Taking your kids swimming? Put your phone down, Lifesaving Society urges

As Canada heads into a long weekend, the Lifesaving Society is urging parents and caregivers not to have their phones in hand while watching children playing near water or swimming.

The society says there has been a spike in drowning deaths this year, particularly in Ontario and Quebec.

Last week alone, three people — including two young children and a 24-year-old male kayaker — died in three separate drownings in Ontario.

Although the specific circumstances of the deaths aren’t known, senior communications officer Stephanie Bakalar says absent or distracted caregivers are a factor in more than 90 per cent of drownings among children under five in Canada.

“Drowning is fast and it is silent and it can happen before you even realize it, which means that we have to have our eyes on our kids at all times,” Bakalar said.

The Lifesaving Society continues to hear “more and more” about children drowning while the people watching them are distracted, often by cellphones, she said.

“If you are going swimming, leave your phone somewhere on a table, face down, make sure you can call 911 if you need to, but do not have your phone in your hand. Do not look at it. Keep it away from you,” Bakalar said.

Whether it’s at a pool, at the beach or at the cottage, drownings can happen when the supervising adult looks away even for a moment.

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“We often hear of people who’ve quickly checked their cellphone or turned to put sunscreen on another child. You could even be doing up a life-jacket for one of your kids while your other kid impatiently jumps in and starts to drown,” Bakalar said.

At events such as pool parties, it’s important to have a designated adult in charge of watching children at all times — and they should not be drinking and should know how to swim, she said.

If that adult has to stop watching even for a few seconds, they should tag another adult in and clearly communicate that they are now responsible.

In addition to children, younger men have a higher risk of drowning, largely because they often don’t wear life-jackets, she said.

“We’ve heard of many instances of young people in their late teens, early 20s, doing things to impress their friends and then their life is over,” she said.

“Wear the life-jackets, make the safe choices and have fun. You can absolutely have fun in a life-jacket.”

Preliminary data released Tuesday by the Drowning Prevention Research Centre Canada shows a small increase in water-related deaths between Jan. 1 and July 29 this year compared to the same period last year.

Across the country, the centre said it’s aware of 164 deaths in that time frame in 2024 and 168 this year.

Although the number of water-related deaths either decreased or held steady in several provinces year-over-year, Ontario and Quebec have both seen jumps.

According to the preliminary data, Ontario had 49 deaths between Jan. 1 and July 29 in 2024 and 57 during the same period this year.

Quebec’s water-related deaths jumped from 32 to 47.

The province with the next largest number of water-related deaths was British Columbia, with 23 deaths between January and July both this year and last year.

The Drowning Prevention Research Centre gets its data from internet and media monitoring services across Canada. It is subject to change later when official coroners’ and medical examiners’ investigations are complete.

Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner said there was an official total of 75 drowning deaths for all of 2024, down from 94 in 2023. It does not yet have official data on the number of drowning deaths that happened this year.

The Quebec coroner’s office said it did not yet have official data from either this year or 2024 as all investigations have not yet been completed, but said there were 90 drowning deaths in the province in 2023.

B.C.’s Office of the Chief Coroner said there were 98 accidental drowning deaths in total in 2024, down from 119 deaths reported in 2023.