Mother and son die after drowning in Montreal pool

A 34-year-old woman and her three-year-old son died Tuesday evening after drowning in a residential pool in the Lachine borough of Montreal.

Police officers were called to the scene around 9:35 p.m. for two possible drownings at a home on 20th Avenue near Provost Street.

Upon arrival, they found both victims unresponsive. Despite resuscitation efforts by police and paramedics, the woman and child were pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the investigative evidence gathered at the scene by Montreal Police (SPVM), there appears to be no criminal element to this tragedy.

“This was an accidental incident,” confirmed Officer Caroline Chèvrefils, spokesperson for the SPVM.

The coroner’s office has been notified of these deaths, and an investigation is underway by Coroner Dr. Edgard Nassif.

“Upon completion of his investigation, the coroner will prepare a report detailing the identity of the deceased, the date and place of death, as well as the probable causes and circumstances surrounding the death,” said Jake Lamotta Granato, a spokesperson for the Quebec coroner’s office.

“If deemed appropriate, he may also make recommendations, which are preventive measures aimed at protecting human life and preventing deaths in similar circumstances,” he added.

The coroner’s investigation process is confidential until the release of his final report, which is public.

Advice from LifeSaving Society

Until the results of the investigation are made public, Raynald Hawkins of the Lifesaving Society says he can only speculate on what happened, but he says it could be a case of the mother trying to save her child in the deep end of the pool.

“As a parent, I always say, when you see your child or your grandchild or your relative in a drowning situation, for sure the first step you have to do is call 911,” said Hawkins, the executive director for the group’s Quebec branch. “Particularly if you don’t have any equipment, particularly if you don’t have any flotation device, particularly if you are non-swimmers.”

Hawkins says the biggest risk factor when it comes to children around swimming pools is accessibility — such as a lack of fencing or gates that do not lock automatically.

“So that means they have direct access from the house to the backyard pool where we have the pool. It is this factor involved with this situation? I don’t know right now,” he said.

“But I think it is very important to remember, please stay on the shallow end and use the expression ‘arm reach.’ That means if your child is too far, if you cannot take him by your hand right now… The similarity I am doing is like the street, you know, as soon as they walk, we say to the child, you cannot go near the street or you cannot cross the street without mom or dad or with an adult. This is the same reality with the swimming pool, or lakes or any open water you have near your cottage. So, we need to be aware of that.”

Hawkins says this was the second and third drownings in swimming pools in Quebec this year, after a senior also drowned in a backyard pool.

The Quebec branch of the Lifesaving Society says there have been 17 drownings so far this year in Quebec compared to 20 during the same period last year, with Hawkins adding most drowning deaths in the province are in rivers and lakes.

Lachine residents react

CityNews spoke to Lachine residents Wednesday morning who said the community was left shaken by the two deaths.

“It’s very sad as a neighbour to hear news like that because my son knows the son that died,” said Eto Kileme.

“Everybody knows each other. Everybody, every time that we go to take our kids at the school we see each other so we know each other and it’s very sad.”

Kileme says it hit close to home as a mother of four children, with a fifth on the way.

“I can’t even imagine the pain, the emotion in which he finds himself,” she said, speaking of the father and husband. “It’s not easy. We’re in the middle of, half of the year, you lose your wife, you lose your child. It’s traumatizing. It’s really traumatizing.

“All my condolences to the family, also to the community. It’s a community where everyone knows each other. “

A resident who lives not far from the home where the drowning took place said the woman who died was a good mother who took care of her four children, who have also played with her son. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, added she is very sad about the incident.

Fellow Lachine resident Loïc Poupart said it was a “very sad” situation.

“There’s pools basically almost everywhere,” Poupart said. “But in every city, when it’s summertime, it happens unfortunately and it’s harder when it’s a kid that’s involved, too.

“Obviously it’s a tragedy and we send, everybody sends their sympathy to the family.”

—With files from La Presse Canadienne