Beautiful Babel

For borough mayor Marie-Andrée Beaudoin, the diversity in the area is a rich characteristic. “In our promotional campaigns for Cartierville, we use the multicultural aspect as a way to attract people. It’s an added value in the neighbourhood,” she said.

In St. Laurent, Mayor Alan DeSousa thinks this linguistic diversity gives the opportunity to citizens to learn more about other cultures. “When we hear someone speak in another language, it makes us want to know more about the culture, it also makes us want to do trips and even learn the language.”

In 2005, 57% of the population spoke French as their mother tongue and 89% spoke it fluently. Next to French, the three most spoken languages are Arabic (8%), Italian (7%) and English (5%). Italian is part of an older immigration wave, which also included a good part of the Lebanese and Haitian communities, hence the importance of Creole as well.

Other languages spoken in Bordeaux-Cartierville include Greek, Spanish, Armenian, Chinese, Tamil and Urdu. These last two languages come from the Indo-Pakistani community, which has received many new members over the past years.

The numbers show that a good portion of residents speak two, often three, and sometimes four languages, especially among the younger generation that speaks its mother tongue at home, goes to school in French, and learns English – if they don’t speak it already – with their peers.

In 2001, 12.6% of the population had Arabic for mother tongue, while Chinese counted for 4.9% and Greek 4.5%. The other most common languages spoken in St. Laurent are Vietnamese, Armenian and Italian.

A distinction can be observed when comparing mother tongue with the language spoken at home. French is well ahead with 41% of people saying they use it daily. Furthermore, 29% say they use English, which means more than 70% speak one of the two official languages at home. Arabic is the common language of 6.1% of the Laurentians, while Chinese is spoken by a little less than 5%.

Communication is generally easy in both Bordeaux-Cartierville and St. Laurent, as only 4% of the population does not speak either of the two official languages. For these people, on top of numerous language courses offered by different organizations like the CACI, the CARI St-Laurent and the Maison des parents et Concertation femmes, some community services are also offered in their language. “Immigrants need to speak French or at least learn it when they come here, it’s a provincial law,” said town councilor in St. Laurent Maurice Cohen.

In the meantime, people seem to be creative enough to understand each other. “When firefighters are doing fire prevention exercises with allophones, they use pictograms to communicate with them,” said Beaudoin.

Her biggest wish with regards to immigrants is that they stay. “Many leave for the suburbs after a few years. We want to develop a feeling of belonging in the neighbourhood that lasts,” said the mayor.

Mr. DeSousa feels the constant increase of population in St. Laurent is a good indicator of how people are satisfied with where they live. “The people living here appreciate diversity and the quality of life we have. They are comfortable and they can enjoy the advantages of living in the city, those are the reasons they come here and stay.”

(Translated by Elyse Amend)