18-06-2025
Tweed, Ont. resident helps students whose canoe capsized
Ontario Provincial Police say a quick-acting resident of Tweed, Ont. helped three young people whose canoe capsized on Stoco Lake Tuesday morning.
Police say three students from out of town were staying at a rental and had gone out onto the lake at around 6:15 a.m. to watch the sunrise. When they lost a paddle, the canoe capsized as they tried to retrieve it. One of them was not wearing a lifejacket, police say.
A local resident heard their calls for help and took his pontoon boat to rescue the young people. All three were brought safely to shore, OPP say.
'The OPP would like to thank everyone who assisted in this rescue. Swift action to call police and rescue these students may have saved their lives,' police said in a post on X.
OPP say that 17 of the 23 people who died on OPP-patrolled waterways last year were not wearing lifejackets.
'A lifejacket keeps you afloat when you suddenly and unexpectedly fall out of or are thrown from your vessel. Falling overboard and capsized vessels are the leading causes of OPP-investigated boating/paddling fatalities every year,' police said.
Stoco Lake is approximately 100 kilometres northwest of downtown Kingston, Ont.
