Boaters urged to wear their lifejackets
May 18, 2010
This year’s National Lifejacket Day on May 20 comes just days after a provincial court decision upheld Calgary’s bylaw that requires boaters to wear (not just carry) a lifejacket while boating or face a $500 fine. According to media reports, the bylaw has been in place since 1979 but the city has been working to more strictly enforce it in recent years.
With drowning research showing that almost 90% of the nearly 200 boaters who drown each year are either not wearing a lifejacket or wearing it improperly, the Red Cross urges people to “wear your lifejacket this summer and make every boating outing a return trip.”
It notes that today’s lifejackets are comfortable and stylish and designed for specific activities, including water skiing, fishing, kayaking and rafting.
In Calgary, the two 20-something siblings who launched the constitutional challenge against the bylaw were fined for rafting down a river without wearing (nor were they carrying in their raft) lifejackets. They said they will appeal the decision, arguing it should be their choice whether to wear a lifejacket while floating down the shallow river. The judge concluded that just because the federal government has jurisdiction over waterways and only requires that lifejackets be carried in boats doesn’t mean a municipality can’t go further and require its citizens to actually wear them while boating.
