A grassroots movement sparked by a double drowning in northwestern Ontario this past summer is heading to the Greater Sudbury city council chamber next week. Councillors will vote on a motion that would formally petition the Ontario government to make water safety education a mandatory part of the provincial elementary school curriculum. Grandfather’s grief fuels a campaign for change The push for legislative change follows a heartbreaking accident last summer in Dryden. 12-year-old Jocelyn Grant accidentally fell into the Wabigoon River and her 15-year-old brother, Kayden, heroically jumped in to save her. Tragically, neither sibling survived. For their grandparents, Michael Williams and Evelyn Page, the loss is immeasurable. “It’s hard,” said Page. “I have their pictures in a small room that I have set up for just memories.” Williams has since turned his grief into advocacy. He told CTV News that neither Jocelyn nor Kayden were strong swimmers, a factor he believes turned a preventable accident into a fatal one. “Here’s a couple of young kids that had their whole life ahead of them and it got snuffed out,” Williams said. Local councillor champions motion after witnessing tragedy firsthand Councillor Mike Parent is championing the motion locally after a resident put him in contact with Williams. “The motion is directed to ask staff to have the Minister of Education integrate water safety, not necessarily, you know, water safety lessons, but water safety into the curriculum,” he said. “So that young persons have better awareness of what to do and what not to do when being around waterways.” Parent said his own experiences as a former paramedic was motivation to put the motion forward. “I attended a call at a lake where a young person had drowned,” he said. “I experienced the impact when the family arrived and it’s not something I’d want to see happen to anyone in this situation.” Parent said he felt the initiative is particularly relevant to Sudbury. “As a municipality that has over 300 lakes within our geography, I felt a responsibility to bring this resolution forward,” he said. Advocates push for ‘water literacy’ in classrooms to save lives The Lifesaving Society of Ontario reports that between 2007 and 2023, 63 children drowned in the province. Stephanie Bakalar, senior officer of communications with the society, said that many of these deaths could have been avoided through basic water safety education and survival swimming skills. “What we see most often with children in this age group is that they are either unable to swim, or haven’t had access to formal swimming lessons,” she said. The proposed mandate wouldn’t necessarily require every school to have a pool. Instead, advocates are pushing for “water literacy” – classroom-based education that teaches students how to identify risks, understand currents and handle cold-water immersion before they ever reach the shoreline. Several other Ontario municipalities, including Dryden, Thunder Bay, Wasaga Beach, Niagara Falls and St. Catharines, have already passed similar motions. For Williams, he said he wants to ensure that no other grandparent has to experience the same pain. “You can’t go back and change what’s already done,” said Williams. “You can only use the experience to try to make sure that it happens a whole lot less.” CTV News reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Education for comment, but has not received a response. RELATED STORIES:
