Fishing tragedy in northeastern Que.: Support workers dispatched to local schools

Support services will be offered at three Quebec schools on Monday after a tragic fishing incident claimed the lives of four children.

The children, all above age ten, were among a group of 11 people swept up by the tide late Friday night while fishing along the shore in Portneuf-sur-Mer, a village about 550 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

A man in his 30s also died, while the six others in the party were rescued.

The four young victims attended three schools within the CSS (school service centre) de l’Estuaire, which oversees schools in part of Quebec’s Côte-Nord region.

“As soon as we were informed of the sad events on Saturday morning, we mobilized to organize psychosocial support for the victims’ loved ones,” CSS spokesperson Patricia Lavoie told CTV News in an email.

“We’re in small communities, and beyond the families directly affected, a tragedy like this has a huge impact on a wide range of young people, as well as staff members at many of the establishments in our territory.”

Lavoie said about 15 support workers will be spread across the across the affected schools on Monday to help students in need.

“We are also in constant contact with the healthcare network in case additional resources need to be deployed to cover all needs,” she said.

The children’s bodies were discovered unresponsive on the river bank Saturday morning, with their deaths confirmed a few hours later.

The fifth victim, an adult man, was pulled from the waters later in the day following an exhaustive search.

Provincial police (SQ) said Saturday that the victims were fishing for capelin, a forage species that often swarm riverbanks late at night.

The sandbank where the victims stood is accessed by all-terrain vehicles. Police say they were caught on part of the peninsula that can become submerged up to four feet when the tide rises.

Authorities have yet to reveal the victims’ identities but said they were known to each other.