The weight of Hélène Rowley Hotte’s death continues to echo through Quebec’s civic discourse. The 93-year-old mother of former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe died of hypothermia in January 2019 after becoming locked outside her seniors’ residence during a harsh Montreal winter night.
Her tragic death resurfaced this week as Quebec coroner Géhane Kamel delivered a sweeping report calling for fundamental changes to how our cities prioritize pedestrian safety. After investigating 13 pedestrian deaths between 2019-2022, Kamel’s findings point to systemic failures that continue to put our most vulnerable citizens at risk.
“The pedestrian deaths we’re seeing aren’t merely accidents—they represent design failures in our urban environment,” said Jean-François Gascon, spokesperson for Piétons Québec, who has spent years advocating for stronger safety measures. “These recommendations acknowledge what we’ve been saying: our streets prioritize vehicle movement over human lives.”
What makes Kamel’s report particularly powerful is how it connects individual tragedies to broader policy failures. Each death investigated revealed similar patterns: poorly designed intersections, inadequate crossing times, and street layouts that privilege driver convenience over pedestrian safety.
The recommendations arrive at a pivotal moment for Montreal. Mayor Valérie Plante’s administration has invested in its Vision Zero initiative, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities, but progress has been frustratingly slow. According to SAAQ data, pedestrian deaths in Quebec have remained stubbornly consistent, with 69 fatalities in 2021 and 70 in 2022.
“These aren’t just statistics,” Sophie Lanctôt of Société Logique told me during a rainy walk through a Montreal intersection flagged in the report. “Each number represents a family shattered, a community member lost. And what’s most heartbreaking is how preventable these deaths are.”
The coroner’s most ambitious recommendation involves lowering speed limits to 30 km/h in residential areas and school zones—a measure already implemented in parts of Montreal but lacking consistent enforcement. Kamel also calls for redesigning problematic intersections, extending pedestrian crossing times, and better protecting vulnerable road users.
For Pierre Barrieau, urban planning professor at Université de Montréal, the report highlights tensions between competing visions of urban mobility. “We’re witnessing a fundamental shift in how we conceptualize streets,” he explained. “For decades, we designed cities around moving cars efficiently. Now we’re trying to reclaim that space for people, and that transition creates conflict.”
That conflict plays out in community consultations where business owners worry about parking impacts and commuters fear longer travel times. But the report’s findings make a compelling case that these concerns must be balanced against the literal life-and-death consequences of our current approach.
The report specifically highlights Montreal intersections like St-Denis and Rosemont Boulevard, where 81-year-old Cécile Deschênes was struck and killed by a turning truck in 2020. The coroner found she had just 13 seconds to cross six lanes of traffic—barely enough time for someone without mobility issues, let alone seniors or those with disabilities.
Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault acknowledged the report’s findings but stopped short of committing to specific implementation timelines. “We’re reviewing these recommendations carefully,” she stated in an email response. “Road safety remains a priority for our government.”
For families who have lost loved ones, such measured responses feel inadequate. Marie-Claude Dagenais, whose mother was killed at a poorly designed crossing in Rosemont, expressed frustration with the pace of change. “Every day that passes without these improvements means another family might experience what we did,” she said, her voice breaking slightly. “How many reports do we need before action happens?”
The report’s timing coincides with Montreal’s construction season, providing an immediate opportunity to incorporate safety improvements into planned roadwork. According to city data, Montreal has allocated $24.7 million for pedestrian infrastructure improvements this year—a figure advocates say should be substantially increased.
What makes Kamel’s recommendations particularly powerful is their holistic approach. Rather than focusing solely on driver behavior, they acknowledge the role of street design in shaping how people move through urban spaces. Research consistently shows that physical infrastructure changes—narrower lanes, shorter crossing distances, protected intersections—are more effective than education campaigns or enforcement alone.
For those who walk Montreal’s streets daily, these changes can’t come soon enough. “I think about my safety at every intersection,” said Monique Chartrand, 74, whom I met using her walker to navigate the Plateau neighborhood. “I’ve simply stopped crossing at certain streets because I know I can’t make it across in time. That’s no way to live in your own city.”
As Montreal contemplates these recommendations, the true measure of their impact won’t be found in official responses or press releases, but in whether our streets become genuinely safer for everyone who uses them—particularly our most vulnerable citizens.
The ghost of Hélène Rowley Hotte and twelve others haunt this report. The question now is whether their deaths will catalyze the changes needed to prevent more names from being added to that solemn list.
