Two men lost their lives on Quebec's waterways on Sunday when they drowned in rivers on the North Shore and in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.
In the evening, at around 8 p.m., emergency services had to intervene on the Sainte-Marguerite river, near Port-Cartier, on the North Shore, when a pontoon boat capsized.
Five people were on the pontoon. One of them, a 77-year-old man, was trapped under the boat.
After being extricated from under the pontoon, the man was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
"There was machinery on the pontoon, and this is probably what caused the boat to capsize," said Sûreté du Québec (SQ) spokesperson Sergeant Hugues Beaulieu on Monday.
The four other people on board the pontoon boat escaped unharmed.
Very early on Sunday, at around 4 a.m., the Ouiatchouan River in Saint-François-de-Sales, in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, was the scene of an incident.
A 61-year-old man was found unconscious in the river by his family.
"As there is no criminal element, this is a coroner's inquest. The coroner has requested an autopsy to determine the probable cause of death," said Beaulieu.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 4, 2023.
