You weren't as close to death as it might have felt.
I've looked up the flight at FlightAware.com and looked at the track map and the tracking log.
Flight Track
Track Log
Over northern New York your flight sent in a larger circle then back north, right turn east, then north just past Montreal and vector back southwest a bit into Montreal.
During the circle it was under the control of Boston air traffic control center. Montreal air traffic control took over after the right turn and turn back to the north.
The track log shows speed and altitude. There was a point before the circle, where the plane descended at a little over 2,000 feet per minute (That's about the rate that you are going the first 2-3 minutes after take off) so it would have felt like a pretty good descent, but actually not to the danger point. Also this started when the plane was at 30,800, and leveled out almost 9 minutes later at 19,000 feet. So well above the ground. The speed of the aircraft varied quite a bit during that time, but that would also be consistent with ducking around a storm.
What it boils down to is this. There was no doubt some pretty good turbulence, and the plane had to fly around a bit due to the weather, so it no doubt was a very rough ride. But nowhere near the point of almost crashing. Most of this happened though, under the control of the Boston air traffic control center. Once you crossed into Canada ( just after the final turn north) the flight went under the control of Montreal ATC. So it actually was not the airport, but rather the air traffic control center, and it looks like it would have been Boston, not Montreal. But, this would be one flight where the pilots were really having to work, so after landing, and reviewing, it's kind of a minor detail which one. Bottom line is some controller screwed up.
As I said, it wasn't as near a crash as it might have seemed, although I'm sure it was rough. But if you think that was bad, try flying with the National Hurricane Center into a storm. I've not been on one myself, but from what has been described to me, you want to wear a helmet on one of those.