How many is too many? The burden of drownings in Windsor-Essex County

Far too many residents have been involved in fatal drowning incidents in the last year in Windsor-Essex. 

In May, two young men, at least one of them an international student, drowned at Sandpoint Beach in Windsor when they went under the water and failed to surface. 

Then in June, a 16-year-old from Tilbury drowned in Lake St. Clair near Lakeshore.  

Later in June, the body of a 32-year-old man was recovered off the Leamington pier after he drowned in Lake Erie. A 46-year-old man met the same fate, in the exact same area, just two months later in August.  

September brought the tragic deaths of two young children in backyard pools – an infant in Harrow and a five-year-old girl in Windsor – mere days apart. 

The Statistics 

These individuals are just a small sample of the drownings that occur every year, not just in Windsor, but across Ontario. The World Health Organization lists drowning as one of the top global causes of death. 

In line with their drowning prevention mission, the Lifesaving Society of Ontario releases a national and provincial drowning report each year. 

“Our desire is to eradicate drowning,” said Stephanie Bakalar, Senior Communications Officer for the Lifesaving Society Ontario. “This is our mission. We want to eradicate drowning in Canada. If we have 100 people drowning a year in Ontario, that’s too many.” 

Ontario’s report for 2024 shows that individuals who are drowning are predominantly male, with 24 per cent aged 65 or older. Forty-eight per cent of drownings occur in a lake or pond and 68 per cent of them occur during the summer season from May to September. Risk factors like not wearing a Personal Floatation Device, consuming alcohol or not knowing how to swim increase the likelihood that someone will drown. And 97 per cent of drownings involving children occurred when supervision was distracted or absent. But even these valuable statistics don’t speak to this year’s fatalities. 

George Turnbull is the Co-chair of the Lifesaving Society Windsor-Essex as well as the Team Leader of Aquatics for the municipality of Lakeshore.  

“They put all that information together from the coroner’s reports, possibly even the police reports and then they put that out in the drowning report in a general review,” said Turnbull. “And usually, that data is years behind. So by the time the current drowning report is released – I think this year for 2024, that’s pulling data from 2020 and prior. So it doesn’t really have anything from this year to speak about.” 

And the province-wide report doesn’t capture statistics specific to the area, although local advocates have a general idea of the severity of the situation. 

“I think we’re seeing locally probably between two to six drownings in a bad year and one or two in a good year,” said Dan Metcalfe, head of emergency management for the County of Essex and lead for the Windsor Essex County Drowning Prevention and Water Safety Coalition. “OPP generally keeps the stats on all the Great Lakes … but I usually keep kind of a loose idea of what’s going on with it and I get some feedback too from EMS. Not on specific patients, but the fact that it was a drowning and that sort of thing. And then, as a manager, I’m always reviewing the news, so I’m seeing these things, right? And this year, it’s been pretty rough.” 

Metcalfe wipes away tears as he reflects on the drowning incidents of the past year. 

“I get emotional because it’s dear to my heart and we got to save more people,” said Metcalfe. “It just breaks my heart, when someone perishes from drowning. It’s awful.” 

Public Education – are we doing enough? 

The Lifesaving Society offers a multitude of programming and resources. Their Swim For Life program is taught to all ages by affiliate aquatic facilities across the country and in many municipalities in Windsor-Essex County. A second, but equally important program called Swim to Survive, aimed at school-age children, teaches basic swimming skills and the dangers of water. It specifically focuses on how to survive an unexpected fall into deep water, with a ROLL-TREAD-SWIM standard: roll into the water, tread water for 30 seconds and swim 50 metres. 

Turnbull says the program is important for everyone, not just children. 

“Lifesaving would love to have everyone in Ontario or Canada or the world have the Swim to Survive standard completed,” said Turnbull. “So for a school group, that’s them participating and being successful…Specifically, I would say that’s everyone completing essentially a Swimmer Four level which is the same as that Swim to Survive standard – it is part of that program. After that, Lifesaving believes or hopes that they would have that basic knowledge of survival skill.” 

But even successful programs can have drawbacks. Jason Jolicoeur is the Supervisor of Community Programming at the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre (WIATC) as well as the Leadership Chair for the Lifesaving Society Ontario. He says not all children pass the Swim to Survive standard and many do not continue with swimming lessons in order to gain those valuable skills. 

