Ahuntsic (; , ) is a district in the northern part of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. Originally an independent village, Ahuntsic was first annexed by Montreal in 1910, then merged into the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

Ahuntsic-Cartierville Ahuntsic-Cartierville ( (local accent)) is a borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The borough was created following the 2002 municipal reorganization of Montreal. It comprises two main neighbourhoods, Ahuntsic, ...

in 2002. It is home to

Collège Ahuntsic Collège Ahuntsic is a French-language public college situated in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1967 as a merger of the Collège Saint-Ignace and the Institut de technologies Laval, and in 1970 ...

and .

Name

The district is named after a person of the same name, a man from the Huron nation, who was an understudy and associate of the French Recollet missionary to the Hurons, Nicolas Viel, in the 1620s in the colony of Quebec. Viel had been one of the first missionaries in the country of the Hurons since 1923. In May 1625, Viel decided to return to Quebec city in the company of a band of

Hurons The Wyandot people (also Wyandotte, Wendat, Waⁿdát, or Huron) are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of the present-day United States and Canada. Their Wyandot language belongs to the Iroquoian language family. In Canada, ...

, including Ahuntsic, with the intention of making a few days' retreat and then returning to his missions. It is known that both Viel and Ahuntsic drowned in the last chute of the Riviere des Prairies, which from that time bears the name of

Sault-au-Récollet Sault-au-Récollet (, '' Recollet Rapids'') is a neighbourhood in Montreal. It is located in the eastern edge of the borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, bordering the Rivière des Prairies. Autoroute 19 connects Sault-au-Récollet to Laval. The n ...

. This district is adjacent to the aforementioned chute, and has thus been named in honour of Ahuntsic.

History

The municipality of the Village of Ahuntsic was founded on January 21, 1897, by a proclamation of the

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

were added in 1918. In 1952, following a

land exchange A land exchange or land swap is the ''voluntary'' exchange of land between two parties, typically a private owner and a government. These parties may include farmers, estate owners, developers, nature organizations, and governments. Land swaps may a ...

, Ahuntsic took over part of Saint-Laurent. During the municipal merger-demerger under Bernard Landry administration, the

borough was created on January 1, 2002 together with the district of Cartierville.

Education

The ''

'' is a

CEGEP A CEGEP ( or ; , ; also written CÉGEP and cegep) is a publicly funded college providing general, professional, academic or a mix of programs; they are exclusive to the province of Quebec's education system. A loanword from French, it ori ...

in Ahuntsic. The ''

Commission scolaire de Montréal In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

'' (CSDM) operates French-language public schools in Ahuntsic. * École primaire Ahuntsic The

English Montreal School Board The English Montreal School Board (official name: Commission scolaire English-Montréal English-Montréal School Board; CSEM or EMSB) is one of five public school boards and one of two English-language school boards on the island of Montreal in Q ...

(EMSB) operates English-language schools. The

Montreal Public Libraries Network The Montreal Public Libraries Network ( , previously ''Réseau des bibliothèques publiques de Montréal'') is the public library system on the Island of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. It is the largest French language public library system in North ...

operates the Ahuntsic library.Bibliothèque de Montréal
/ref>

Noted residents

Mélanie Joly Mélanie Joly (; born January 16, 1979) is a Canadian politician and lawyer who has been serving as the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Minister of Industry, Registrar General of Canada, and Minister responsible for the Economic D ...

(b. 1979), MP for

, former Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, current Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs *

Julie Payette Julie Payette (; born October 20, 1963) is a Canadian engineer, scientist and former astronaut who served from 2017 to 2021 as Governor General of Canada, the List of governors general of Canada, 29th since Canadian Confederation. Payette holds ...

(b. 1963), former

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

and 29th

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada () is the federal representative of the . The monarch of Canada is also sovereign and head of state of 14 other Commonwealth realms and resides in the United Kingdom. The monarch, on the Advice (constitutional la ...

Maurice Richard Joseph Henri Maurice "Rocket" Richard ( , ; August 4, 1921 – May 27, 2000) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens. He was the first player in NHL his ...

(1921-2000),

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

player for the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

References

External links