An emotional demonstration in downtown Montreal Tuesday morning paid tribute to the hundreds of pedestrians and cyclists killed on Quebec roads in the past decade.
In the middle of the morning rush at one of the busiest intersections in the city, car traffic came to a stop as volunteers delicately placed pairs of white shoes for each of the 645 pedestrians fatally struck by vehicles since 2013.
“There is one for my son and many other people,” said Catherine Ricard.
Her 13-year-old son Jules lost his life after being hit by a school bus in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, north of Montreal, exactly 10 years ago Tuesday.
“I have this movie in my head of the last time I told him to have a good day, and now it’s just finished,” she explained.
Ricard and her daughter travelled an hour to join several other attendees at the demonstration who have also lost loved ones.
“It’s kind of shocking to see all the shoes, and it’s for only 10 years. It’s going to be more and more shoes,” she said.
The event was organized in front of the Quebec Transport Ministry’s Montreal offices on the 10th anniversary of Ghost Bike Montreal’s first-ever memorial.
The organization puts white bicycles at the scenes of collisions where cyclists are killed by vehicles to bring awareness and provoke change.
“This marks the 10-year anniversary to the day that we installed our first ghost bike on the corner of Saint Viateur and Parc for Suzanne Chatelain,” said Severine Lepage, Ghost Bikes and Shoes Quebec spokesperson.
“In the 10 years that we’ve existed, things have progressed on some levels, but not everywhere. We’ve made a count that 645 pedestrians have died on the road since our organization has existed and 115 cyclists have died.”
The organization announced it’s expanding its mandate beyond Montreal to the entire province, and they’ll now honour pedestrians with white shoe memorials.
“Everybody walks,” said Julien Gagnon-Ouellette, who was among those volunteering. “It could be you. It could be any of us.”
Gagnon-Ouellette shed tears throughout the emotional ceremony.
“I hope drivers will think twice when they accelerate, when they do dangerous behaviour on the road,” he said.
Just this Monday a 48-year-old pedestrian died after he was struck by a car in Laval.
“These aren’t just news stories that you read in the newspaper and then forget about. For families this is something that they live with for the rest of their lives,” said Lepage.
The organization acknowledges governments of all levels have been taking road safety more seriously. but says it’s not enough.
“We want actions to be quicker, faster, swifter, and for all levels of government to talk to each other,” said Lepage. “We want less trucks, smaller trucks. Governments have to talk together so that humans are first.”
Montreal city councillor Marianne Giguere attended the ceremony, and acknowledged more needs to be done.
“It makes me angry when I see … that as a society for years and years, we have let this happen,” she said.
“We still have so much to do, but we’re on the right path. We have the good spirit.”
The demonstrators want drivers to remember the immense responsibility they have to protect pedestrians and cyclists while at the wheel.
Ghost Bikes and Shoes Quebec has launched an online fundraising campaign to help support their operations. It’s an entirely volunteer-led initiative.
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