“At least it gets them in the mindset of, someone’s there telling you: you cannot swim,” said Jolicoeur. “We’re getting water safety messages out to them, like you’ve participated in Swim to Survive. Which now is causing problems because parents were thinking, ‘Oh, now my child can swim on their own, they’ve done this Swim to Survive program.’ Which is not the case, right? So there was still an education piece missing there that we had to worry about. Sending something home with the kids – they’ve done this program, but you still need to keep watching your child if you have backyard pool.” 

As part of his role in emergency management, Metcalfe does community outreach and tries to promote the Lifesaving Society’s messages when doing so. 

“When I’m out and we’re doing public education events and we usually do about four or five throughout the Windsor-Essex Region and we’re gaining more as time goes on,” said Metcalfe. “But talking to families and talking to them about the Lifesaving Society, talking about swimming lessons and respect for the water and knowledge of the dangers – the currents, the drop offs and the pier currents. Plus all the dangers of diving off of a pier into unknown waters.” 

Metcalfe also raises awareness about the importance of wearing a lifejacket. 

“With my background with Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary for the last 10 years, [I know] the importance of having a lifejacket at all times in the boat,” said Metcalfe. “Because when you start to look at these stats, you start to see the majority of them are not wearing a PFD. They’re on a power boat and the majority are not wearing PFDs or a life jacket … there’s different types … A life jacket with the neck piece and its general thickness is based on your weight and size. That will likely be the best piece of equipment to keep you afloat even if you’re unconscious, because it tends to turn you over face out.” 

Bakalar says public education is particularly difficult with certain groups, including adults. The Lifesaving Society uses research to target specific at-risk groups, but those groups tend to change over time. 

“Risk factors change as certain populations age, different risk factors become a problem. And there’s also a lot of things that don’t change…men of a certain age are not going to wear life jackets. No matter how hard we try,” said Bakalar. “What we do is we’re constantly looking at these data points to see who is at risk and how can we adapt what we’ve told them…We now have our own kids to think about, perhaps. Where we have, ‘Ohh well, I’m an adult. I don’t need to wear a life jacket. That was just something I did as a child’ and those sorts of things.” 

Metcalfe has seen this firsthand. 

“I usually go up to the Colchester Fishing tournament and that’s where a lot of fishermen and families come to a boat or fishing on the shore and the competition,” said Metcalfe. “They’ve allowed me to set up and talk to these folks and I try to catch, especially the families with the young kids and/or the dads with the kids in tow. And I always ask the question, ‘So, are we wearing lifejackets?’ ‘Yeah, yeah!’ ‘Was dad wearing it?’ ‘No.’ ‘I don’t need it. It’s there, but I don’t need that.’ You know, that whole attitude. And it’s a hard thing to break.” 

Bakalar also says public awareness around non-fatal drowning is something that needs to change. 

“When look at things like non-fatal drowning, which we’ve recently been reporting on, people do not realize how serious non-fatal drowning is in Ontario and how it impacts people’s lives,” said Bakalar. “There’s a lot of awareness to be raised there because people hear drowning, and they think death. They need to understand that drowning can have a variety of outcomes and while some of those outcomes are death, some of it is severe lifelong impairment and we need to be really raising awareness of that. That’s a big area of study, a big area of focus for us right now. When you couple the fatal drowning and non-fatal drowning, the burden in Ontario is significant. And the burden across Canada is likely significant as well.” 

Unique Challenges 

What is being done specifically for at-risk groups, like international students and new Canadians? 

“We know from Lifesaving Society’s research, new Canadians are four times more likely to not know how to swim,” said Turnbull. “For new Canadians or international students who may have a language barrier, the Lifesaving Society offers water smart tip cards. It’s just some kind of general information, some quick hit, water smart information topics to try to make them aware. So just getting them those information points in a way that they can understand it is really the first step to getting them that awareness so they can be safe and hopefully keep themselves and their children safe around the water as well.” 

Jolicoeur has seen a large number of new Canadians and international students seek out swimming lessons. 

