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

civic election

'What Calgarians have wanted': City council votes 13-2 to return fluoride to tap water

'What Calgarians have wanted': City council votes 13-2 to return fluoride to tap water

Calgary will reintroduce fluoride to its tap water after city council voted overwhelmingly in favour of the change Monday. The vote wasn't close, as 13 members of council voted in favour. Two councillors voted against the motion to reinstate fluoride: Andre Chabot of Ward 10 and Dan McLean of Ward 13. Fluoride was removed following a council decision in 2011. However, Calgarians voted 61.61 per cent in favour of resuming fluoridation in last month's civic election. There was majority support for the move in all 14 of the city's wards.

Calgary election: Groups campaign on both sides of fluoride debate

Calgary election: Groups campaign on both sides of fluoride debate

The debate to add fluoride to the city’s drinking water isn’t new for Calgarians but has remained contentious since it was first voted on nearly 70 years ago. Calgary’s civic election is Oct. 18. This will be the seventh time fluoride has been on the ballot in a Calgary municipal election, after being rejected four times between 1957 and 1971, and then approved in 1989 and again in 1998.

After a decade of cavities, will Calgary put fluoride back in its water supply?

After a decade of cavities, will Calgary put fluoride back in its water supply?

The wisdom of public health authorities has been on everyone’s mind, this year and last. In Calgary this fall, it will be on the ballot. Voters will be asked during October’s civic election whether they want to resume adding fluoride to the water supply. City council had ended the practice a decade ago, undoing voters’ decisions in the fifth (1989) and sixth (1998) plebiscites in the city’s long and winding history with water-borne anti-cavity intervention.

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