Montreapolis

Award-winning novelist Kim Thúy has called Montreal home since making the harrowing journey from communist Vietnam by boat with her family in 1979.

As her temple's first female — and lesbian — rabbi, Lisa Grushcow's focus on inclusion, diversity, cross-cultural partnerships and modern motherhood challenges conservative religious traditions.

Saint-Lambert's Daniel Clarke Bouchard has played Carnegie Hall, The Ellen Show, studies piano at The Juilliard School and takes advice from Oliver Jones. All this, and he's just recently turned 17.

Meg Hewings is the general manager of the city's first professional women's hockey team, Les Canadiennes, checking gender stereotypes in Montreal's iconic sport.

His two-year battle with an aggressive form of cancer inspired Jamaican-Canadian rapper, producer and performer Jonathan Emile to take on social issues through art and activism.