{"id":491365,"date":"2026-02-22T04:50:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491365\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T04:50:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:50:26","slug":"annual-polar-bear-challenge-returns-to-lachine-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491365\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual Polar Bear challenge returns to Lachine Canal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Montreal police officers and elected officials dived into icy waters this morning for the SPVM\u2019s 18th annual Polar Bear Challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The event took place along the Lachine Canal, where Public Security Minister Ian Lafreni\u00e8re and Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada took part in the frigid fundraiser.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cThe rough time is once you get out of the water because it\u2019s minus-17 \u00a0C out there and you\u2019re just in your bathing suit,\u201d said Daniel Granger, Chairman of the board and Special Olympics Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Polar-bear-challenge-2026.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-468954\"  \/>Polar Bear Challenge in Lachine Canal Feb. 21, 2026. (Lola Kalder, CityNews)<\/p>\n<p>Proceeds support Olympiques Sp\u00e9ciaux Qu\u00e9bec, which offers year-round sports and health programs for athletes with intellectual disabilities and autism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe water is at about 2 to 3 degrees so it\u2019s really cold,\u201d said Jean-Pierre Brabant, spokesperson for the Montreal Police (SPVM).<\/p>\n<p> So it\u2019s a quick dive and quick up and people can go inside and get warm and if anything happens we\u2019ll be able to assess them<\/p>\n<p>Organizers say the Montreal challenge has raised more than $300,000 over the past three years and has set a goal of $115,000 for this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe help about 8,000 athletes across the province to basically practice and get in our sports program,\u201d said Granger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal police officers and elected officials dived into icy waters this morning for the SPVM\u2019s 18th annual Polar&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-491365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}