With the support of several Montréal environmental groups, Les Amis has submitted a brief to the consultation being held until June 21 on the Namur-Hippodrome project presented by the City of Montréal in April 2024.

The groups reacted to the presence of the St-Pierre River on the old hippodrome. Les Amis and its partners have been defending the River for many years and have seen promises come and go: ponds on the Bande Verte were supposed to recall the river and the lac à la Loutre it formed at the base of the falaise Saint-Jacques but in the end we were told that the height of the water table did not allow this. And let’s not forget the canalization of the St-Pierre on Meadowbrook in 2022, following an unfortunate court order.

The restoration of the St-Pierre River on the hippodrome would enable the rehabilitation of the whole St. Pierre watershed. Studies have shown that this would lighten the load of the Rockfield Basin and the Westover-St-Luc and St-Pierre collectors which are already at capacity. Although this water is not waste water, it nonetheless finds its way to the water treatment plant and adds to the cost of treatment before finally ending up in the St. Lawrence. Rehabilitating the watershed could supply water to the ponds promised for the Turcot Park and possibly help in the return of the river on Meadowbrook.

To read the brief, click HERE.

You can also participate in the consultation by supporting our brief. Visit Réalisons Montréal (https://www.realisonsmtl.ca/namurhippodrome) to find out how.

A 1 mm long daphnia as observed by David Fletcher in the ditch on the Hippodrome (Photo David Fletcher)

David Fletcher of the Green Coalition in the ditch that the St. Pierre River flows into on the Hippodrome (Photo Louise Legault)

A bee garden created by Poliflora at the Hippodrome: enough to forget the Décarie Expressway (Photo Louise Legault)

In the foreground, left to right: Louise Legault, Jo Ann Goldwater, Deanne Delaney, M.N.A. Désirée McGraw; in the background, Pierre Bourbonnière, Al Hayek. (Photo by Alexandre Kordlouie.)

View and listen to the 1 minute video clip at the National Assembly- click here.

Several members of Les Amis du parc Meadowbrook were recently recognized by the Quebec National Assembly for the community organization’s 35 years of hard work to protect Meadowbrook golf course as green space. The group’s ultimate goal is to create a Meadowbrook urban nature park, accessible to all and to be connected through a greenway to a network of parks, including the falaise Saint-Jacques.

Désirée McGraw, M.N.A. for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, invited several members of the group to Quebec City, and she read a declaration in the National Assembly, thanking them for their courage and determination over the years. Following the reading of the declaration, the delegation members watched the question period and were invited to discuss the future of Meadowbrook in the M.N.A.’s office.

In 1989, the property’s original owner proposed building more than 2000 housing units on the property, and a group of citizens quickly organized opposition to the project. In 2006, the property, which lies partly in the borough of Lachine and partly in the City of Côte-St. Luc, was sold to development company Groupe Pacific for $3 million.

Over the years, supporters of Les Amis have successfully opposed several different development projects for the golf course. They have rallied on the steps of city hall, created a master plan for a park, written letters to the editors of local newspapers and presented briefs to city planning hearings. Finally, in 2015, the city’s updated urban plan resulted in changes and the property was zoned recreational green space.

The most recent issue involving Meadowbrook was a fight to prevent the burial of the historic Saint Pierre River where it crosses the golf course.

As McGraw told the group’s current volunteers, “Your courage and determination remind me of that famous quote by anthropologist Margaret Mead: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’”

Regarding the Declaration of recognition, we thank M.N.A. McGraw and her team for a memorable day at the National Assembly.

As well, we want to especially thank all those individuals and groups who have contributed to our mission in so many ways over the past 35 years.  We appreciate your passion and vision that have allowed the group to keep going to achieve our end goal!

Note:  ​You can find out more about the history of Les Amis in the “Our Story” link, found on the green banner at the top of our website.

National Assembly Certificate honouring the work of Les Amis

Last fall, at the request of a CBC journalist, we met up with former Les amis member John Fretz and architect Peter Lanken who both lived and played along the St. Pierre River as youth.

We found out that John Fretz had actually asked the Ministère de la Culture back in 2004 to recognize the heritage value of the river. Can you imagine all the grief we would have avoided if the river had been classified back then?

As architect Peter Lanken so poetically put it: “We were introduced to how all of life starts in wetlands. We caught leopard frogs and let them go. We caught all the little insects, the water striders and the whirligig beetles and the diving beetles and the big diving beetles. And crayfish and little larvae for dragonflies and caddis flies and we started to learn how life starts there.”

Have a listen to Jaela Bernstien’s reportage https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-78/clip/16054351 and take a look at the fascinating maps that the CBC team has created: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/features/2024/daylighting-rivers/

We invite our followers to send in any photos or memories they might have of the river. We would love to hear from you!

Former Les amis member John Fretz and architect Peter Lanken reminiscing about their childhood and the St. Pierre River