Montréal-Nord and the boundaries of community funding: marginalized communities, radical transformation and the control of community action
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v19n2p498-518Keywords:
Community action, Funding, Montréal-Nord, Political repression, Racialized neighbourhoodsAbstract
This article explores how community action in Montréal‑Nord – a borough too often reduced to crisis in the urban imagination of Quebec (Canada) – navigates the paradoxes of funding, between institutional re-engagement and political repression. Drawing on interviews, we provide insights into how key politicized community actors reflect on and attempt to act upon the consequences of funding which, while urgently needed to support their local initiatives, also risks diluting their radical potential. Montréal-Nord – marked by racial stigma yet defined by deep-rooted solidarity – offers a critical case for examining these dynamics. Centring the experiences and perspectives of local actors, this paper argues that Montréal-Nord’s community networks are strong, that its political memory is long, and that its capacity for self‑organization is undeniable. Over the past two decades, the borough has been at the centre of two major waves of public and private funding. The first one followed the 2008 uprising sparked by the police killing of the young Fredy Villanueva—a moment that crystallized decades of racial profiling and systemic neglect. The second one emerged during the COVID‑19 pandemic, when local organizations once again filled the vacuum left by public institutions. During both waves, funding flowed not as a neutral resource designed to meet critical needs, but as a political tool with serious consequences: enabling community work while simultaneously shaping its boundaries and direction. Focusing on private funding, this article identifies core dynamics that help understand how the funding of community action in Montréal‑Nord navigates between control, transformation, and low-intensity political repression.
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