Seeing her sister Paula’s name on a newly unveiled plaque at the place where she died is bringing Gail Millington Grant some long-awaited closure.
“When we were young, we weren’t really allowed to talk about [the accident],” she said. “But because of our silence, people didn’t know what went on.”
On July 13, 1954, 12 young children attending the Negro Community Centre day camp drowned on the Lake of Two Mountains in Île-Bizard in a horrifying boating accident. Millington Grant’s six-year-old sister was one of them.
Looking out onto the water Saturday, 70 years after the accident, Millington Grant feels as though she was there.
“I see a boat and I see the water and I do see, even though I wasn’t here — I was only two at the time — the children, and I can picture them because I’m kind of afraid of the water myself ever since,” she said.
On that day, 62 children headed out from the community centre in Little Burgundy for what should have been a fun picnic on Île-Bizard.
After finishing their lunch, the children were offered a ride on a motorboat by Jack Seligman, a 44-year-old Montreal baker and businessman. He took two groups of children out on his 12-foot boat for a ride without any incident.
On the third trip, 17 children between the ages of six and 11 piled onto the boat, along with a counsellor and Seligman. The boat was designed to hold seven adults.
As the boat circled the waters, its motor flooded and a wave swept over it, causing the younger children to panic, scream and jump into the water. The boat then capsized completely, with everyone aboard falling into the water. None of the children wore life jackets, and most of them didn’t know how to swim.
Seligman was able to save two children, the counsellor was able to save a boy and a passing rowboat rescued two more, but 12 children never came back to shore. It remains one of this country’s worst boating tragedies.
David Tagieff, who was 12 years old at the time, remembers seeing kids starting to jump into the water.
“I knew something was wrong,” he said, saying that’s when he decided to grab a pair of oars and row out to the boat.
“When I got there, there was a girl in the water with her head down. I grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to the boat and got her in, she survived,” he said.
Tagieff said he had to pry another young boy off the capsized boat’s gas tank to get him onto the rowboat and to safety.
Today, Tagieff says he feels blessed to be a part of the unveiling of the memorial.
“A lot of gratitude that I’m still here at 82 and can participate in this and bring maybe some closure for some people and maybe some understanding to others,” he said.
The West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA) along with families of the victims held an event to commemorate the 12 children Saturday. A plaque featuring their names and ages was installed at the site of the tragedy.
Allison Saunders, who co-organized Saturday’s event, lost two of her second cousins in the accident. Although she wasn’t yet born when it happened, she says it’s important for her to keep the children’s memories alive.
“Most people have never heard that this happened and so it’s important for me today to be able to share this message so people recognize that it happened and then also to provide a space for the families to heal,” she said.
Millington Grant says an inquest into the accident prompted changes to Canadian laws, notably that a life jacket must be available for each person aboard a watercraft and that it is illegal to overcrowd a boat.
She’s still fighting, however, to make swimming lessons mandatory in Quebec schools. She says she’s working with all levels of government to make that happen.
A church service marking the 70th anniversary took place at the Union United Church in Montreal Sunday morning.
Millington Grant says community support has helped her throughout the years, saying it takes a village to raise a child, but also to help you get through tragedy.
“What happened happened, now we need to heal, we need to come together and be at peace,” she said.