Online Resources and Guest WiFi Access - Sunday, October 12

Due to network maintenance, online resources and Guest Wi-Fi will not be available on Sunday, October 12, from
6 am to 5 pm. Thank you for your patience.

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Tuesday, October 7, 2025 - 2:30pm
Delayed Branch Openings 

The following locations have upcoming delayed openings due to Staff training drills. 

Monday, October 20 
Ancaster Branch, 10 am 

Tuesday, October 21 
Central Library, 10 am 
Sherwood Branch, 10 am 

Thursday, October 23
Locke Branch, 10am

You may visit nearby Branches for your library needs. www.hpl.ca/hours

 

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Tuesday, October 7, 2025 - 2:00pm
All Branches Closed for October 12

All branches close on Sunday, October 12, 2025 for Thanksgiving. This includes branches with Extended Access.

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Monday, October 6, 2025 - 2:00pm
Branch Closures - Thanksgiving

All HPL Branches are closed on Thanksgiving Monday, October 13. Bookmobile is off the road. Extended Access and Study Hall services are not available. Regular service hours resume on Tuesday, October 14. Our Virtual Branch is open at hpl.ca.

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Monday, October 6, 2025 - 2:00pm
Interlibrary Loan Service on Pause

Interlibrary Loan (ILLO) service will be temporarily paused starting Friday, September 26, due to continued negotiations between CUPW and Canada Post. We apologize for the inconvenience.

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Friday, September 26, 2025 - 1:00pm
Replacement and Damage Fees

Bring back your borrowed library items (due Oct 1 or later) within 28 days to avoid a replacement or lost fee. We'll remove the fee when you bring back your overdue items. 

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Thursday, September 11, 2025 - 3:00pm
Kenilworth Branch - Temporary Closure (Sept 2 - Oct 20)

Due to roof repair maintenance, the Branch is temporarily closed from September 2 until October 20. Please visit the Red Hill, Parkdale, and Barton locations as your nearest branches for your library needs. Thank you for your patience.

1
Published:
Monday, August 11, 2025 - 8:00am

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.