Most people call it “the mountain” rather than Mount Royal, and we like it the way it is, rarely glorified and on the wild side. Visits to its slopes evoke many diverse images.
I first saw police on horseback there.
I conversed with young people in the Canadian Army there in the October fog of 1970.
I pretended to study there with my secret lover.
I watched Sunday families, overfed ducks and Peeping Toms who thought they went unnoticed there.
I mingled with the beautiful people there in front of the chalet.
I found inspiration there for the ending of my first work of fiction.
I have been melancholy there at dawn and at dusk.
But
I missed the great Saint Jean celebration there, the only genuine one it seems
And above all
I remember, just vaguely, the sculpture symposium in 1964 that I nevertheless visited.
Perhaps my thoughts were elsewhere.
The mountain now gives me this honour, this fleeting pleasure, and I am here wholeheartedly this time.
I salute the artists who are grappling with it, stirring it up and bring it to life this summer of 2004, and I extend our gratitude.
Thanks to them, and to Artefact, the mountain will continue to live on as diverse images

Lise Bissonnette
Honorary President