i would say that there is indeed a mafia family in montreal. it was once a top to bottom structured family. through decades of internal war the structure of the family has changed. whether any of the cells/crews operating in city are recognized officially by other families is a mute point. there have been large arrests over past 2 decades involving all the same crimes american lcn members get charged with. gambling,drugs,prostitution,extortion,bid rigging what have you. the members have been arrested and charged as members of the montreal mafia. so whether other families consider them a family dont matter if other oc groups in city and more importantly law enforcement recognizes them as such.
montreal has 10-12 different cells led by italian members with some italian associates. simply because there is no record of an initiation ceremony is irrelevant. throughout the entirety of the history of la cosa nostra,'ndrangheta,cammora etc. if we weigh how many possible ceremonies have been carried out against how many we conclusively know actually happened we would be left with a very small number of confirmed ceremonies. how many ceremonies have been caught on video/tape? not many.
and not all criminal groups mafia or otherwise have to share the same rigid structure and setup. to be honest the american mafia structure of a top to bottom pyramid hasnt exactly had great success rate by comparison. so maybe a decentralized cell structure without an overall #1/BOSS and administration could have a better chance of alluding law enforcement penetration.