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.
Just off the TransCanada Highway in Abbotsford, B.C., dozens of businesses and hundreds of homes were destroyed in the devastating flooding from late last year and have not yet received any financial assistance. At the peak of the emergency, nearly 15,000 people fled their homes as floodwaters shut down major highways and destroyed vast farmland. “You know everybody’s got similar stories, traumatic stories,” Arthur Deleeuw, a victim of the floods, told CTV National News.
