Île Bizard () is an island near the

Island of Montreal The Island of Montreal (, ) is an island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, which is the site of a number of municipalities, including most of the city of Montreal, and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main island of the Hochelag ...

in the Hochelaga Archipelago region. It is one of the three populated islands within the city of Montreal, along with the Island of Montreal and Nuns' Island (Île des Soeurs). The island is served by buses 207 and 407.

History

Historically named Île Bonaventure, by 1723 it had come to be named Île Bizard, after Jacques Bizard, to whom it was conceded as a

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

in 1678, part of the

seigneurial system of New France The manorial system of New France, known as the seigneurial system (, ), was the semi-feudal system of land tenure used in the North American French colonial empire. Economic historians have attributed the wealth gap between Quebec and other pa ...

. The island was also used by the settlers of

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

, as a way to get timber into

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 ...

from the river using

timber rafting Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mea ...

Modern

It was formerly a separate municipality named St Raphael de L'Île-Bizard, but was forcefully merged with of the city of

, and made into the borough of

L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève () is a Boroughs of Montreal, borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal. History On 24 October 1678, the government of Louis de Buade de Frontenac granted Île Bizard, then named Île Bonaventure as a ...

. A referendum to demerge on June 20, 2004 was held. Although more than 50% voted to demerge, it was unsuccessful as this represented fewer than the required 35% of the electorate.

Geography

The Jacques Bizard Bridge connects it across the Rivière des Prairies with Sainte-Geneviève on the

. The

seasonal A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

Laval-sur-le-Lac Île-Bizard Ferry provides a connection to Laval-sur-le-Lac on Île Jésus ( Laval). This ferry does not operate in the winter.

Land use

Bois-de-l'Île-Bizard Nature ParkBois de l'Île Bizard - Montreal Parks: Bois de l'Île Bizard
/ref> is a 201-hectare (500 acre) park which contains marsh lands and several kilometres (miles) of nature trails, accessible year round.Île Bizard park
from ille.montreal.qc.ca/largeparks/ref> There is also a small beach at Pointe-aux-Carrières that faces the Lac des Deux-Montagnes. The Royal Montreal Golf Club, the Golf Saint-Raphael and Elm Ridge Country Club are located on the island. Land has been reserved on the island for the future extension of Autoroute 440 from Laval to connect with Autoroute 40 at Chemin Ste-Marie. This will avoid having to drive on the Autoroute 40 to get to Autoroute 13 and Autoroute 15 and provide another beltway around the city in addition to Autoroute 30 on the South Shore. Many people who live on the island are against it, as Île Bizard is a calm and serene country environment and they feel like it would cause more traffic and pollution to the fresh air. The City of Montreal has purchased considerable amounts of land and protects them as nature parks, which include swamps, beaches, forests and other ecosystems; these are open to the public.

Sports

The island has two notable sports complexes: 'Parc Eugène-Dostie' and 'Complexe Sportif Saint-Raphaël'. The PGA Golf Tour comes to l'Île Bizard's Royal Montreal golf course every few years. A notable native is Vincent Lecavalier, a former

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 who was raised on the island. Former

player Guy Carbonneau also lives on the island, as did

Guy Lafleur Guy Damien Lafleur (September 20, 1951 – April 22, 2022), nicknamed "the Flower" and "Le Démon Blond", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was the first player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 50 goals in six c ...

. CFL player Marc-Antoine Dequoy, a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: ''Les Alouettes de Montréal'') are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has disbanded twice and been re-established thrice. The Alouettes compe ...

, was born and raised there. Former NHL player and 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic bronze medalist Marc-André Gragnani was also born and raised on the island.

References

External links

Official page
on the Ville de Montréal websit

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ile Bizard Hochelaga Archipelago, Bizard Landforms of Montreal L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève River islands of Quebec West Island