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Maxime Aurelien,Ted Rutland

Out To Defend Ourselves: A History of Montreals First Haitian Street Gang

Out To Defend Ourselves: A History of Montreals First Haitian Street Gang

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  • More about Out To Defend Ourselves: A History of Montreals First Haitian Street Gang

Out to Defend Ourselves is the first critical history of a street gang in a Canadian city, based on a four-year collaboration between a university professor and the leader of les Bélangers. It tells the story of Montreal's first Haitian street gang, les Bélangers, and their struggles against racial violence and police actions.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 01 July 2023
Publisher: Fernwood Publishing Co Ltd


This first critical history of a street gang in a Canadian city is the product of a four-year collaboration between a university professor (Ted Rutland) and the leader of les Bélangers (Maxime Aurélien). Out to Defend Ourselves tells the story of Montreal's first Haitian street gang, les Bélangers. It traces how the gang emerged from a group of Haitian friends, the children of migrants from Haiti in the 1970s. It documents the forms of racial violence they experienced and their battles against them. It also documents the everyday lives of the gang members, the petty crime some members engaged in to make ends meet, and how the police actions against the gang changed its nature and function – making it, finally, a more criminally oriented and violent formation. It is a story about a gang, but it is also a story of young Haitians making their lives in 1970s and 80s Montreal and a story about Montreal in a period of great change.

This first critical history of a street gang in a Canadian city is the product of a four-year collaboration between a university professor (Ted Rutland) and the leader of les Bélangers (Maxime Aurélien). Out to Defend Ourselves tells the story of Montreal's first Haitian street gang, les Bélangers. It traces how the gang emerged from a group of Haitian friends, the children of migrants from Haiti in the 1970s. It documents the forms of racial violence they experienced and their battles against them. It also documents the everyday lives of the gang members, the petty crime some members engaged in to make ends meet, and how the police actions against the gang changed its nature and function – making it, finally, a more criminally oriented and violent formation. It is a story about a gang, but it is also a story of young Haitians making their lives in 1970s and 80s Montreal and a story about Montreal in a period of great change.


Dimension: 23 x 15 x 1 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781773635965

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