A young man said to have been playing ball drowned off Verdun beach on Saturday evening and emergency service boats are out looking for him.
Updates from June, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Short-term rental of one’s primary residence is to be permitted from Tuesday till September 10, with various permits, but some boroughs override this with their own prohibition.
This brief piece also says Ensemble wants permission to be extended. And they want us to believe they’re on the tenants’ side?
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Kate
We’ll be living under the smog till some time on Sunday. A doctor answers the question whether it’s as bad for us as cigarettes.
Mozai
Lapresse says it’s (the equivalent of smoking) 1 cigarette every six hours bad; City of Montreal https://carte-qualite-air.montreal.ca/ says 1 cigarette eveyr 24 hours bad. Environment Canada https://weather.gc.ca/airquality/pages/qcaq-001_e.html says it’ll be fine by nighfall on Saturday and the rest of the weekend. AQICN and IQAIR say it’s terrible until Sunday noon, then it will turn bad again Sunday afternoon. The thing about having so many clocks is I can never be certain of the time.
EmilyG
Monday looks like nice weather. Maybe I can go outside then. Staying within walking distance of my home due to the STM strike.
MarcG
It’s truly bizarre to me how people can not know about this. I spoke to a couple of friends yesterday and asked them how they were dealing with the smoke and they had no idea what I was talking about. I saw 3 masks among the hundreds of people outside enjoying the day yesterday. Covid-aware people often say things like “If the virus was visible like smoke people would behave differently” but here we are and the general public doesn’t even notice, or once informed, seem to care – even some people who, if asked, would say they are health conscious, out jogging, biking, in 150+ AQI. Is this a failure of public health? Is it because of how we get our information in silos now – how can public health reach someone who gets their news from a curated Instagram feed? Have we made the social cost of wearing protection so high that people are willing to sacrifice their health for acceptance? Are we simply unable to process the horrors of the world and responding to them would be an act of admittance?
Janet
I’ve had a slight ache in my lungs for the past few days and so have concluded that I really am in the age group (65+) that should not exercise in the open air under these conditions. Have cancelled a 13 km hike on Friday, a 5 km Parkrun on Saturday and a sunny, wind-whipped trip on the river shuttle today. I hope this won’t be our new reality all summer long.
Kate
Janet, I can sympathize. I’ve been wondering recently where the balance point is, trading off the smoke hazard vs the hazard of sedentary days.
A sunny, wind-whipped trip on the river shuttle sounds great, and I notice that the smoke warning has finally disappeared from the Environment Canada forecast site. Maybe it’s not too late to venture out?
Kevin
MarcG
Hell yes, we are living in a fractured time where a lot of people just don’t realize they don’t know what’s happening anywhere outside their circle of friends.I have friends who considered themselves educated, listening to podcasts and such, but when talking about street closures and protests happening in their neighbourhood, never even realized those items were in daily news.
Kate
Kevin, one of the reasons I started this blog and keep doing it is to find out what’s happening in my city, and make the knowledge accessible to others.
CE
@MarcG, I think you underestimate people’s risk tolerance. Many people are well aware that the air isn’t good but if breathing the air for 6 hours is as bad as smoking a couple cigarettes, then that’s going to be what, six cigarettes over a few days of smog? We likely breathed much worse air every weekend in the 90s in bars and clubs and most of us are still alive 20 years later. The tradeoff of having to wear a mask (which most people find unpleasant and uncomfortable) rather than breath in a few cigarettes obviously isn’t worth it for most people (as we can see from the lack of masks worn during these smog days).
Janet
Kate, We decided instead to finally go see la Maison Saint-Gabriel, a suggestion that actually came from your blog. It was a delightful visit in a bucolic setting. A perfect activity for a hazy summer day.
MarcG
Kate, I’ll take this oppourtunity to thank you for doing this work, it fulfills a need for an easy-to-parse overview of what’s happening in the city which helps me feel more connected.
