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

evacuated

Sask. First Nation faces flooding after nearby road collapse

Sask. First Nation faces flooding after nearby road collapse

Seven homes on the Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation, approximately 65 kilometres northeast of Regina, were recently evacuated after floodwater from a nearby stream moved in earlier this week. It came after over 100 millimetres of rain fell in the area late Monday and through the day Tuesday. Jim Pratt, an emergency coordinator for the First Nation, told CBC the heavy rain filled the stream with water. When it began backing up at culverts running underneath Township Road 210 — a gravel road upstream from Muscowpetung — it started running over the road. The road and culverts eventually gave way.

Weekend flooding at Pine Creek First Nation destroys 4 homes

Weekend flooding at Pine Creek First Nation destroys 4 homes

Four homes at Manitoba's Pine Creek First Nation were destroyed and 17 were evacuated due to weekend flooding in the low-lying lands between Duck Mountain and the southern basin of Lake Winnipegosis. Derek Nepinak, chief of the Anishinaabe nation about 100 kilometres north of Dauphin, said about 30 people were forced to leave their homes, which have been cut off from the rest of the community and have no access to fresh water or supplies.

City of Merritt releases return-home plan for flooded-out residents

City of Merritt releases return-home plan for flooded-out residents

Some residents of Merritt, B.C., will be returning to their homes this week after the entire city's population was forced to flee due to extreme flooding that caused the complete failure of the municipality's wastewater system last Monday. Relentless rain caused the Coldwater River, which runs through the southern Interior community, to overrun its banks Nov. 15, triggering an evacuation order for all 7,000 residents shortly after 7 a.m.

How colonial systems have left some First Nations without drinking water

How colonial systems have left some First Nations without drinking water

Rebecca Zagozewski, executive director of the Saskatchewan First Nations Water Association, said she has seen contractors save on costs when building water treatment plants on reserves by using obsolete parts and failing to include maintenance manuals, ventilation or chemical rooms, and bathrooms. “Engineering companies will put in their bids obviously as low as they can go,” said Zagozewski.

Clean water for First Nations critical during the COVID-19 pandemic: Activists

Clean water for First Nations critical during the COVID-19 pandemic: Activists

Activists in northeastern Ontario fighting for safe, clean water in First Nations communities across Canada are getting tired of broken promises. After five years and millions in spending, the Liberal government announced in early December that it would not fulfill its commitment to end all long-term water advisories on reserves by March 2021. Although some progress has been made – 97 advisories have been lifted since November 2015 – there’s still a long way to go. There are 59 active long-term water advisories in 41 communities across the country, and activists maintain that clean water should be a priority for the federal government, especially during a global pandemic. “Water is a basic human right, and nobody should have to beg for it. This is wrong, and it’s come to the point where I think it comes down to racism,” said Autumn Peltier, a teenage water-rights activist from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island.

'You are not forgotten': Outpouring of support for Neskantaga First Nation

'You are not forgotten': Outpouring of support for Neskantaga First Nation

Students plan to launch a second letter-writing campaign in the new year addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller calling for clean running water for First Nations communities. The letter campaign is called "We haven't forgotten you," said Frank Pio, the school board's Indigenous education teacher. "It's really unfair that they don't get safe water to drink," Comazzi said.

Former Neskantaga contractor accused of cutting corners in other First Nations

Former Neskantaga contractor accused of cutting corners in other First Nations

“They cut corners every day, every day,” said Justin Gee, vice-president of First Nations Engineering Services Ltd. Gee said he encountered these recurring problems while overseeing the work of a construction firm, Kingdom Construction Limited (KCL), building a water treatment plant 10 years ago in Wasauksing First Nation, along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, about 250 kilometres north of Toronto. “You have to be on them every step of the way,” said Gee, who was the contract administrator on the project. “You can’t leave them on their own.”

Bee Moonias on life without clean drinking water

Bee Moonias on life without clean drinking water

When you live your whole life without tap water that’s safe to drink, it can start to feel like you’re invisible. That’s how nine-year-old Bedahbun Moonias from Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario put it. “Sometimes, I feel like we don't exist,” she said. “Like we're just ghosts and we're just put in a drawer, in a box. We’re suffering in that box with no clean water.” Bedahbun, who goes by the name Bee, lives in a community with a boil water advisory, which means her tap water has to be boiled before it’s safe to drink.

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