Found some more info ... the deceased kayaker was Serge Lapointe ... a longtime kayak fisherman, and a participant in a couple of kayak-fishing forums (posting as titowoody)...

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=757542
http://www.fish-hawk.net/hawktalk/viewtopic.php?t=27186

There is some conflicting information ... the Star article (the link upthread) suggested he was wearing a wetsuit, but one of the comments in texaskayakfisherman suggested he was fully outfitted with safety gear ... "survival dry-suit, VHF, GPS, etc." ... and various pics seem to corroborate ... could be the journalist, or the witnesses he was interviewing, simply doesn't know the difference between a drysuit and a wetsuit.

Seems he didn't own a sea-kayak ... one post says he only owned recreational and SOT kayaks ... the picture with the following article suggests he might have been paddling the one shown in the pic below ...

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=797950&auth=Susan+Gamble

There is one post, from a friend of his who participated in the search, that says there were no weather warnings about any possible squalls ... I don't get that ... I woke up at about 7:00 am to radio warnings about extreme high winds later in the day ... so the storm system was definitely forecast well in advance ... when it blew past my office window, I could feel the building swaying, and couldn't see across the street for the snow.