CE, the problem with an individualistic worldview which leads to concepts like ‘personal risk assessment’, is that it doesn’t recognize the impact that the ill health of a single member of society has on the collective, and also misrepresents a single experience as useful data (the George Burns fallacy?). Think about how life changes when a family member gets a cold, does it only impact them? It is anti-science, anti-intellectual, and very in-line with the shitshow happening in the US right now, particularly their health departments. Perhaps you acknowledge that is an ideology that your views are aligned with, but I imagine you don’t. The solution to collective problems, whether airborne virus, smoke/climate, or people drowning in the river, isn’t for each person to say “Hmm, how do I *feel* about this?” and decide for themselves, it’s the job of institutions to repond with peer-reviewed intelligent decision making. Masks are a temporary solution to the viral/climate catastrophe we’re living through, but they wouldn’t be necessary if insitutions had not collapsed under pressure from the libertarian thinktanks that your words echo.
MarcG
Correction: Masks *should have been* a temporary solution while we upgraded the air quality of buildings and dealt with the climate crisis but we won’t be doing any of that lame stuff I guess.
CC
I’m not sure I’d say my “life changes” when a family member gets a cold.
Orr
One of the most surprising things about Maison Saint-Gabriel isn’t that it used to be located at the river’s edge, but isn’t anymore bc of landfill activities, but that the residents slept sitting up, bc the devil will get you if you sleep lying down.
MarcG
CC: I didn’t mean it in the “life changing event” sense. Life is obviously impacted in an assortment of ways by a family member, coworker, medical provider, etc, being out sick. My point is that we aren’t isolated particles whose health status is strictly personal and doesn’t affect others – illness is a burden for the person experiencing it, but also for their community members and our healthcare infrastructure. So when someone says “Some people just don’t care about their health, that is their choice”, as someone with lived experience supporting people with dementia and chronic illness, and witnessing how fragile our healthcare system is, I have to disagree.
Janet
Orr, those were indeed interesting facts shared with visitors. (I always wondered why old beds look so short.) Here’s another one: the hard physical labour performed by the farming nuns required an input of some 4,000 calories a day. Fish just didn’t cut it so they petitioned the Pope to designate beaver a fish so they could eat if on Friday.
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Kate
Most media are giving a preview of next week’s transit strike and offering advice on what you need to know. Universities are adapting to the strike schedule.
A Le Devoir editorialist asks sourly whether the Grand Prix is an essential service requiring transit, while the Gazette coos over the celebs who come to the party, and how they live it up.
Tim S.
A (very important) detail I’ve been wondering about explained in Radio-Canada: the end times are when the last metro (or bus, I assume) reaches it’s last stop. So if you’re at Cote-Vertu, the last morning Orange line train is probably leaving around 9:00 or so.
Kate
I’d been wondering about the end times…
Uatu
If anything we should be catering to the rich with more fancy events so that better transit can “trickle down” to the rest of us like this, right?/s
Just joking, but I’m hoping to see rich people/influencers try to speed run their way through the ER so I can ride that wave to a doctor’s appointment because that’s how the neoliberal world works lolIan
The end times are easy enough to track if you know the signs and follow the portents. We’re barely in 3rd seal territory IO
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Kate
Metal barriers have been added to the Place des Montréalaises so now there are cones and barriers on the site.
Blork
I walked through there last night, and I will confess that I cringe when I see why the barriers and cones are there. That drainage trough is almost invisible and is a serious falling hazard, especially for people like me who fall easily. Older people, handicapped, people with leg neuropathies, injuries, or balance issues… it’s an accident waiting to happen.
At the very least, the trough should be painted a different colour. Or it should be covered by a grate, or have some elevated edges (although that too is a tripping hazard if it’s not highly visible).
So… bad design.
Pictures or it didn’t happen: https://www.blork.org/pix/place-des-m-barriers.jpg
I can’t embed the photo right? Gonna try:
Blork
OK embedding didn’t work.
For those of you blessed with youth, good vision, and perfect balance, all it takes for people like me to fall is any sudden and unexpected change in the terrain. If you don’t see this trough and one foot goes partly into it, your leg buckles and down you go.
MarcG
“These differently textured grey circles will surely be enough to warn people”. Don’t they run these designs by regular-ass people at some point in the process?
MarcG 08:08 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
They need to at least put some signs down there with illustrations of the undercurrent and a suggestion to wear a lifejacket (I would also include a record of the number of deaths, possibly with names and ages and what activity they were doing).
Kate 08:33 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
If you don’t understand that the river is dangerous, I’m not sure a sign will stop you.
Blork 09:09 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
The articles say had some kind of “malaise” while doing some kind of sport. Also, apparently the conditions were not good (water was choppy) and the beach is not yet open for the season, so it’s unsupervised. I’m pretty sure there are signs around advising not to go in the water when there aren’t any lifeguards on duty. There’s only so much you can do.
