All Branches Closed for Canada Day

All branches close on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 for Canada Day. This includes branches with Extended Access.

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Monday, June 30, 2025 - 8:00am
Barton Branch Accessible Washroom Out of Order

The accessible washroom at Barton Branch is not working. We aim to get it fixed quickly.

Published:
Friday, June 27, 2025 - 3:15pm
Bookmobile Stops Cancelled- Canada Day

All HPL Branches are closed Canada Day, Tuesday, July 1. Extended Access is not available. The following Bookmobile visits are also cancelled on July 1st:

  • Riverdale
  • Strathcona
  • McMaster
  • Greencedar
  • Mountview

Regular service hours resume Wednesday, July 2.

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Tuesday, June 24, 2025 - 11:00am
Study Halls - Summer Break Pause

Study Halls are taking a summer break after Thursday, June 26. The service will resume in early September. 

www.hpl.ca/study-halls

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Friday, June 20, 2025 - 1:30pm
Terryberry Branch Elevator Out of Order

The parking lot elevator at Terryberry Branch is not working. Members will need to use the accessible ramp at the Mohawk entrance and the inner elevator. We're working to get it fixed quickly.

1
Published:
Saturday, May 31, 2025 - 1:00pm
Public Computers - Audio Volume

Please note that the audio volume levels on our public computers are having issues. The estimated time of disruption is unknown at this time. Thank you for your patience.

 

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Thursday, May 29, 2025 - 4:00pm
Mount Hope Branch Accessibile Ramp Not Available

The accessibility ramp at Mount Hope Branch is damaged. The handrail is not available. The ramp will not be available while being repaired. We aim to fix it quickly.

Published:
Friday, May 23, 2025 - 4:30pm

Desjardins Canal Disaster

Got out of the window

Desjardins Canal disaster, 1857
The German rescuing his friend from the car window. (Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 4 April 1857: 277.)

Henry August, passenger from Toronto, escaped from the first car. The escape of this person was most wonderful. He is a German; and he and the last named passenger were sitting together on the rear of the first passenger car. The moment they heard the first concussion, they got up and rushed together to the door, the latter only reached the platform. He jumped off just three feet from the chasm. The other car rushed by him and was gone. He stood for a moment paralyzed. He then ran down the hill, and was the means of saving from drowning his companion who was not in time to reach the platform. He dragged him out of a window, and comparatively unhurt.

A woman, who lives near the scene of the disaster, and who was the first to witness it, gives some interesting particulars about the two children - the Doyles - who so miraculously escaped. She rushed down the hill to the cars; indeed the poor woman literally rolled down, for it was so steep and slippery she could not keep her feet; and the first object that met her attention was the poor little girl, about eight years of age, on a cake of ice. The little thing said, "Oh, don't mind me, save my brother," and the poor little fellow was at the moment with his chin barely above the water, at the top of one of the windows, imploring some one to drag him out. The woman, though the ice was broken for some distance round the car, managed to reach him; and after rescuing him, rushed up the hill with one child in her arms, and got a passenger, who was himself badly wounded, to carry the girl on his back. She put them to bed; and strange to say, they got up with scarcely a mark. Owen Doyle, the uncle of the little girl, saved her by clasping her to his breast when he felt the car overturning, and throwing her out of the window after the crash. The little boy felt some one take him in his arms and fall under him, but he knew not whom. It is difficult to conceive a more melancholy spectacle, than these two children looking on the mangled remains of their mother, father, and nearly all who were dear to them.