RCMP say three children have died in separate drownings in Manitoba

WINNIPEG -

Three children died in separate drownings in Manitoba over a five-day period, RCMP said Tuesday.

A 23-month-old boy was found last Thursday in Island Lake outside his family's home in Garden Hill First Nation. The boy had been in the care of older siblings at the time and died in a Winnipeg hospital three days later, Mounties said.

About 15 kilometres away on another Island Lake shore, a 10-year-old girl drowned at St. Theresa Point First Nation.

Police said she and a friend had swum out too far on Sunday. A bystander managed to rescue the friend and a First Nation safety officer with dive equipment later found the girl in the water.

Both communities are part of the Island Lake Tribal Council. Grand Chief Scott Harper said the deaths have hit the area hard, and the council is offering support to the families and others.

"The community is going through a tough time with the loss of these two young children," Harper said Tuesday.

The third drowning occurred further south, in Portage la Prairie, on Monday. RCMP said a two-year-old boy wandered away from family members and drowned in a nearby retention pond.

Manitoba sees an average of 22 drownings a year, indicate statistics from Lifesaving Society Manitoba, which runs swimming instruction and water safety programs across the province.

"We can't even imagine what the families are going through," Christopher Love, the society's Water Smart and safety management coordinator, said in an interview.

Love said he could not speak specifically to the recent cases, as the details are not yet known.

But generally, he said, people need to keep in mind that drowning is usually not easy to spot.

"Our drowning research that we've done for many, many, many decades at this point shows that drowning is very fast, it is very quiet, it is very easily missed," Love said.

The society offers remote and northern communities weeklong visits, where instructors teach survival swimming, first aid and tips for parents to keep children safe.

Key measures to prevent kids from drowning include life-jackets and close adult supervision, Love said.

"Essentially, before they're teenagers, under age 13, there always needs to be an adult watching those children when they're in, on or near the water.

"And when we're talking extremely young children -- we're talking here six and under -- that active adult supervision needs to be within arm's reach."

RCMP said all three drownings are being investigated.

Harper said the Island Lake communities have run water safety programs and swimming lessons in the past, and may bolster them in the near future.

"This is something that we want to try and continue, and maybe even improve it somehow," he said. "But I think there was less and less of that happening over the years."

   This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2023.