But as far as I know it’s not unusual for people to flout the rules there, such as this dude I saw there a couple of years ago casually swimming along just outside the boundary for the guarded zone: https://flic.kr/p/2r9BZm6
MarcG 10:02 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
It’s really not obvious from looking at it that the river is dangerous. Why would we expect people who have no experience with something to magically know about it? There are no signs down at the water’s edge advising people of the danger anywhere along the riverside.
Kate 10:26 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
MarcG, when I was small we lived in Verdun. Not right next to the river, but we sometimes walked along what was then still called the boardwalk (although not made of boards any more), and I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t aware that the river was a serious force not to be trifled with.
I suppose I imagined that anyone raising a family near the river’s edge would instill in their children a respect for the hazards of the water.
(This didn’t stop my mother reminiscing cheerfully about walking over the frozen river to Nuns Island when she was a kid, but she wasn’t suggesting I do the same. Many years later, I walked over to Dowker Island on a cold day, too.)
MarcG 10:48 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
And a sign saying “No lifeguards on duty – swim at your own risk” doesn’t give people useful information, it just denies responsibility. What risk? It looks fine to me and I’ve seen other people doing it and they’re having fun.
Not sure this metaphor works but imagine the only thing a parent ever told their child about sex was “if you get pregnant it’s your fault and I won’t help you” – is that a satifactory education? Does it mention anything about consent, safety, condoms, the pill, abortion, the responsibilies of parenthood? We can do better.
Kate 10:58 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
All the city can do with a sign is cover its ass. It can’t guarantee that anyone’s going to read it or take its import seriously.
If it were up to me I’d do a big sign saying “The river is deeper and flows faster than you can possibly imagine. If you fuck around it can kill you.” (In French, of course, with the English one‑third the size) but that’s not how bureaucracies do things.
Not sure the pregnancy metaphor quite works here.
MarcG 11:07 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
A lot of the people who use the riverside in the summer are not from the area (its easily accessed by metro or bike), and the people who do live nearby weren’t necessarily raised anywhere near a river.
MarcG 11:14 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
Your sign could easily be translated into bureaucrat-friendly lingo. I’m not suggesting anything more than a few of these bad boys along the river where people commonly enter the water.
walkerp 12:56 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
One person drowned. It’s really sad, but I don’t see how this is some condemnation of the government. It’s a big river, particularly dangerous and unpredictable, it’s going to get a few citizens every now and then. You can’t protect against every risk, at some point it becomes not worth the cost.
JP 14:20 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
I agree with Marc here. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few more helpful signs. It might not prevent any deaths at all but even if it saved one life, I’m all for it. What seems obvious to some isn’t obvious to others. It kind of reminds me of the train tracks that run through the Old Port/Old Montreal area. I had no idea those tracks were actively used and had real trains pass through until a friend of a family friend lost her legs crossing through while a train that was stopped, started moving coming back from the bar on the other side….of course, there was already a train there and she should not have crossed but I was surprised to learn that trains actually even passed through…
MarcG 14:38 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
This is the 3rd known drowning at the beach since 2023. How much do these search & rescue missions cost? What would happen if La Ronde opened a new ride and someone died on it? The city built a public beach and leaves it unsupervised during the increasingly warm spring and fall seasons – I believe they bear some responsibility for deaths that happen there, especially when they do so little to prevent them.
MarcG 14:44 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
Correction: it’s not known if the person who went missing yesterday is dead. (But if they’re not, imagine how their life will have changed. Maybe they’ll become an advocate for improved beach safety.)
dwgs 15:08 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
I walked past the beach twice today and I don’t think the search is very expensive, three cops in an open boat surveying what looked like a fish finder.
We could make the signs clearer than “Swim at your own risk”. I like the idea of posting some info about past victims, although including their names is well beyond the pale.
jeather 16:04 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
People severely underestimate the danger of a swimming pool, much less running water. No one should assume that the majority of people are aware of exactly how dangerous it is, and in what ways.
Ian 16:35 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
The city can put up signs warning that rivers have currents. It’s pretty low hanging fruit safety-wiae, right up there with “danger” or “at your own risk”.
Of course this being Montreal it will be a rhyming multi-sentence exposition with exquisite graphic design.
