Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

Iqaluit water emergency

Health Department’s 3rd-party review of water crisis uncertain

Health Department’s 3rd-party review of water crisis uncertain

The CGS review pegs the start of the emergency at Oct. 12, 2021. It does not concern itself with the City of Iqaluit’s response to the initial reports of fuel-tainted water. DPRA reached out to 35 people to take part in the review. Nineteen responded. Of 13 current and former city officials who were asked to participate, five took part. The report does not identify who did or did not participate. It describes broken equipment and disagreements between the city and GN leading to delays in handling the crisis.

Nunavut sees 5-year high for water advisories in 2021

Nunavut sees 5-year high for water advisories in 2021

Nunavut communities have seen a five-year high of water advisories in 2021, without counting Iqaluit’s ongoing water emergency. As of Friday, about a month before the year’s end, 14 water advisories had been issued in seven communities outside of the capital city this year, more than tripling the four advisories issued in 2017. Nunavut’s MP Lori Idlout spoke about the lack of clean water in Indigenous communities across Canada on Thursday. “We Indigenous people can no longer be discounted or written off in hopes that we disappear,” she said in Inuktitut in the House of Commons. “I know I have to keep repeating ‘clean water for all indigenous communities,'” Idlout said. “This is not the first time and I will repeat it again.”

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