Going Back to Montreal

            The poster in the Montreal metro car with the headline “Juste pour toi,” caught my eye as we headed northeast of the city to Pie–IX, the stop that would take us to the Botanical Gardens.  Below the slogan was a graphic design of the skyline of the city including a mosque, a cathedral, and high-rise buildings. On looking closer I saw that it was an advertisement for Bell Canada, a telecommunications and media company headquartered in Montreal.  The juxtaposed mosque and cathedral in the poster caught my attention. “Just for you” is an example of the Canadian message of inclusivity that pervades television commercials, radio, billboards, and public service notices. The message is that Canadians live and work for the betterment and the good of all – promoting a nationalistic pride in all things Canadian.  I was struck by the contrast to the divisiveness and hate rhetoric in the media that seems to pervade the US at the moment.

View from our balcony at 1200 Rue St. Jacques

            Vacationing last week in Montreal in a rented downtown high rise apartment came from a desire to go back to a city we had visited often and loved when we owned our house in Vermont.  A weekend in multicultural Montreal, usually in the winter, was an annual event we planned for every year.  A mere 3-hour drive from Rochester, Vt., we could be in this sophisticated French city where we indulged in shopping, ate in ethnic restaurants, caught up on foreign films, and took in whatever exhibits were at the Musee de Beaux Arts.  It was like going to France and being in Europe without the long journey to get there.  Returning there after a 10-year absence triggered many memories.

Chihuly at the the Beaux Arts Museum

“ Oh look,” Art said,  “isn’t that the expensive downtown Sheraton we stayed at that time we brought Hayden and Megan with us after Christmas?  How did we afford a room there, I wonder?”  Or I suddenly remembered, “Isn’t this the neighborhood where we stayed in that upscale B & B one February and we had a jacuzzi in our room?  Remember?”  Or, “There’s La Baie where we bought those wine glasses we are still using.” Or, “Remember the time we had Hayden with us when he was home from Serbia and he bought out the men’s department at Simons while we stood like clothes trees?”

As we walked the downtown I looked for familiar landmarks – our favorite Indian restaurant, The Taj; Simons where I bought all my winter sweaters which I couldn’t bear to throw away for years; The Forum, a renovated hockey rink, where we went to see 2 or 3 movies in a weekend; and Cora, the place we’d order a hearty breakfast on cold winter mornings.  They are all still there!  The Beaux Arts has doubled in size and now has an underground passage to the big church across Sherbrooke St. that is part of the museum. We walked to Notre Dame Cathedral in the Old City and had the time to go to an afternoon concert in the choir loft where we were thrilled by the grandiose sound of the French organ. Despite the familiar landmarks, I felt different being in Montreal this time.

Notre Dame Cathedral

The first afternoon we arrived, we walked towards downtown and encountered the longest Gay Pride parade we had ever seen on Rue Rene Levesque. Led by Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister, it appeared that all of Montreal lined the downtown streets on an overcast  Sunday afternoon cheering and waving at the decorative floats, gay and transvestites dressed in sparkly costumes, holding banners with messages (“Say No To Faith Based Hate Groups”…) moving along to catchy rhythms. There were few police around and no anti-gay demonstrations.  The following morning the Globe and Mail carried Trudeau’s smiling photo and a caption that lauded the PM for being the first to attend such an event but reminding people “more concrete action is needed”.

An editorial in the the Montreal Gazette last Friday titled  “Everyday Racism” called upon the tolerant people of Canada to band together to sponsor Syrian Refugees “to atone for past wrongs” which is a reference to the long held racism against indigenous peoples.  In the same issue the Gazette had an article calling for the people of Quebec not to fall into the French “Burkini Ban” which they said has “no place in Quebec, no place in Canada.”  As an American it was hard for me not to be drawn into the aura of inclusivity that seems so pervasive in Canada.

“Did you notice any security checks at the Beaux Arts Museum or even Notre Dame Cathedral? I commented to Art.

“None”, he replied.  “But did you see how all their police are out during rush hours controlling traffic lights to move cars along?  I haven’t seen them anywhere else.”

It seemed that life in Montreal is how life used to be in the world before terrorism, the Iraq War and the extreme political divisiveness.  We noticed the high number of Muslim women in headscarves and African immigrants who seemed to be accepted and assimilated into Canadian society. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police came out this week to say they would not take issue with women in the force wanting to wear the hijab.

Remembering our many trips to Montreal, continued all week but returning after ten years, I was reminded that we, too, have changed.  We are retired, older, and have moved South to Asheville away from the northeast winters. This time I looked beyond the ethnic meals, the new movies we see all the time where we live, and the shopping which isn’t important any longer.  What I saw was a very multicultural French city that is working hard to promote inclusivity.  That seemed hopeful and is what I chose to take away with me on this visit.

Montreal Botanical Gardens