NORTHERN ONTARIO
Northern Ontario

    • Week spotlights importance of water safety

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    As the dog days of summer push on, Lifesaving Society Ontario has designated this week National Drowning Prevention Week.

    Each year in Canada, between 425 and 450 drownings occur, including about 164 in Ontario.

    For every drowning death in Ontario, the Society said there are around four non-fatal incidents that are serious enough to require an emergency department visit and could result in debilitating impairments.

    “When you think of lifejackets when you’re swimming in an open water setting, bring those life jackets to the beach with you, you never know when the waves are going to pick up,” said Stephanie Bakalar, of Lifesaving Society Ontario.

    Bakalar said fatal drownings are more common in lakes and large bodies of water, while non-fatal drownings are more common in pools.

    Youths up to the age of 19 are at the highest risk of drowning, and 97 per cent of children who drown under the age of five have supervision that is absent or distracted, the society said.

    “Most drownings actually happen 15 metres from a point of safety, which isn’t very far,” Bakalar said.

    “So it tells me we’re missing some key things. We’re missing lifejackets, we’re missing on learning how to swim and knowing what to do if someone gets into trouble.”

    Bakalar added that alcohol should be kept away from boat riders and boat operators, as boating is the second-most common risk factor for drownings.

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    A man who has brain damage has a murder conviction reversed after a 34-year fight

    A man who has brain damage and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a shopkeeper in London had his decades-old conviction quashed Wednesday by an appeals court troubled by the possibility police elicited a false confession from a mentally vulnerable man. Oliver Campbell, who suffered cognitive impairment as a baby and struggles with his concentration and memory, was 21 when he was jailed in 1991 after being convicted based partly on admissions his lawyer said were coerced. “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years," Campbell said. “I can start my life an innocent man.” Campbell, now in his 50s, was convicted of the robbery and murder of Baldev Hoondle, who was shot in the head in his shop in the Hackney area of east London in July 1990. He had a previous appeal rejected in 1994 and was released from prison in 2002 on conditions that could have returned him to prison if he got into trouble. Defense lawyer Michael Birnbaum said police lied to Campbell and “badgered and bullied” him into giving a false confession by admitting he pulled the trigger in an accident. He was interviewed more than a dozen times, including sessions without either a lawyer or other adult present. His learning disability put him “out of his depth” and he was "simply unable to do justice to himself,” Birnbaum said. He said the admissions were nonsense riddled with inconsistencies that contradicted facts in the case. At trial, he testified that he was not involved in the robbery and had been somewhere else though he couldn't remember where. A co-defendant, Eric Samuels, who has since died, pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, he told his lawyer Campbell was not the gunman and later told others Campbell wasn’t with him during the robbery. Lawyers continued to advocate for Campbell that he wasn't the killer and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential injustices. The three judges on the Court of Appeal rejected most of Birnbaum's grounds for appeal but said they were troubled by the conviction in light of a new understanding of the reliability of admissions from someone with a mental disability. The panel quashed the conviction as 'unsafe,' and refused to order a retrial.

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