Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The carcasses of 120 river dolphins have been found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River over the last week in circumstances that experts suspect were caused by severe drought and heat. Low river levels during a severe drought have heated water in stretches to temperatures that are intolerable for the dolphins, researchers believe. Thousands of fish have died recently on Amazon rivers due to a lack of oxygen in the water.
CUPE is demanding Canada’s public pension plan abandon projects to invest in a major water privatization scheme in Brazil. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is taking part in a massive selloff of public infrastructure being led by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, while the country is being ravaged by COVID-19. The CPPIB has bought a 45 per cent stake in Igua Saneamento, a Brazilian private water and wastewater company. Igua Saneamento will use a portion of the CPPIB’s $270 million to buy a public water system being auctioned off in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The auction is scheduled to take place on April 30.