“Oh la la on aime pas ça, d’etre tuée par la fleuve? Ben non c’est un épreuve tragique, même qu’elle est megnifique, d’être consomée dans cette façon pas si unique.” In 14 point Rotis sans.
Nicholas 17:15 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
I’ve lived in Montreal nearly my entire life and never swam in the river, though have been on it in kayaks and row boats. I’ve swam in lakes and pools, mostly, where water is calm, though there are still risks. I’ve also swam in the ocean many times, where you can tell when it’s more dangerous because the waves are higher and there are storm clouds. Beaches often have signs, flags and other things to let you know about undertoes, waves, etc.
I lived in another city with a very accessible river, and you often can’t tell when it’s more dangerous just by looking at it unless you know what to look for. The danger mostly comes when the river rises, and a slow trickle becomes a dangerous rapid, but it’s all underwater. My social medias still get notices whenever the water in that river even starts to rise, and then warnings to stay off the river. Even though I have way more friends here, both online and offline, and follow more accounts here, I have never, ever seen a flood stage gauge chart or a notice to stay off the river in Montreal. I think we can find a happy medium between plastering of signs and notices and a sign or two that says “Be careful”.
Kate 17:33 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
Fair enough, the media have declared the young man “possibly” drowned, at least as of Sunday evening as I type.
CE 22:03 on 2025-06-08 Permalink
Do we have to have warnings for every single possible danger? Crossing the street is unsafe, do we need a sign at every intersection warning about the dangers of car traffic? If you get hit by the metro, you’re likely to die, we don’t need signs along the platforms to make sure people know that. How many signs do we need along the river bank to make sure nobody goes in? Every 5 metres? Every 10? At a certain point, people need to use common sense and take a minute to decide if something is dangerous. Even when most people know an activity is dangerous, some people with a high risk tolerance are going to do it anyway and no amount of signs or warnings are going to stop them.
MarcG 08:22 on 2025-06-09 Permalink
So called ‘common sense’ in this case is “The water looks calm therefore it is safe”. Placing a few educational signs at the specific places where people commonly enter the water is a cheap no-brainer.
There’s also the question of quality of the water itself. When the beach is officially open and lifeguards are present, they sample the water regularly and open/close the beach according to the safety results. They put up a rope with a little sign that says “closed”, but there should be a big sign that says “THE WATER HAS POOP IN IT TODAY AND WILL MAKE YOU SICK” or whatever bureaucrat-friendly equivalent, because what happens is that people just end up swimming right next to the beach outside of the lifeguards’ jurisdiction. And on the shoulder season like now, people don’t have the ability to know the water quality, or even information to let them know that sometimes the water is trash but right now it’s not being tested. Sure, some people will still say “I’m young/drunk/the river is natural it can’t possible hurt me – I’m going to swim anyway” but do design society around those people? It appears that at least some of us have we’ve decided that we do.
walkerp 09:55 on 2025-06-09 Permalink
Okay, you’ve convinced me. 3 deaths in 2 years is a lot and it does sound like some increase in signage and general education is warranted for that section of the river.
Blork 11:09 on 2025-06-09 Permalink
I looked around in StreetView (which is not a great indicator but it’s not nothing) and I did not see any such signs near the beach, which surprised me as I have a (probably false) memory of seeing them in person.
So yes, signs are needed. But they’re not a miracle cure. People — especially young people — routinely ignore signs. Signs almost certainly wouldn’t have prevented the (probable) drowning this weekend, as that appears to have been caused by the guy having some sort of crisis while in the water (cramps? heart attack?), and not a matter of simply being done in by the current.
Kate 22:26 on 2025-06-09 Permalink
Also to note: the beach was created by people, not by natural river currents. We created an attractive nuisance so perhaps we ought to warn people about its hazards.
Orr 06:37 on 2025-06-10 Permalink
At the parc des chutes (waterfalls) in Lanaudière, there is a big panel beside the river with the names and pictures and life stories of the people who have drowned there. It’s quite a powerful message about the danger.
MarcG 09:30 on 2025-06-15 Permalink
There are now missing person posters around the beach.
Kate 10:37 on 2025-06-15 Permalink
MarcG, is there any doubt that the man drowned?
MarcG 10:57 on 2025-06-15 Permalink
I’m not sure, but as we’ve seen with the child who went missing near the north river 7 years ago and also presumably drowned but whose family is still hoping he turns up alive, the power of love is strong!