City of Montreal recognizing Chinatown as a historic site

The City of Montreal is recognizing Chinatown as a historic site for its cultural and economic vitality.

In a press release, the city says this is happening 100 years after the historic event of national exclusion of Chinese immigrants from 1923 to 1947, recognized by the Commission Historic Sites and Monuments of Canada (CLMHC) in June 2003.

In spring 2021, a committee was formed at the request of the mayor of Montreal and the Minister of Culture and Communications, in response to the concerns of the community and heritage organizations regarding the impact of real estate pressure on the heritage character of Chinatown. 

The goal was to figure out the tools to be deployed for the protection of the authenticity of heritage, identity, characteristics, specificity of the attractions and cultural practices of Chinatown.

In December 2021, the committee made five recommendations, including adopting identification regulations to recognize Chinatown and the former Faubourg Saint-Laurent as a historical place.

“Montreal’s Chinatown is a unique, dynamic sector steeped in history which we are proud to recognize as a historic site,” said Robert Beaudry, responsible for town planning, citizen participation and democracy within the city’s executive committee. 

“It testifies to Chinese immigration to Canada and in particular to Montreal, as well as the installation of Asian communities in this area of downtown. This is the only historical Chinese district significantly preserved in Quebec and Eastern Canada, and of the only district French-speaking Chinese in America.”  

Beaudry added that the city is determined to keep it shining and to support the population who live there.

The adoption of the by-law identifying Montreal’s Chinatown as a historic location will be officially done in 2024, following a public session on the project which will take place in November.

Chinatown has demanded the city make the area safer

Since this summer, residents and merchants of Chinatown have been mobilizing, holding press conferences and launching a petition, to denounce problems of crime and violence in the neighbourhood.

They have been calling on Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and the Montreal police to address issues of crime and drug use in the neighbourhood.

Mayor Plante in September said solutions were being put in place like an added police presence. The local police station says they’ve stepped up in recent weeks, and will add two more foot patrol officers by mid-October.