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.
A judge has ordered the Yukon Water Board to reconsider a land use approval and water licence application from a Dawson-area placer operation. Yukon Supreme Court Deputy Justice Adele Kent, in a decision last month, wrote that the board's denial of Fellhawk Enterprises Ltd.'s application in 2022 was unreasonable and based on ungrounded speculation.
LaForme, senior counsel at Olthuis Kleer Townsend, a law firm solely specializing in Indigenous issues, was also instrumental in the First Nations Drinking Water class-action settlement approved last year. Appointees to the Order of Canada will receive their insignia at an investiture ceremony with details yet to be announced.
A Michigan judge has dismissed charges against former Governor Rick Snyder in connection with the Flint water crisis, his attorney said on Friday, several months after the state Supreme Court ruled that grand jury indictments returned in the case were invalid. Genesee Circuit Judge F. Kay Behm dismissed the case against Snyder, his attorney Brian Lennon said in an email to Reuters. Snyder was governor in 2014, when under state-appointed managers the government of Flint, a majority-Black city, switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River to cut costs.
A Yukon Supreme Court judge has paused part of a security payment contested by the territory's largest mine, ruling the company's bottom line would be adversely impacted. In June, the Yukon Water Board ordered Victoria Gold — the company behind the Eagle Gold Mine near Mayo — to furnish a total of $105 million by mid-September, arguing security needed to be increased because the company breached its water licence. That amount is roughly $74 million more than what Victoria Gold had already put forward, an estimated $31 million. It's also higher than a Yukon government security calculation of roughly $69 million.
A judge has barred a group from spraying a chemical in the Miramichi Lake area until a lawsuit filed by local cottage owners can be heard. Spraying of rotenone, a pesticide and piscicide, was scheduled Wednesday to eradicate invasive smallmouth bass, according to court documents. On Tuesday, Justice Terrence Morrison made an order preventing any spraying until the lawsuit objecting to it is heard on Aug. 17.
A New Brunswick judge has tossed out a class action lawsuit against the City of Saint John that flowed from alleged damage to homes and appliances caused by leaky pipes. In her decision released on Tuesday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Tracey DeWare found the city did not breach its standard of care when it switched the water source for about 5,600 west side Saint John customers back in 2017. As a result, she said the city does not owe the complainants for damages they alleged to have suffered as a result.
An Ottawa judge has certified a class-action lawsuit launched by a group of Mississippi Mills homeowners who say a local fire research lab polluted their drinking water and devalued their homes. The sprawling laboratory is owned by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). The homeowners contend the NRC, though its negligence, released firefighting chemicals into the environment from the lab, contaminated their land and damaged the value of their properties.
A U.S. judge has permanently blocked a Las Vegas-based bottled-water brand Real Water from being marketed while an investigation continues into at least one death and multiple cases of liver illness among people who reported drinking it. The Justice Department said Tuesday that defendants including Jones assured the court they no longer prepare or distribute the water that was sold as premium alkalized drinking water in distinctive boxy blue bottles touting “E2 Electron Energized Technology.” Labels said it was “infused with negative ions” and offers healthy detoxifying properties. That agreement also required the company to turn over to the Food and Drug Administration records about processing, bottling and distribution; and to submit to unannounced inspections of company facilities in Las Vegas, suburban Henderson and Mesa, Arizona.
A Canadian coal-mining company faces the largest fine imposed under the Fisheries Act after pleading guilty to contaminating waterways in southeastern British Columbia. Teck Coal, a subsidiary of Teck Resources, is to pay $60 million after a judge on Friday agreed to a joint submission from Environment Canada and the company. "Teck did not exercise all due diligence to prevent the deposit of coal mine waste rock leachate into the Fording River from settling ponds," federal prosecutor Alexander Clarkson, reading from an agreed statement of facts, said in B.C. provincial court.
