Two people were in critical condition after being pulled from Montreal’s Lachine Canal late Saturday night in what appeared to be a rescue attempt, a scenario Quebec’s water safety organization says is a recurring risk in drowning deaths.
According to the Montreal fire department, one person fell into the canal and the second entered the water in an attempt to help. Data from the Canadian Drowning Prevention Research Centre show that in more than half of accidental drowning deaths, a rescue attempt is made, and about two-thirds of those who try to help have no rescue training.
The department said it received the initial call shortly before midnight near Parc René-Lévesque and launched a search involving two of its boats and one from the Canadian Coast Guard. Fire officials said sonar equipment aboard one of the department’s boats eventually helped locate the two people.
Steve MacDuff, a spokesperson for Urgences-santé, Quebec’s ambulance service, said both were taken to hospital in critical condition, adding that he could not comment on their condition after they were transferred there.
The Quebec coroner’s office did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
The rescue came as the Société de sauvetage, Quebec’s water safety organization, urged the province’s next government to permanently fund its school swimming program and expand drowning prevention efforts, particularly among newcomers.
Executive director Raynald Hawkins said making the program permanent would help prevent future drownings.
“We hope the next government can ensure this program continues because, according to the coroner, it is by investing in young students that many drownings can be prevented in the future,” he said.
The organization said 22 people had drowned in Quebec so far this year, about the same number as at this point in 2025. However, it said about 60 per cent of those drownings occurred in rivers, compared with 27 per cent during the same period last year.
Hawkins said many people underestimated the dangers of rivers because they often appear calm.
“Sometimes our rivers look inviting because they seem calm on the surface,” he said. “But the currents can be just as strong, if not stronger, than during the spring freshet. It’s just that the water levels are lower.”
He encouraged people to choose rivers with designated beaches.
The organization said the safest way to help someone in distress is to call 911 and reach them with a rope, pole or another object they can grab rather than entering the water.
Hawkins said newcomers were becoming increasingly overrepresented in drowning deaths, adding that community organizations had found many of the people they work with were comfortable going into the water but did not know how to swim.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2026.
— with files from Quentin Dufranne in Montreal
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