“A large portion [of new Canadians] want to swim and be part of the Canadian culture and a good chunk of them don’t know how,” said Jolicoeur.  

Jolicoeur previously worked in aquatics in Woodstock, where the influx of new Canadians had a huge impact on their programming. 

“When I first got there, we had one adult class and it would maybe run, but by the time I was done five years later, we were running multiple adults and teen classes,” said Jolicoeur. “Every night, multiple – more than one full and they were all pretty much new Canadians.”  

He’s now seeing the same thing happen in Windsor, especially downtown. Where they used to struggle to run one adult learn to swim class, the city now has nine almost-full adult classes running, seven of them Adult Level 1, with classes capping out at 10 people each. 

“I can’t confirm if they’re international students or not…I just know that there’s a lot of diversity in the adult programs, more than expected, which is a sign that more new Canadians are seeking out swimming lessons,” said Jolicoeur. “Which is great because then those people are mostly non-swimmers. So they’re all taking Adult One, they’re learning and they’re often coming back because they enjoy it. And some of them now are doing fit lanes and stuff.” 

Jolicoeur thinks we can go even further. 

“I really wanted to offer it in different languages and we started getting requests for female only swims – and that’s the big one,” said Jolicoeur. “One of the stats shows something like 50 per cent of Muslim women aren’t comfortable swimming at a public place because of the attire or they want that separation of male and female. We’ve accommodated it before…So that might be something we need to look at too.” 

At the higher level, Bakalar said Lifesaving Ontario has begun a new program specifically for new Canadians, available to anyone who is new to the country, though not all municipalities are taking advantage of it. 

“Our affiliates approach our public education department and we teach them how to deliver this program and then it either is delivered in their aquatic facilities or their recreation facilities, or they could deliver it through things like newcomer centers,” said Bakalar. “It’s a dry land introduction to water and explaining what safety factors they need to be aware of and things that they may not be aware of, because it just isn’t what they did at home…It’s completely free and it really is just like a grassroots public education effort.” 

Open-Water Risks 

Swimming at one of the area’s many picturesque beaches or in lakes, rivers, ponds – even creeks – present its own unique set of dangers. Metcalfe is a member of the Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium. 

“It’s been a great eye opener working with my US colleagues in the Great Lakes and we always talk about education because I’m part of their education committee,” said Metcalfe. “Not only is it boating safety, swimming safety, it’s also, what are the currents out there? How does the weather affect currents? How does structure, how does beach signage and warning systems and are there any lifeguards on the beaches, you know? What kind of devices do you have out there and what kind of, maybe, loan program do you have for your life jackets and PFDs? All those things. And what kind of public awareness are you doing and is it a community wide effort?” 

The Great Lakes present their own challenges, where erosion, currents and climate change can make drastic differences in the safety of a swimming environment. 

“You’ve got shorelines that change with the weather and if you talk to the conservation authority, they’ll tell you this,” said Metcalfe. “It’s come down, since probably 2022 … With currents, erosion offshore, the drop off underneath the water – and if you’re inexperienced – an international student or new immigrant or a migrant worker and you don’t have that swimming knowledge and the knowledge about those kinds of changes to our natural environment when you’re swimming in it, then that puts you at risk.  

“A lot of risk. And they don’t understand that because potentially they’re coming from a country where they’re not near water, they don’t get swimming lessons…they just don’t have the experience of the Great Lakes and our bodies of water.” 

Windsor-Essex currently has only one supervised beach in the whole county – Sandpoint in Windsor, which has lifeguards posted during the summer months. It has a designated swimming area, outside of which there are deadly currents and deep shipping lanes which have taken many more lives than just those of the two men in May. City officials have long debated moving the beach to safer waters – and in the wake of this year’s tragedies, more signage has been posted and fence heights have been raised to eight feet. 

One of the main reasons for lack of supervision? Fear of litigation. 

“It’s risky when you guard it, cause then you’re going to potentially be sued if there is a drowning – you’re more likely to be sued if there’s a drowning and have liability there,” said Jolicoeur. “But you’re also more likely to save someone.” 

Should we have more supervised beaches? Jolicoeur says, “yes.” 

