In early June 2024, a young 32 -year -old seasonal worker from Guatemala was to spend a rest day with his work colleagues near a fall in the L’Assomption river, in Lanaudière. He drowned there after probably falling in the water. “He did not know how to swim,” wrote the coroner in charge of investigation.
The evening of Saint-Jean-Baptiste 2024, another immigrant, from Nigeria, was in a Montreal park. He lost his life after falling into a pond. According to Coroner’s investigation, he did not know how to swim.
In the neighbors
At the end of the summer of 2024, a four -year -old boy from immigration drowned in a Longueuil residential pool. He didn’t know how to swim.
The four -year -old toddler had escaped surveillance of the adult who was responsible for it. The little one had ventured by a neighbor’s swimming pool. He had undressed and had left his clothes on the terrace, which allowed the Coroner to conclude that the death was not due to an accidental fall in the water.
“The outside temperature was around 25 degrees. Young’s clothes are visibly found in several places on the terrace telling me that the child’s intention was to bathe ”
— Extract from the Rudi Daelman Coroner report
A research notice was launched by the Longueuil police after the adult responsible for the child had noticed his disappearance. The research had taken place in the sector until the little boy’s clothes are discovered by a neighbor. The pool water was troubled and green and the police had to do in -depth research to find the boy’s body.
Recommendation
This drama pushed the Coroner Rudi Daelman to recommend to the Quebec Rescue Company “to deploy prevention tools for preschool children in collaboration with the ministries concerned”, including that of immigration, francization and integration.
Was this recommendation heard? “Absolutely,” says Raynald Hawkins. We have relaunched approaches with ministries and Francisation schools. You have to get prevention messages to the various communities, ”notes the director general of the rescue company.
He explains that some tools that may seem trivial are not necessarily so for everyone. “A very simple example: pictograms. We think it is a practically universal language, but we realized that not. In some communities, pictograms are not used, ”explains the managing director.
He adds that newcomers are a “hyper -important” target group in drowning prevention.
Although the organization has no specific statistics on the number of drownings in immigrants, Mr. Hawkins stresses that work remains to be done to explain the “Canadian aquatic context” to immigrant communities.
“In Ontario, prevention campaigns have been deployed in several languages and we also work on the concept,” adds Hawkins.
Not the first recommendation
Another coroner had made a similar recommendation following the drowning of a new arrival, which occurred in 2022, in Quebec. The 22-year-old was swept away by the Saint-Charles river.
