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Residents who live near the Lachine Canal say they watched in disbelief as a company working for Parks Canada clear cut a tract of about 70 mature trees during the past week to make way for a new bike path.

“They were beautiful,” said Richard Bourhis, who took photos and alerted his condo neighbours when he spotted crews chopping limbs and an excavator tearing the remaining tree stumps out of the ground between Georges-Vanier Blvd. and Des Seigneurs St. on his morning walk last Thursday.

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“It was so sudden that nobody could get together to form a committee and stop them.”

The crews were back to take down more trees on Friday and again this past Tuesday and Wednesday.

Parks Canada announced on Aug. 7 that it will build a one-kilometre-long bike path on the north side of the canal, just east of Atwater Market, to add to the existing network along the waterway. But it didn’t warn that part of the $6-million project involved clear-cutting what is indicated on maps as green space in the continuation of Eclusiers Park.