There are so many conflicting theories about 1) the true nature of the relationship between the Bonanno Family and the Montreal Mafia (past and present), and 2) the made status of particular Montreal Mafia members (past and present), that I have to remind myself every once in a while to re-examine what is "known" about this relationship and what is "known" about the crime-family affiliation of some Montreal Mafia members. (I also have to remind myself to calm down about trying to find definitive answers to a lot of these types of questions.)

In this thread I'm not going to go through all the "evidence" for and against, as doing so would take forever. Because I'm feeling lazy, I'll provide for now just this one link:

The Sixth Family: Bonannos and Montreal; Vito a Bonanno Soldier?

Always remember that law-enforcement intelligence, organized-crime-commission reports, informants' testimony, and forum posters' posts are not above being wrong. Canadian organized-crime reporters and authors have certainly changed their views dramatically over the years about particular Italian crime groups and Italian organized-crime figures in Canada.

Some of you who have read Lee Lamothe and Antonio Nicaso's book about the Caruana-Cun[t]reras, Bloodlines: the rise and fall of the mafia's royal family, know that the authors identified Nick Rizzuto Sr. as someone who was affiliated with the Caruana-Cun[t]rera mafia family back in Agrigento and someone who continued this affiliation after he moved to Canada.

On the other hand, those of you who have read Mafia inc. will recall a paragraph in the book about the infamous Sicilian turncoat Tomasso Buscetta allegedly asking Nick Rizzuto Sr. about the latter's affiliation. Apparently, based on Nick Sr.'s answer, Buscetta concluded the Rizzutos were under the Bonanno flag.

Naturally, all of us have our prejudices regarding the reliability of what informants and turncoats tell law enforcement; of what testimony witnesses give in court. Some may dismiss what Sal Vitale had to say about the meeting with Vito Rizzuto in Montreal in 2001 because of a lack of confidence in how truthful Vitale was about such a meeting and about the relationship between the Bonannos and Montreal. Personally, while I don't believe what Sal Vitale has said about Gerlando Sciascia's role in the killing of Joe Lo Presti, I do tend to believe that Vitale and Anthony Urso met with Vito to ask Vito, in a roundabout way, to go from being the acting Bonanno captain in Montreal to the official Montreal-based Bonanno captain--regardless of the fact that Massino, Vitale, Urso, Frank Lino, et al. did not seem to have a very good handle on what the Montreal "crew" was all about, how many members this crew had, and so on.