The Citizens Committee of the Village des Tanneries (CCVT) has posted a series of pages on Facebook with a photo essay entitled Mrs. Campbell, which was created for the WAC by noted Westmount documentary photographer Brian Merrett during the early 1970s.

Merrett and his late wife, Jennifer Harper, who was also a photographer, documented the destruction of most of Selby Street when the expressway was constructed along Westmount's southern border. Mrs. Campbell, a middle-aged woman who appears in some of the photos, was among hundreds of residents forced to move to make room for the elevated concrete autoroute.

"I came across the photograph of Mrs. Campbell and I was struck by the similarity between what had had happened back in the late '60s and early '70s and what is happening now, and the threat of people losing their homes, of a community being kind of wiped out in the name of progress," said Jody Negley, a spokeperson for the St. Henri group.

"The Ministry of Transport likes to say that they wouldn't do what they did back then, that they wouldn't put people so close to a highway and that they would build green screens or protection of some sort, but ultimately the result is the same. Here in St. Henri, 400 people will lose their homes and there's a small section of Westmount who will also lose their homes.

"Anyone who lives within 200 metres of a highway, whether it's a school or a home, is going to be breathing in air of quality that it has been shown quite clearly — and this is according to the department of public health — to have a real impact on your health," Negley added. "The Ministry of Transport admits that although it's not their intention to increase traffic flow, the highway, just by virtue of being a better-designed road, will indeed increase traffic, it will increase car emissions …

"It's important that people in Westmount do realize that this project will affect them in more ways than just the demolition of a few homes, but that all of the homes that are within 200 metres of the highway incur the ill effects of poor air quality … Westmounters 40 years ago gathered and protested. And definitely we hope Westmounters will organize themselves again, will have a resurgence of the Westmount Action Committee in memory of Mrs. Campbell."

The photo essay on Mrs. Campbell can be viewed at www.facebook.com The CCVT can be contacted via e-mail at villagedestanneries@gmail.com.

They also have a web site: www.freewebs.com