The first speaker was David Carruthers, who lived on Clandeboye Ave. in the 1960s when he and other members of the Westmount Action Committee had protested the construction of the Ville Marie Expressway. They canvassed door-to-door getting signatures on a petition and collecting $1 per person. They talked to residents and organized meetings with politicians.

While listening to Carruthers's lively and often humorous explanations of his involvement in trying to stop the construction of the Expressway in the 60s, the audience was surrounded by panels of photographs made in 1971 by photographers Brian Merrett and Jennifer Harper. Following Carruther’s recollections, a statement from Merrett, who could not attend the evening, was read to the audience, explaining how he had photographed on the streets to show the destruction of buildings, the concrete and graffiti by demonstrators, while Jennifer had gone into homes and photographed the people whose lives were about to be destroyed.

The second speaker was Jason Prince, who grew up on Metcalfe Avenue and attended Westmount High School before entering McGill University. He is now an urban planner who is currently coordinating a community-university research alliance (CURA) led by McGill’s School of Urban Planning on the Turcot Interchange and the McGill University Health Centre.

Prince began by projecting images of Westmount properties backing on the existing Turcot Interchange and CPR rail line. Then with detailed, well-researched charts, he explained alternative solutions to the proposed Turcot demolition. Experts at McGill have argued that the structure can be repaired at a lower cost, and more rapidly, with less disturbance to the neighbourhoods. He also warned that the government’s proposal threatens a major green space close to Westmount. If done properly and with care, the highway project would preserve and enhance this green space by tree planting as well as the addition of a bicycle path and walking path to create a welcoming linear park.

Much of his information can be read in the new book Prince just assisted in editing, Montréal at the Crossroads: Superhighways, the Turcot and the Environment.

It is available at Paragraphe bookstore downtown.

The lecture series continues on Oct. 15 with a look at the 'The Ward Family and Album'.

Photo: Doreen Lindsay