2 people still missing after 6 bodies pulled from St. Lawrence River near Ontario-Quebec border
CBC
Police say they are still searching for two people after six bodies were recovered from the St. Lawrence River near Akwesasne.
The six dead include five adults and one child under the age of three who had a Canadian passport, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Services said in a media release on Friday morning. They are believed to be an Indian family and a Romanian family who were attempting to cross into the U.S. from Canada illegally, according to police.
Casey Oakes, 30, an Akwesasne resident, remains missing, police said. Oakes was last seen on Wednesday boarding a small, light blue vessel, leaving Cornwall Island. He was dressed in black, wearing a black face mask and a black tuque.
Also missing is an infant believed to be from the Romanian family.
Police located Oakes's vessel near the six bodies, Lee-Ann O'Brien, the deputy chief of police for the Akwesasne Mohawk police service, said at a news conference. They also located a Canadian passport that they believe belongs to the missing infant, she said.
A storm that brought high winds and sleet rolled through the area on Wednesday night. "It was not a good time to be out on the water," O'Brien said.
Kevin Sturge Lazore, Captain of the Akwasasne Fire Department's Station 3, which participated in the search Thursday afternoon, mobilized 15 volunteer firefighters to search the river on Thursday after Oakes's family reported him missing.
The firefighters recovered the boat, its hull dented on the bottom as if it had hit some ice or a rock, Lazore said.
He and O'Brien said the boat was small, and wouldn't have been able to safely carry seven or eight people.
"What that boat could handle and the amount of people in it, it doesn't make a pretty picture," Lazore said. "The river is always the major concern. … Our elders tell us, always be careful. Especially in the spring, with the run-off, the current is stronger."
It was a Canadian Armed Forces search and rescue helicopter that found the lifeless bodies on Thursday near St. Regis Island in the St. Lawrence River. All were wearing life jackets, according to Lazore.
Police said they are waiting on the results of a post-mortem and toxicology tests to determine the cause of death.
Quebec provincial police and the Ontario provincial police air support units are continuing to search for the two missing people.
Akwesasne is a community about 120 kilometres west of Montreal that straddles the Canada-U.S. border and occupies territory in Ontario, Quebec and New York state.
Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba will hold a public inquiry as soon as 2026 into the former Progressive Conservative government’s post-election efforts to approve an environmental licence for sand-mining company Sio Silica.
Premier Scott Moe has led the Saskatchewan Party through two straight elections, winning majority governments each time.
Eight weeks after adding a GM BrightDrop van to the fleet of his plumbing and heating business, Marty Salliss has no complaints, only praise.
Nearly half of Alberta’s Grade 6 students failed the provincewide math test in 2024, three years after the province started rolling out its new elementary school curriculum.
Toronto could get new cars on the road whose drivers will never get frustrated by gridlock — because the cars would be driving themselves.
Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, some London-area organizations say they have noticed a decline in donations this holiday season.
Prominent northern leaders have been touting the Arctic economic and security corridor as a "nation-building" project that will bring economic benefits to the two territories it straddles, but others are split on how much good will come out of it.
When the federal government tabled its 2025 budget last month, it included a proposal that tax fraud experts say is long overdue — if also a belated acknowledgement that the Canada Revenue Agency has been repeatedly duped into paying out untold millions in bogus tax refunds to scammers.
Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study.
While some are writing wishlists for Santa Claus, a group of Newfoundland and Labrador youth are writing their wishlist for the provincial government.
A horse owner near Stewiacke, N.S., says the current shortage of hay in the province is putting pressure on her financially.
Victoria Volkanova was remembering Jewish resilience and courage by celebrating Hanukkah on Sunday.
Winnipeggers are still digging out from this past week’s winter wallop, but the wait for roadside assistance is almost over, according to the provincial motoring association.