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.
The International Joint Commission, a body that manages water rights along the US-Canada border, has confirmed its IT security was targeted, after a ransomware gang claimed it stole 80 GB of data from the organization. "The International Joint Commission has experienced a cybersecurity incident, and we are working with relevant organizations to investigate and resolve the situation," a spokesperson for the org told The Register.
Today, as we join the international community to mark World Water Day, we are reminded of our shared responsibility to protect access to clean, safe water here at home and around the world. There is no resource more essential to Canadians and the Canadian economy than clean water. Water ecosystems, when managed properly, help alleviate hunger, poverty, and illness, fight climate change, and support biodiversity. This year’s World Water Day theme, ‘Accelerating Change’, asks us to speed up our action to keep our water safe, clean, and sustainably managed.
We know the lakes and rivers in and around urban environments are contaminated by plastic debris, detergents, pesticides, heavy metals and other contaminants, but new research is showing that urban runoff toxicity is ill-defined and potentially underestimated globally. Researchers including Nathalie Tufenkji, Professor of Chemical Engineering at McGill University and Canada Research Chair in Biocolloids and Surfaces, are calling for cities to better manage and treat urban runoff to protect sources of drinking water and reduce the impacts on aquatic ecosystems.
