Man dies in Back River mishap
A man died Friday on the Back River when he pointed his boat at a concrete pillar of the Olivier-Charbonneau bridge and drove right into it. The report says he was looking at a device, not at where he was going.
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Kate
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David643 22:16 on 2021-06-18 Permalink
I wonder if modes of death are getting more idiotic as technology improves.
Kate 22:40 on 2021-06-18 Permalink
We are getting a little too accustomed to trusting devices when we should be relying on our own senses. Says the woman who has missed a bus because she was fiddling with Transit.app on her phone.
Thomas 23:22 on 2021-06-18 Permalink
As a resident of Ahuntsic living near the river, I’d just like to take a moment to savour Kate’s use of ‘Back River’, a term I have heard fewer than 5 times in my 15 years living here. I feel like I’m part of a secret club of old-timey anglophones every time I hear it
JaneyB 07:31 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
@Thomas – I often/only hear it on CBC local news traffic reports eg: near the ‘Back River Bridge’. It is not on a map though. Have to be part of the club. 🙂
Kate 09:20 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
It’s terminology I picked up from my parents. Also I tend to perceive “Rivière des Prairies” as a neighbourhood, not as a river, if that makes any sense.
dhomas 09:59 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
Anglophone radio uses “Back River bridge” all the time for traffic reports.
Ephraim 10:01 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
@Thomas – Grew up with it being called the back river and I lived in New Bordeaux. But there are a few that are much more hidden today. My grandparents banked at BMO St-Jean Baptiste (Market), most people couldn’t even tell you what part of town that was in (St. Lawrence at Rachel, now the Parc des Ameriques) . And the Normandie shopping centre was one of the few places that had both a Steinberg’s and a Dominion store.
Thomas 10:50 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
The first time I came across the term was at Sauvé metro where there is a Jewish cemetery called Back River. And then a few years later looking at some old black & white photos of old streetcars. And most recently at the new Pavillon d’accueil for the Parcours Gouin built at the foot of the Viau bridge there are some historical placards that mention that anglos used to call it Back River.
For those who have mentioned the Back River bridge in traffic reports, which of the many bridges crossing the river would they be referring to?
Francesco 11:00 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
Same, grew up in Pierrefonds near the Back River and that’s *the only* name it had among locals, even francophones who spoke English. We rode our “motocross bikes” at the Back River Pits, a kid died messing around on the Back River train bridge. It’s the Back River. “Rivière-des-Prairies” is some bourgeois suburb “Up North.”
Thomas 11:18 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
Interesting that you should say that Francesco, as I’ve always perceived Pierrefonds as part of the bourgeois suburb known as the West Island 😉 (although admittedly I know nothing about the area)
Francesco 11:38 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
Lol there are some newer RDPesque subdivisions, but with trees ;). Most of it — and it is fairly huge — is middle or working class, and a lot of retirees. There are also some areas that are more economically disadvantaged — including Cloverdale, with 768 units, the second largest housing co-op in Canada.
Francesco 11:45 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
Dhomas, only the Stonecutters know to *which* Back River bridge anglo radio might be referring! Louis-Bisson? Médéric-Martin? Lachapelle?
Ephraim 11:47 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
I always assumed that the back river bridge was the Lachapelle bridge.
Kate 11:51 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
Until relatively recently there were trailer parks in Pierrefonds. Also, I have a friend whose family in Petite‑Patrie (I don’t think that neighbourhood was even called that, then) used to go to Pierrefonds for a week or so in the summer and stay in a shack to fish and swim in the river. Pierrefonds was a road trip then, a poor man’s resort town.
Ephraim 12:29 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
There are still mobile homes in L’Île-Bizard and Sainte-Geneviève
Thomas 14:00 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
This is all great information 🙂 15 years in Montreal, and still so much to learn!
dhomas 14:39 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
@Francesco I have no clue which bridge it is. 😀 I usually tune out during traffic reports and I live on island specifically so I DON’T have to deal with bridges.
Max 21:36 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
I grew up anglo in DDO. In the 60s and 70s the “Back River” was the only name I ever heard it called by. I vaguely remember there was even a local rag that went by the name “Back River News” in those days. It wasn’t until I came back from uni in Ontario in the late 80s that I realized it even had another name.
Francesco 22:42 on 2021-06-19 Permalink
@Max Same same. Never heard it called the “official” name until I was well into my 20s.
FWIW, “Back River” exists in an officially-recognized Québec toponymy reference https://www.worldcat.org/title/toponymie-de-la-region-metropolitaine-de-montreal/oclc/5935170 and apparently, in local indigenous language it was called “Skowanoti,” meaning “the river *behind* the island.”
Kate 08:59 on 2021-06-20 Permalink
Francesco, that’s good research! I’m happy that “Back River” carries on the indigenous perception of the river.