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Ontario Authorities Probe Multiple Canada Day Weekend Water Deaths as Searches Continue

Ongoing probes into multiple drownings coincide with stretched search operations across Ontario waterways.

Ipperwash beach. (Postmedia file photo)
An Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) patch is seen in Ottawa, on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
Umbrellas line Ipperwash Beach as families celebrate Canada Day on the shores of Lake Huron on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, a day after an 18-year-old from London drowned at the beach and a 12-year-old from London was rescued by bystanders. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)
Ontario Provincial Police cruiser.

Overview

  • At Westboro Beach, an Ottawa father drowned on Wednesday after he and his child went underwater; bystander intervention saved the child, who was taken to CHEO Hospital as a precaution, and Ottawa Police Marine and Fire Services later recovered the father’s body.
  • Provincial police and the Canadian Coast Guard have deployed marine units, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre and OPP dive teams in a continued search for a boater who fell from his vessel near Milton Island on the St. Lawrence River.
  • Investigations at Ipperwash Beach on Lake Huron focus on two drownings—a 44-year-old Lambton Shores man who dove into shallow water from a boat and an 18-year-old London swimmer—after beachgoers rescued a 12-year-old from London.
  • The OPP Underwater Search and Recovery Unit located the body of a 34-year-old fisherman who went missing Saturday while fishing near the Appleton dam on the Mississippi River.
  • These events form part of a seasonal pattern in Ontario drownings, with about 160 fatalities annually and water incidents ranking as a leading cause of death for children under 14 in unguarded areas.