Milton family says Dad died in Tofino

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A Milton woman is confirming that her father was one of the 5 Britons killed in Sunday’s sinking of a whale-watching boat off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Michele Slater Brown posted a heartfelt message on Facebook, along with a photo of herself with her 76-year-old father, Jack Slater.

Brown says she was told about her father’s death early Tuesday morning. In her post, she calls him “larger than life, a charmer, handsome, an entrepreneur, and engineer in the navy, and a lovely dad.”

According to the British Columbia coroners service, two of the five British nationals who died, were living in Canada: a woman in B.C. and a man in Ontario. In total, 21 people were rescued from the sinking boat, one person is still unaccounted for. Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade has confirmed that a 27-year-old Australian man from Sydney was missing following the incident.

The owner of the whale-watching vessel says he does not know why the boat flipped over. A fisherman who helped rescue many of the survivors, says one of them told him a sudden wave capsized the boat and there was no time to send a mayday call.