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

hydraulic fracturing

TransAlta sues Alberta government to prevent oilpatch fracking near hydro dam

TransAlta sues Alberta government to prevent oilpatch fracking near hydro dam

Calgary-based electricity producer TransAlta Corp. is suing the Alberta government and the Alberta Energy Regulator to prevent oil and gas companies from fracking near its largest hydroelectric dam in the province because the technique can cause earthquakes. The court action, which was filed in September in the Court of King's Bench of Alberta, takes place as two oil and gas companies have applied to frack within five kilometres of the dam. TransAlta is concerned about possible seismic activity causing damage to the Brazeau power plant, near Drayton Valley in central Alberta, as well as the loss of wildlife, habitat and human life.

Environmental groups want data on water contamination in Quebec

Environmental groups want data on water contamination in Quebec

Environmental groups are demanding data on water contamination in the vicinity of all Quebec's hydrocarbon wells drilled over the past 20 years. They say they deplore the absence of data on groundwater near wells drilled using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- 19 out of 31 in the Saint Lawrence Valley. Their demand comes after analyses that concluded groundwater quality has deteriorated in the Murdochville sector of the Gaspé Peninsula, even years after exploratory drilling.

The Brutal Legal Odyssey of Jessica Ernst Comes to an End

The Brutal Legal Odyssey of Jessica Ernst Comes to an End

After 14 years of battling Alberta regulators and the fracking industry over a water well contaminated with methane and chemicals, Jessica Ernst says she feels incalculable grief and anger. On April 1, 2021, her tortuous legal crusade — which included a controversial detour to the Supreme Court of Canada — came to an end with no resolution. What one Alberta lawyer dubbed “the legal saga of the decade” is over. Court of Queen’s Bench Judge J.T. Eamon accepted applications from Encana and the Alberta government to dismiss the case due to inactivity on the file for three years. “It was inevitable,” says Ernst who was informed three weeks after the dismissal. “The rules are the rules.”

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