A 75-year-old North York man drowned after falling out of a canoe on Balsam Lake in Kawartha Lakes on Tuesday evening (July 29).
At around 6:21 p.m., Kawartha Lakes Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) responded to a marine call on Balsam Lake, where they were notified that a man in a canoe had gone overboard and failed to resurface.
OPP officers, including from the Marine Unit and Emergency Response Unit, patrolled the water extensively searching for the missing man but were unable to locate him before nightfall.
On Wednesday, the OPP Underwater Search and Recovery Unit assisted in the search and, at around 1:30 p.m., recovered the body of a 75-year-old man from North York.
Police are continuing to investigate the drowning.
“With capsized vessels and falling overboard the top contributing factors in boating deaths every year, a significant number of lives stand to be saved if boaters, personal watercraft users, and paddlers wore a lifejacket or personal flotation device,” the OPP states in a media release.
