One of the best ways to get a feel for the people and communities is to take advantage of one or more of this year's local tours. No matter which adventure you decide to embark upon, there is one common denominator: the way to experience and learn about a city is to meet with, talk to, and learn from the people who live and work in the area.

The schedule of tours is provided below, with descriptions and capacity limits. Reservations are required and will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Confirmations will be mailed prior to the Annual Meeting. If insufficient enrollment causes cancellation of a tour, fees will be refunded in full.

Tour 1. Between Poverty and Revitalization: Saint-Michel and the Cirque du Soleil

Friday, August 11, 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Fee: $20

Saint-Michel today is home to both the Cirque du Soleil and TOHU, a circus arts complex housed in a new building designed on environmentally friendly principles. There was nothing in the history of Saint-Michel to indicate that it was destined for circus fame. This working-class neighbourhood built up during the postwar economic boom entered a period of long and slow decline in the last decades of the 20th century.

Saint-Michel’s landscape today is fractured by two enormous abandoned quarries, one of which is now North America's second largest urban landfill; a site posing complex ecological issues. The neighbourhood also faces chronically high unemployment and the noxious impact of expressways on its social fabric. On the edge of the quarries, though, circus projects may be part of a new deal. (Flatnose Bus /walking tour, limited to 45 participants)

Tour 2. Food in the City

Friday, August 11, 2:30 p.m.--5:30 p.m.

Fee: $20

Although we live in one of the world’s richest countries, the number of people using food banks has increased steadily in Canada over the past fifteen years. Who is hungry in Montreal, why, and what are people doing to reduce the intensity of the problem? L'Autre Montreal explores new approaches ranging from community restaurants to collective gardens in a variety of Montreal neighbourhoods. The tour also touches on the evolution of food distribution in Montreal, from nineteenth-century public markets to today's large supermarkets, and includes a stop at the Jean-Talon market. (School Bus/walking tour, limited to 45 participants)

Tour 3. Solidarity in Action: Montreal’s Grass-Roots Organizations

Saturday, August 12, 8:30 a.m.--11:30 a.m.

Fee: $20

Discover social movements and alternative community organisations that are working to make urban life more democratic and repair the city’s social fabric torn by poverty and exclusion. (School Bus/walking tour, limited to 45 participants)

Tour 4. Racism in Montreal : Struggles and Victories

Saturday, August 12, 10:30 a.m.--1:30 p.m.

Fee: $20

1740: Marguerite Duplessis, a slave in Montreal, challenges the legal basis of slavery before the courts of New France.

1885: Chinese Montrealers protest the government's racist policy of re-quiring a special tax from Chinese immigrants. Early 20th century: Jews organise to fight at-tempts to exclude them from the public school system.

1980s: Protests from Montreal's black taxi drivers lead to a public inquiry and new laws governing the taxi industry.

Over several centuries, Montrealers have fought for equal rights and justice for all. This tour tells some of their stories throughout the city. (School Bus/walking tour, limited to 45 participants)

Tour 5. A School for All: Education in Montreal , Past and Present

Sunday, August 13, 8:30 a.m.--11:30 a.m.

Fee: $20

History shows that Montreal's school system in the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth was designed to exclude the majority of the population, providing the greatest access to male Protestant boys from middle or upper-class backgrounds while placing systemic obstacles in the way of girls, working-class children, and children of other religious faiths. Discover the history of Montreal's school system and some of the efforts made to change it. (School Bus/walking tour, limited to 45 participants)

Tour 6. Walking Tour of Vieux Montreal

Sunday, August 13, 10:30 a.m.--1:00 p.m.

Fee: $5 (SOLD OUT)

Leader: Reynolds Farley, University of Michigan

This two and one-half hour walk will begin and end at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal, although some may wish to return earlier or wander later through the narrow streets and small parks of this delightful area. We will walk by, but not tour, the museums and religious buildings of Vieux Montreal, including Musee d'Archeologie, Musee du Chateau Remezay, Centre d'Histoire de Montreal, and the Basillique Notre-Dame. Participants will receive a detailed itinerary providing information about the buildings we will view, key historical figures, creative architects and descriptions of sculptures and public art. (Walking tour, limited to 25 participants)

Tour 7. From Villages to Metropolis: Three Hundred Years of Montreal History

Sunday, August 13, 12:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Fee: $20 (SOLD OUT)

This visit explores three centuries of urban development on the island of Montreal. Industrial working-class neighbourhoods and wealthy residences on the slopes of Mount Royal illustrate the spatial patterns of a city profoundly marked by physical, social and economic contrasts. School Bus/walking tour, limited to 45 participants)