Two people were taken to hospital in critical condition after being pulled from Montreal’s Lachine Canal late Saturday night.
According to Montreal’s fire department, one person fell into the canal and a second entered the water in an attempt to help.
Emergency services were alerted shortly before midnight and a joint search was conducted by the fire department and the Canadian Coast Guard using three boats near René-Lévesque Park.
Fire officials say sonar equipment eventually helped locate the two people. Officials have not stated how long they were believed to have been in the water.
Steve Macduff, a spokesperson for Urgences-santé, told Global News that six paramedics were deployed to the scene. He said responders provided medical intervention on scene and transported both patients to hospital.
Macduff said both people were in their early 20s. One was confirmed to be a man while the gender of the other was not known.
He said there was no update on the status of the patients.
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Paramedics and firefighters referred follow-up questions to the coroner’s office, who did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.
The case comes as Quebec’s water safety organization is calling on the province’s next government to permanently fund its school swimming program and strengthen drowning prevention efforts.
Twenty-two people have drowned in Quebec so far this year, according to data from the Société de sauvetage. That is on par with 2025; however, approximately 60 per cent of the drownings this year have occurred in rivers, compared with 27 per cent during the same period last year.
This number is a stark decrease from the near 200 drownings Quebec would see per year approximately 40 years ago, Raynald Hawkins, executive director of the Société de sauvetage, told Global News. But he said the majority of drownings are still preventable.
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.
“People will say I don’t have any choice, I have to jump in the water and try and reach them before I lose them. This is a kind of reaction we can have, particularly if it’s a very close person to us,” Hawkins said. “But don’t take a risk.”
He said that unless you are a trained swimmer, the best thing you can do is call 9-1-1.
In addition to permanently funding school swimming programs, Hawkins said he also supports calls from the Boating Safety Council to make wearing a lifejacket mandatory.
“Going in this direction we’re gonna see our numbers going down to 20 drownings in Québec and close to 100 in Canada and the average will be in the future maybe close to 40,” he said. “But again, when we have one drowning … [it] is too much for us.”
-with files from The Canadian Press
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