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NUNAVUT
In the wake of three boating-related deaths in Nunavut on the Aug. 1 long weekend where none of the victims were wearing life-jackets, a national lifesaving organization is recommending changes to the current practices to help ensure public safety.

"I think there needs to be legislation changes. One that we really support is mandatory life-jacket wearing for people in smaller vessels under six metres (such as canoes and kayaks) ... and the other is learning basic swimming and survival skills because that can help you survive an unexpected fall into the water," said Barbara Byers, public education director for the Lifesaving Society, a national advocacy group.

On Aug. 1 at around 4 p.m., Noah Metuq, 46, of Pangnirtung was trying to remove the cap on his engine after it stalled, when he fell overboard. The strong Cumberland Sound current pulled him away from his seven-metre boat as family members on board tried to paddle towards him.

A boat passing by picked up Metuq and took him to the Pangnirtung Health Centre where he was pronounced dead a short time after, according to an Aug. 3 RCMP press release.

Const. Angelique Dignard, a media relations officer with the Nunavut RCMP, said Metuq was only in the water for three to five minutes and that he wasn't wearing a life-jacket.

On July 30, the bodies of two Arctic Bay brothers, Tommy Kalluk, 42, and Noah Kalluk, 46, were found dead in the water underneath their capsized boat in Admirality Inlet.

Neither of the men was wearing a life-jacket.

Byers said a common mistake is that people bring a life-jacket with them on board but don't put it on, thinking they will be able to just reach over and grab it before falling into the water. Going into the water, however, is usually an unexpected event, she added. In cases where the water is cold and someone falls overboard, the initial response is to gasp and take in water.

In cold water, she said, a person's limbs get numb quickly, making swimming enough to stay afloat extremely difficult. This is why many victims drown relatively quickly after falling into cold water, and this is how life-jackets help, she said, by keeping you afloat even as hypothermia sets in.

"If you have a life-jacket on, you can survive for six to eight hours (in cold water)," she said.

Although the official causes of death weren't released by press time, Byers said fatal boating accidents related to drowning happen all too often in the North.

Byers said that from 1997 to 2007, Nunavut had 12 drowning deaths. Six of those deaths occurred from 2005 to 2007, giving Nunavut the highest death rate per capita of drowning in Canada during that time.

Assuming that the three recent fatalities were caused by drowning, Byers said it isn't surprising that none of the men was wearing life-jackets.

"That's a common trend across Canada - that 90 per cent of people who drown while boating do not have a life-jacket."

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