The Etoile d'Or de Ste. Marie majorettes were a Montreal-area troupe of about 60 girls aged between 9 and 18 who twirled their batons in around 50 parades a year.None, however, was as ill-advised as that of Nov. 29, 1964 when they set out in heavy winds of 30 miles an hour to march along the waterfront on St. Joseph in Lachine.
The wind was so strong that it cracked a tree from its stump, causing it to tumble right on the girls in the parade.
Louise, Giguere, 15, and Diane Bedard, 15, were both killed when struck by the massive tree.
Reports suggest that one of two leaped in front of the tree to save Helene Lalumiere, 4, who was marching alongside them as a mascot.The rest of the girls in the parade might not have been aware of the tragedy that happened behind them, as they completed their route.
The killer tree was later found to have been rotten to the core.
Questions of liability would surely have come up if this same event occurred today but no lawsuits resulted as far as we know.
Family of a 27-year-old man named Gabriel Rossy attempted to sue Westmount after he was killed by a falling branch in 2006 but Supreme Court ruled against compensating him at the city's expense.
