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 2013, rain-swollen rivers burst their banks across southern Alberta, prompting more than a dozen towns to declare states of emergency. The province estimated more than 100,000 people in 30 communities were affected by what Premier Allison Redford later called the worst natural disaster in Alberta’s history, with damage pegged at more than $6 billion.
