View topic - Death inAlgonquin Park

I've read that too. The person who drowned was one of the 15 campers on the trip that did not pass the test.

Wow, that's going to cause a lot of grief for outdoor ed programs in Ontario. I haven't heard the report, but if that's true, it is shocking. The standards for the swim test are pretty low, I've only had about five people fail in over 20 years. It involves a rolling entry into deep water, treading water continuously for one minute, and the ability to swim 50 meters, any stroke, without stopping.

If the report is true, that 15 of the 33 kids didn't pass....well, I'm speechless.

Just found a link to the latest http://globalnews.ca/news/3674493/jerem ... quin-park/

30 out of 32 kids took the test, 15 passed.

There have been a series of tightening restrictions around school based canoe programs, all based on Coroners reports that happen after a tragedy. In general, they have been positive, using common sense and safety measures to bring about reasonable guidelines. If the guidelines are simply ignored, I suppose the next step will be to question whether or not these kinds of programs should even run.

I am also worried about how this will affect Scouting programs.

I remain adamant that an ability to swim should not be a requirement to go on a trip like this. But kids who cannot swim should be wearing life jackets when around water. In some circumstances we even make them all wear life jackets like last summer when the youth wanted to swim out to an island. Even though it was not far and we had a canoe with 2 adults going along with them, we made them all wear lifejackets.