by LORRAINE CARPENTER

What was once “the cradle of Canadian industrialization” is now known primarily for its recreation potential. Seafaring types with boats, rafts, kayaks and canoes navigate its waters from Lac St. Louis to the Old Port, including the marina and the Lachine Rapids, while cyclists stick to the bike path, a convenient route through the city’s somewhat dilapidated south end, from Lachine to Old Montreal. But the Lachine Canal was once more than a playground and a short cut—this national historic site and national park was the backbone of the city, the source of the industrial boom that attracted the working class people who built the neighbourhoods we live in today. And that’s just the canal as a whole—the 19th century relics on its banks have histories of their own.

“Many of the structures along the canal are important on a continental and even on a global scale,” says Parks Canada’s Paul-Emile Cadorette, pointing out that the Canada Malting silos, the Lasalle coal derrick and the Ogilvie flour mill are the only remaining structures of their kind in the city, the continent and the world, respectively.

The old industrial quarter that houses these structures essentially died with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, and the subsequent closure of the Canal in 1970. But, surprisingly, many of them remain functional, and a dozen (including Redpath Sugar) have kept their original 19th century vocation.

Parks Canada hopes to shed such light on this city’s past, present and future with two series of free, bilingual tours of the Lachine Canal this summer. On Sunday, July 9, and again on July 30, participants can learn about the Canal via the evolution of environmental consciousness.

“We’ll evaluate the different attitudes or behaviours related to the protection or conservation of the environment over time,” says Cadorette. “It’s obvious that today we pay a price for the way [the Canal developped].”

This tour promises some insight into sustainable development—an approach employed in the Canal’s revitalization from 1997–2002—and will include a stop at the Montreal Centre of Excellence in Brownfields Rehabilitation, which specializes in soil decontamination.

Anyone with a bicycle can attend the other tour series, a 16-kilometre trek at 10 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday up to and including September 3. The focus of this series is history, specifically the Canal’s contribution to the history of navigation and industrialization, as well as trivia about the surrounding land and remaining structures from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

As a joint preview of the tours’ environmental focus and little known facts, Cadorette offers this surprising tidbit about the Lachine Canal, to whet appetites, so to speak: “You can swim in it.”

Call (514) 283-6054 for details and reservations. Note that reservations are required, and tours will be cancelled due to rain.