Five-year-old girl dies after canoe capsizes in Churchill, Manitoba

CHURCHILL, Man. – A five-year-old Manitoba girl has died after a canoe she was in with her family capsized in Churchill.

RCMP say they got a call late Wednesday afternoon near the town on the shores of Hudson Bay.

A canoe carrying a Winnipeg father and his two children — the girl and four-year-old boy — had tipped over on the Churchill River.

Mounties say a bystander called local tour operators, who helped pull the trio from the river.

The family was taken to hospital, where the girl succumbed to her injuries.

Police say the incident does not appear suspicious and all three were wearing life jackets.

“Our investigators are still looking into everything that took place,” RCMP spokeswoman Holly Plato said from Winnipeg.

“We don’t have a cause of death yet for this little girl. It’s still being investigated.”

She said she’s not sure what the river conditions were like at the time, or how long the family had been in the water.

“It would have been very, very cold though,” said Plato. “It’s very north.”