“There’s a cost though and that’s where sometimes the recommendation is from a risk standpoint to not, which isn’t great, I think, because then that’s like ‘OK, it’s too risky to guard it, so we won’t.’ But then, it’s also a massive risk if you don’t.” 

But regardless of cost and logistics, the experts say it’s the best course of action. 

“What we as a Lifesaving Society would like to see is that public beaches are always supervised by lifeguards because we know that that is the safest thing that can happen,” said Bakalar. “Less than one per cent of drownings happen in lifeguard supervised settings. So we know that lifeguarding works and will reduce drownings. We also are aware that there are a lot of logistics that go into staffing these beaches.”  

Bakalar also says lifeguards tend to want more hours and longer seasons and lifeguards are not always available to work when the public would like beaches to be supervised. She says many lifeguards are young people in school, which causes larger issues with availability.  

Metcalfe says he has seen similar trends in the U.S. through his work with the Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium – lifeguards not being posted due to fear of legal action. 

“I don’t know all the details, but when you pull a guard, you’re pulling information and you’re pulling some safety off the beach,” said Metcalfe. “Your lifeguards are trained to watch and guard and observe and step forward when somebody’s doing something dangerous. And I think, just my opinion, I think we need to get away from that a little bit and maybe we need to put the guards back. And I don’t know what that’s going to take, but maybe we need to have the guards back on the beaches and on these shorelines and in these parks and these kinds of things. I don’t know if you can put a price on someone’s life.” 

Jolicoeur thinks with proper planning and support, it could happen. 

“Can we get there?” said Jolicoeur. “And there’s always pushback, right? Who’s going to pay for it? Where’s the money coming from? Who’s going to train them? But those are all things that I think we can figure out. They’re pretty easy. It’s a matter of getting council on board. So if people want that, they would have to push their counselors to get a report to see about doing that.” 

Some local beaches already have the infrastructure and resources, said Jolicoeur.  

“A good example I think is Colchester,” said Jolicoeur. “That beach is amazing. And it’s not huge. It wouldn’t take much to guard it. And there’s already staff there for the Marina. There’s already a building for them, you don’t have to put infrastructure up. You put up a couple lifeguard chairs, some equipment…That’s probably the easiest one to do.  

“Even Belle River’s [beach]. Everything’s right there too. And you can definitely tell it’s a need of the community. All these municipalities are funding their beaches and making them better and they’re destination spots. They’ve come a long way, but they haven’t invested in that piece. And it’s probably on purpose because they’re afraid of the risk. But, I bet someone will eventually decide to, and then it’ll probably be a domino effect of, ‘Well, if they’re doing it, we’ll do it.’ Someone has to take the first step though.” 

What can you do? 

Metcalfe says it is important to be mindful of supervision in and around the water. 

“We’re a peninsula, we’re surrounded on three sides by water and a lot of creeks and rivers in between,” said Metcalfe. “We enjoy our water here because we live here in the Great Lakes. But there’s some responsibilities and roles and awareness that everybody needs to have and take to heart: keep your children within arm’s reach and supervise well, don’t be on your phone. Don’t wander away from the pool and go inside. Don’t leave someone in there unsupervised. Whether that’s young children at risk or a child that is vulnerable because of challenges or even an elderly person with challenges…It’s not a good idea.” 

Bakalar says the best thing to do is to ask questions and get information. 

“We really want people to hear these messages first and foremost and head to our website and look for the water safety tips,” said Bakalar. “Ask your local professionals when you’re at the pool, if you’ve got questions. Ask when you go to the beach if there are lifeguards there. Swim in front of where the lifeguards are and feel free to ask questions and say, ‘do you have life jackets here?’ ‘What is available to me?’ We need more people to learn to swim and to take lessons – traditional swimming lessons, our Swim for Life program but also Swim to Survive.” 

Whether individuals view it as necessary or not, learning how to swim may save your life. 

“It’s just not important to some people, unfortunately,” said Turnbull. “It’s a life skill. Everyone should learn to swim and we can teach them…the biggest message I could push is to sign up for some lessons. There’s lots of availability still for this type of programming. And in those sessions, we’re not only teaching how to swim, but also how to be safe around the water and setting them up for success and safety in the water for the rest of their life…we can teach you, sign up.” 

For more information, visit www.lifesavingsociety.com.