TORONTO - A young man who was on a fatal school canoe trip nearly four years ago says he didn't notify the supervising teacher that a
student who later drowned appeared to be a bad swimmer.
Adrian Coufadis says he teased Jeremiah Perry about his poor swimming abilities after seeing the 15-year-old struggle to reach their canoe as it drifted away from shore on the first day of the trip.
He says Perry was wearing a life jacket at the time, as safety rules required for canoeing, and eventually managed to flutter-kick the canoe to shore while Coufadis paddled.
Under cross-examination today, Coufadis -- who was 19 at the time of the trip -- was asked whether he reported his initial observation regarding Perry's swimming to Nicholas Mills, the teacher leading the trip.
Coufadis acknowledged he didn't think to do so, adding he never saw Perry in the water without a life jacket during the multi-day trip to Algonquin Provincial Park.
Mills, a teacher at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute, is charged with criminal negligence causing death in Perry's drowning.
