade, fearing that the public statements of the father would imperil them. After a brief stay in France, where the prospects seemed unpromising, they arrived here when Celya was only two-year-old.

Her parents have done pretty well here, but not in the type of professions they occupied in Algeria. Celya is also doing well, having finished high school at Regina Assumpta and completed a CEGEP diploma in health sciences. However, she realized that this field was not for her. After a first year of university studies in industrial relations that, she considers, have made her more mature, she will begin a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sherbrooke in the Fall 2015. She expects to live some degree uprooting in this town. Indeed, when I asked what Ahuntsic meant to her, her response was "family". Still, she intends to continue talking every day with her older sister, who is a pharmacist in the neighborhood.

Celya is also involved in the FestiBlues held each summer in the Ahuntsic Park. After a first presence as a volunteer in 2010, she was hired as staff in 2011, then as human resources coordinator for the 2015 edition.

She is also involved in the organism Seize Your own Future, which "aims to transform the young women of today into leaders, encouraging them to develop their leadership and make informed choices in their lives and their careers." She writes on the organization’s website and promotes it through social media.

In addition to all these activities, she is coach of a good level synchronized swimming team at R2P Aquatic Club. She had previously practiced this sport at the Club Aquatique Pirahnas du Nord (CAPN) based at the Sophie-Barat swimming pool.

Although she is solidly rooted here and very involved in the community, and despite the fact that she has not visited Algeria much, she realized that her ties to her birth country are still strong because her best friends of the moment are also of Algerian origin. Will that change after a few years in the Eastern Townships?

http://www.ahuntsicenfugue.com/page-accueil.html#concerts

Celya B.

Robbie P.

Some naturally picturesque subjects offer themselves spontaneously to the camera. Walking in the Ahuntsic Park, I saw two seated men playing chess. A classic. On my way back, Robbie was alone at the table. I could then start a conversation with him without interrupting their game. It is later, when his buddy Martin returned to the table, that I took pictures of the players in action.

It was Martin who, seeing my camera, told me Robbie was a photographer. And not just any photographer: Robbie is an argentic photo enthusiast! Not only does he shoot film, but he makes his own prints, even in color, which is somewhat infrequent today. He makes a living from a combination of small photographic contracts such as film-set photo, home renovation work and resale of used equipment for argentic photo. He has done both artistic photography and photojournalistic shootings in places like New Orleans, Cuba and Haiti. He also makes photos for actors’ portfolios.

By chance, an exhibition of his works was running until the next day at the Kozen Gallery, on Duluth Avenue East. I visited it with interest and appreciated his commitment to his work. If opportunity presents itself to you one day see his photos, do not miss it!

I met him again there as I was about to leave. After chatting some more, I also learned that he was a self-taught painter but eventually studied in Visual Arts at UQAM. His parents were both artists. It most likely has something in his life path, although children do not always follow their parents’ route, especially when it is such a difficult one.

Robbie was born in Pointe-Claire and lived in several neighborhoods in Montreal, including in the Plateau for ten years. He also lived for some time in various locations around St-Eustache. He has lived for three years in the Sault-au-Récollet and enjoys the area for its tranquility.

When the time came to do his portrait, he warned me that he did not smile. Something tells me however that there are sometimes cracks under this mask.

Vincent G.

Up-date, January 5th 2016

As some of you may have deducted it while reading the final article of the 2015 edition of Quartiersnord.photos about Ahmed B., it is possible that the shut-down of Cité Historia is only temporary. The museum could resume operations after a consolidation of its finances and restructuring. Vincent Garneau recently told me he has received a notice of a temporary lay-up. He and his colleagues would be glad if such was the outcome.

Furthermore, the founding of the Société d’Histoire d’Ahuntsic-Cartierville (SHAC) has no direct relation to the situation at Cité Historia. A group, of which Vincent is part, has voluntarily worked since spring 2015 towards its establishment motivated by the conviction that such a body was necessary.

Original text, July 21st 2015

As some of you may have deducted it while reading the final article of the 2015 edition of Quartiersnord.photos about Ahmed B., it is possible that the shut-down of Cité Historia is only temporary. The museum could resume operations after a consolidation of its finances and restructuring. Vincent Garneau recently told me he has received a notice of a temporary lay-up. He and his colleagues would be glad if such was the outcome.

