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Collège de Montréal

secondary school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ738960 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Collège de Montréal (French pronunciation: [kɔlɛʒ də mɔ̃ʁeal]) is a subsidized private high school for students attending grades 7–11 located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A former Roman Catholic minor seminary, it was founded on June 1, 1767, as the Petit Séminaire of Montreal by the Sulpician Fathers. From 1773 to 1803, it was known as Collège Saint-Raphaël.

In the mid-19th century a number of former students went on to become activists for First Nations and Métis rights. They included Mohawk chief Joseph Onasakenrat and Métis leader Louis Riel.

It was the first high school in Montreal and is still considered one of the best in the province. It was particularly well regarded for its "accelerated immersion" program, in which students from English schools who were in French immersion programs could, within two years, be brought up to the same level as students who came from francophone schools. Although enrollment was previously limited to boys, the school has been co-educational since 1997. The school's performance hall, the Ermitage, was an important venue for public concerts in Montreal from its establishment in 1914 up into the 1960s.

In a widely reported article in 2008, Le Journal de Montréal found that school administrators and in particular its director-general, Jacques Giguère, had expensed many non-school related items, including high-priced furniture, a luxury hotel suite for a Christmas party, and the services of a personal trainer.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Collège de Montréal” as secondary school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Collège, Montréal and secondary.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1767, 1773, 1803, 1997—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1767. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Collège, Montréal and secondary providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Collège de Montréal”, the useful work is to connect “secondary school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q738960. VIAF identifies the subject as 141103467. The Library of Congress control number is no2008017898. Authority coordinates are 45.494, -73.585. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1767, 1773, 1803 and 1997.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Collège de Montréal”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Collège de Montréal primary sources, Collège de Montréal archive and Collège research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Collège de Montréal”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Collège de Montréal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.