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.
In a city of pinstripes and partisan power brokers, Mike Allison sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s in the wrong place — and he knows it. “I shouldn’t be here,” the denim-clad Indigenous elder suddenly says, fighting tears beneath the brim of his trademark cowboy hat. “I should be out on the land, working with my kids, teaching them values. I should be teaching them kids how to work with the environment, not fight for it.”
For nearly four decades, Fulton has been entertaining crowds with his yearly windsurfing venture, which he does dressed in full Santa garb. It was never meant to be a big event, but an accident during his inaugural run ended up making headlines around the world. “I was doing a little promotional stunt dressed as Santa when the mainline snapped, so I lost control and drifted across the river,” recalled Fulton. When he was picked up on the other side by border agents, he was asked for his passport, which of course he didn’t have since he never meant to cross the border. The story, that Santa was picked up by border guards and shipped back to Canada, made for good Christmas headline fodder for newspapers, and the legend of Surfing Santa was born.
The Columbia River Treaty, an international agreement governing the flow of water between British Columbia and six U.S. states, will be 55 years old this year. It has not aged well. The river springs from the Columbia Icefield in the Rocky Mountains of B.C. and winds 1,930 kilometres through the Northwestern United States – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. No other river in North America spills more water into the Pacific Ocean.
