Coat of arms of Montreal

Coat of arms of the city of Montreal
Information
Date of origin	21 March 1938
Shield	Argent a cross gules between a fleur de lys azure, a rose slipped and leaved, a thistle slipped and leaved and a trefoil proper, the whole encircled by a wreath of sugar maple and ensigned by a beaver upon a log proper.
Motto	Concordia Salus, Latin for "salvation through harmony".

The first coat of arms of Montreal was designed by Jacques Viger, the city's first mayor, and adopted in 1833 by the city councillors. Modifications were made some one hundred five years later and adopted on 21 March 1938, resulting in the version currently in use. The coat of arms was the only city emblem representing Montreal until 1981, when a stylized logo was developed for common daily use, reserving the coat of arms for ceremonial events and occasions.

The first coat of arms was displayed on a white shield, which had a red saltire with four different charges between the arms, representative of the four main components of the population as viewed by Mayor Jacques Viger and the city council in 1833, when the arms were designed and adopted. To the top, a rose was for the English heritage of the population, the dexter a thistle for the Scots, the sinister a sprig of clover for the Irish heritage of the city, and to the bottom base a beaver for the French that originally settled the territory and traded in furs.

The blazon of the shield in the first coat of arms was as follows: Argent, a saltire gules between in chief a rose of the last leaved and slipped, in base a beaver to the dexter with a branch, and in fess a thistle leaved and slipped and a sprig of shamrock proper. The scroll and motto below the shield read Concordia Salus, a Latin phrase translated as "salvation through harmony".

In 1938, the city council requested that the arms be updated to better reflect Montreal's population. The changes replaced the saltire with a cross, which is reminiscent of both the St. George's Cross often associated with England, and also with Christian missionary missions that could represent the principles of the French Catholics that originally founded the city. The beaver had become a general symbol of Montreal and its industriousness by this time period, and no longer merely represented the original French settlers, thus it was moved to ensign the shield. In place of the beaver on the shield, a blue fleur de lys was added to symbolize the descendants of the original French settlers. The rose, thistle and clover remained. The shield was surrounded by a wreath of sugar maple leaves to symbolize the amicable relations between the various elements of Montreal's population and an allusion to the maple as a national emblem of Canada. The Latin motto was retained.

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