Neighbours rescue boy, 8, and father after canoe capsizes (2024)

KINGSTON MILLS —A father and son were saved from drowning by the quick actions of residents living along the shore of the Rideau Canal near Green Island Sunday evening.

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The man and his son, 8, were on the lake around 5 p.m. when the canoe they were in was capsized by waves about a kilometre from the eastern shore.

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“I always look out for birds. I had my binoculars and I was looking and stuff and then I realized that’s a person,” said Ken Reid, who along with his wife, Janet, were among the first to respond to the emergency.

“If these two hadn’t spotted them, nobody would have ever known they were out there and they wouldn’t have survived,” neighbour Tina Carson said. “I heard him, the boy, hollering, ‘Help! Help!’ It was awful. It made my blood curdle.”

Once the neighbours had spotted the canoeists, they called emergency services to get a water rescue started.

It was Janet Reid’s idea to get the couple’s own small Highfield rigid inflatable boat ready to launch while they waited for firefighters to arrive.

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In the meantime, neighbour Gerry Sutton had set out for the middle of the lake in the only watercraft that was available, an aluminum paddleboat.

“The reason I took off when they were getting their boat out was that time was of the essence,” Sutton said. “If I don’t get going and they don’t get their boat going, at least I am going to be there. It would be the difference between life or death.”

Once in the water, the Reids passed Sutton a few hundred metres away from the overturned canoe.

“If we had failed, Gerry was there for sure,” Ken Reid said.

“When we passed Gerry, he was already at the channel,” Janet Reid added.

“I was almost there,” Sutton said. “As I was approaching them, the father was going under the water because he was trying to hold the kid up out of the water. Every time he pushed the kid up and onto the canoe, he was going under. He was really panicking; he was in bad shape.”

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When the Reids arrived, they circled around the canoe before taking them on board.

“I just informed him we were going to come around the other side of the canoe. We’re gonna pick up the child first,” Ken Reid said. “We did that and then I brought him over and yanked him into the side of the boat.”

Once on board, the canoeists were bundled in coats, and Ken Reid set course for shore as Janet Reid assessed their condition and asked them questions to see gauge their condition.

As they passed Sutton on the way back to shore, he handed over his coat before carrying on to check the overturned canoe to make sure no one else was under it.

Once back on shore, Frontenac Paramedics treated and transported the canoeists, who were in good condition, to Kingston General Hospital.

“Frontenac Paramedics would like to commend neighbours and bystanders for their quick action,” said Matt Mills, spokesperson for the County of Frontenac. “Also, to remind all that life-jackets can and do save lives. This incident may have turned out differently without them.”

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