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 wisdom of public health authorities has been on everyone’s mind, this year and last. In Calgary this fall, it will be on the ballot. Voters will be asked during October’s civic election whether they want to resume adding fluoride to the water supply. City council had ended the practice a decade ago, undoing voters’ decisions in the fifth (1989) and sixth (1998) plebiscites in the city’s long and winding history with water-borne anti-cavity intervention.
