FATHER DROWNS RESCUING DAUGHTER IN CANOEING ACCIDENT

MINDEN HILLS — A father who saved his young daughter in a family canoeing accident Saturday afternoon in Haliburton drowned during the rescue.

Provincial police in Haliburton say that shortly after 2:30 p.m. Sept. 12 emergency crews responded to a 911 call about a capsized canoe on Moore Lake, which is just south of Minden on Hw. 35.

A North York family of four — a father, mother and two young girls — were paddling when their canoe capsized.

Boaters in the area arrived on the scene to support the family in distress.

The woman and the two children were pulled safely from the water.

But the dad who passed one of the girls to an individual on one of the rescue boats slipped under the water before being pulled out himself.

The OPP helicopter and Underwater Search and Recovery Unit (USRU) were dispatched to Moore Lake to support recovery efforts of the man involved in the incident. USRU worked together with the Minden Hills Fire Department to locate and recover the body of the missing boater.

The body of a 39-year-old North York man was recovered from the lake shortly after 6 p.m.

Police say they did not have lifejackets and say that absence of safety equipment was a significant contributing factor in this tragedy.

Moore Lake is about 10 kms south of Minden and eight kilometres west of Kinmount.