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.
As the cruise-ship season starts to ramp up along the West Coast, an environmental group is calling on the federal government to tighten its rules and raise minimum standards around vessels dumping sewage and other waste in protected marine areas. World Wildlife Fund Canada said in a report this week that all types of ships operating in Canadian waters generate — and potentially dump — 147 billion litres of operational waste each year, the equivalent of 59,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