Furthermore, the founding of the Société d’Histoire d’Ahuntsic-Cartierville (SHAC) has no direct relation to the situation at Cité Historia. A group, of which Vincent is part, has voluntarily worked since spring 2015 towards its establishment motivated by the conviction that such a body was necessary.

On a sunny day, I knocked on the door of Cité Historia, an organization that has the status of recognized museum, asking if any member of the staff lived in the area and would be willing to answer some questions and to be portrayed in photo. It was Vincent, historical development director, who volunteered a few days later.

Native Montrealer who lived and Hochelaga, and, among other parts, in Pointe-aux-Trembles, it is through a summer job at Cité Historia in 2008 that Vincent became acquainted with the borough of Ahunstic. He was initially a welcome agent while he completed his MA in history at UQAM. Little by little, he held various jobs in Cité Historia, including Project Manager for the renewal of the exhibition at the maison du Pressoir. Although the preparation of the new exhibition was prepared by a consulting firm, Vincent and his colleagues acted to have their say in the development of content.

His personal field of study is the record of the historical changes stemming from citizen action. He bore a strong interest to the 60’s and the role of the citizen’s action committees in the neighborhoods of the East and South-west of Montreal at the time.

Not knowing Ahuntsic-Cartierville on his arrival, he has since learned to appreciate this neighborhood that many people of the central districts associate to the suburbs. He stressed in particular the presence of three types of territorial organizations here: the persistence of the village cores of Sault-au-Récollet and Bordeaux, the neighborhoods typical of the city with a higher population density that appeared before 1950 and more recent developments that are structured around the car and actually have more to do with Laval than with the Plateau. He also expressed disappointment that a place like the Nature-park of the Ile-de-la-Visitation is associated on some tourist maps to the Greater Montreal rather than the city itself. Cité Historia’s premises: the maison du Pressoir, which houses the exhibition rooms, and the maison du Meunier, before which he is photographed, are located at the entrance of this important park.

Today, Vincent, who lives in the Ahuntsic district has great reasons to enjoy this environment. He met his girlfriend here and they are now parents of a child only a few months old.

In my notes, I see that told me Cité Historia has projects related to the living memory. If you meet him at work, he will surely be willing to tell you more.

 

Vincent G. in front of the maison du Meunier

Guy A.

I didn’t have to look far to find Guy. He lives in the neighborhood and came knocking to our door with some garlic flower for us without knowing what waited upon him! Nevertheless, after I explained my project, he was willing to take the pose and had many stories to tell.

Born on the Plateau, his first move came after his wedding in his twenties. It was three houses away from his parent’s. Having married a young woman who was virtually his next door neighbor, he moved with her and his in-laws after the wedding! They have been a couple for over fifty years now. From that era, he has memories of seeing fields with cows west of Millen Street, when he took the tram to get to Belmont Park, a popular destination at the time.

Guy and his wife live in Sault-au-Récollet since 1965 in a duplex paid $ 28,000 at the time. Cows and fields were things of the past by then, but for less than 10 years. They had left the Plateau, which in those days, was far from the fashionable borough it has become today, because, as he said, "downtown was moving up." It must be said that this was a time of great demolitions south of Sherbooke Street under Mayor Drapeau and the number of dwellings was in free fall in the Centre-Sud.

He had many jobs, but what he is most proud of is the years he spent as an officer at Barnes Security Agency. It was then a prestigious agency that watched over the safety of many financial institutions and many of the consulates in Montreal. His position allowed him to carry a Smith & Wesson 38 Special equivalent to that of the police. He even claims to have suffered some shots without a scratch. He later worked for the city to issue parking tickets.

When he arrived in the neighborhood, he was for three years a churchwarden at St-Paul-de-la-Croix church. He contributed to the installation of a sound system, the addition of sprinklers and various building maintenance tasks. He knows the attic of this temple well.

If you are looking for someone who can help you learn more about the residents of the neighborhood, this outgoing man has seen a lot of folks in his life.

Guy A.