Community honours 12 Black children who drowned 70 years ago

Saturday marks a tragic anniversary in the Montreal area.

Seventy years ago, on July 13, 1954, 12 black children drowned near Ile-Bizard when they were on a day trip with the Little Burgundy Negro Community Centre.

Dozens gathered for a memorial in the same park where the children died on Saturday.

“It was just this heavy, dark secret,” said organizer Allison Saunders.

Saunders’ mother lost two cousins on that day, and she said that for decades people suffered in silence.

“People were not really allowed to talk about it or our families were kind of, you know, not allowed to go swimming or not allowed to be far from their parents, but never really knowing why that is,” she said.

On that July day, more than 60 children from the community centre came to the park on a day trip.

A local businessman offered to take groups of the children for a ride on his boat.

Tragically, the boat capsized, and though some were saved, a dozen of them never returned to shore.

Delia Walton’s identical twin sister Doreen was one of those lost. The girls were eight years old at the time.

“I went inside myself for a year,” said Delia. “I can’t tell you what happened when I was nine, but I know that when I was 10, I told them, ‘I need to learn how to swim.'”

None of the children who died knew how to swim.

David Tagrieff was 12 at the time and came on the trip with his mother, who helped organize the excursion.

He jumped into a boat when he saw what was happening.

“I grabbed the oars and was able to row the boat over to where the accident was and jumped in,” he said. “One girl was face down in the water, and I grabbed her by her hair.

“I think she was the girl that was visiting from Brazil for the summer, and [I] got her to the boat. Then, I turned around, and there was another boy who had his arms wrapped against [something]. I had to break his grip. He went down, but I grabbed him by the wrist, and I was able to bring him back to the boat.”

He managed to save both children.

The tragedy led to changes around boating regulations, but many from the centre are pushing for mandatory swimming lessons in schools.

Organizers unveiled a new memorial plaque, featuring the victims’ names in the hopes that more will learn their story.

“I think it’s really nice to have it marked so that people, again, can come and remember them, and learn a little bit about this story,” said Saunders.