Three young grafitti artists were fatally struck by a train the night of October 31st 2010. I was painting this scene that week and doing a practicum under Little Burghundy social justice enthusiast, Rosalind Hampton whose son knew the families. Behind the wall next to the Lachine Canal in the painting is the area on Notre Dame St. at the Turcotte train interchange area where the artists died. I never swim in the canal but I make use of my rowing scull with my husband in the summer season when we can leave it with the Dragon Boats by the Monk St. bridge. When I do swim, I occasionally put my face in the water to mop up tears of grief.
Daryl Zoellner 
In the movie St-Henri August 26th which débuted in 2011, I saw someone swimming in the canal. It seemed to be an activity from another time. When I wade in the water to steady our rowing scull, I sometimes wonder if I have open cuts that might get infected. Industrial waste, as the woman who walks through the sewers in the video documentary might attest, sometimes gets into the canal through waste removal ducts directed into the water from the old factories along the canal.