My girlfriend at the time and a classmate of mine were with me out at Ontario Place on Canada Day 2000 (July 1st, 2ooo). I think Benson and Hedges was still sponsoring the international fireworks competition back then when it was still legal for tobacco companies to advertise.

We had found a strategic spot near the water from which we could get a good view of the fireworks. While we were waiting for the fireworks to start, I noticed a little motor boat chugging slowly along the shore.

Well, it wasn’t really a shore. It was more like a pier. So I should have said that I noticed a little motor boat chugging slowly away from the pier.

Because I had the bright idea to show up 2 hours early in order to get a good vantage point for the fireworks, we were quite bored waiting around for the festivities to begin so this little motor boat caught our attention. It caught our attention so much that I noticed that it was riding very low in the water. I noticed that it was riding very low in the water because it had too many people in it.

Upon closer inspection I noticed 2 more things: nobody had life jackets on, and most of the people were sitting towards the bow which left the back end of the boat higher than the front…

Not being a boater, I didn’t comment but I did think that this isn’t the way boats are supposed to move through water.

As the boat slipped past about 10 feet in front of us, the bow dipped even further as more people shifted around at the front. The driver realized a problem and increased the throttle hoping to give the boat speed and force the bow up.

The opposite happened. The bow went further into the water–all the way in. The boat started to fill with water. Panic ensued. People stood up and moved to one side of the boat. The boat then capsized.

The victims were decent swimmers, even the 12-year old involved, and so the lack of life jackets didn’t pose a real problem. Ourselves, along with other people on shore around us managed to haul people out of the water.

The height distance from where we were on shore to the water line was about 3 feet, and as luck would have it, the largest person, an overweight woman happened to swim (or float) towards me. None of the other rescuers seemed interested in pulling her out.

My friend held on to my ankles while I tried to tug her out of the water. We finally got her out safely but I ended up with some moderate scrapes and bruises on my forearms from the whole process.

More curious people eventually showed up with the cops. We ended up leaving before the fireworks started because we got bored waiting around. We probably went back to my place and watched the fireworks on TV.