My Montreal: L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève & Other Quebec Curios
Église Sainte-Geneviève, located in the borough of L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève. Photo credit: Bill Wrigley/Wikimedia Commons.
The borough L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève was originally also with Saint Anne de Bellevue, but when Saint Anne de Bellevue decided to demerge during the referendums and became an independent municipality in 2006, Île Bizard and Sainte Geneviève stayed as boroughs.
Île Bizard houses the Royal Montreal Golf Club, the oldest golf club in North America, founded in 1873. Originally only the humdrum Montreal Golf Club, Queen Victoria gave them the permission to call themselves “Royal” in 1884. Originally in a different location, the golf club moved to Île Bizard in 1959. As for Sainte-Geneviève, it is another old location in Quebec, with the first inhabitants coming to the area after the signing of the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701.
The borough of L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève has a modest population of eighteen thousand people, with an older population averaging 42.2 years old. Families’ children are mostly 6-14 years of age (34%). An impressive 72% can speak both English and French, and 58% speak French at home. Like fellow borough member Lachine, one out of five of its inhabitants are immigrants, with 24% of its population a first generation immigrant. The countries that immigrate mostly to this region are Egypt and the Philippines, although France, Italy, and Haiti are on the top of the list when it comes to countries of origins of the total immigrant population in the borough.
The borough of L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève shares a border with fellow borough Pierrefonds-Roxboro. Île Bizard is not named because people thought it was weird, it is named after Jacques Bizard, whose land it was as a seigneurie during the times of New France. Sainte-Geneviève takes its name after the patron saint of Paris.
