Lac-Megantic marks seventh anniversary of rail disaster with memorial

Seven years after a rail disaster decimated its downtown, LacMegantic sought Monday to honour both its past and future by inaugurating a long-planned memorial space at the site at the heart of the tragedy.

On July 6, 2013, a runaway train hauling tanker cars loaded with volatile crude oil derailed in the Quebec town of 6,000 and exploded, claiming 47 lives and destroying a large part of the downtown area.

The memorial — which has taken three years to construct — will be set up at the site of the former Musi-Cafe in the heart of the town, where staff and patrons made up many of the victims.

Mayor Julie Morin said that, like the Musi-Cafe, the new space would serve as a gathering place and an “anchor” for the community.

While the space has been inaugurated, Morin noted that construction delays due to COVID-19 meant that some elements have yet to be completed. In her speech, she drew parallels to the rebuilding of the town’s downtown and the citizens’ mourning process.

“Since the night of July 6, history has taught us that rebuilding our lives, rebuilding our city, takes time,” she said. “The appropriation of the (commemorative site) will happen in the same way, gradually.”

She said the space should be completed by Aug. 15.

The project, designed by architects Pierre Thibault and Jerome

Lapierre, was created with the objective of allowing everyone to remember, in their own way, the community-changing event.

Lapierre said the site was designed to be a “place of mixed emotions” that would represent both mourning and moving forward.

The site will feature “speaking” rocks from the Musi-Cafe site, which will be engraved with different words.

“The people who are going to come here will, through these rocks that speak, find memories of moments that I would say are ... difficult, but that I think have shown a community’s ability to pick itself up,” Thibault said.

There will also be 48 silhouettes, one for each of the 47 victims and an additional one representing residents and visitors to the memorial, the architects said.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic and physical distancing measures, the inauguration was streamed on Facebook.