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 Dene Nation water summit being held this week has taken on new urgency as delegates deal with the fallout from Imperial Oil’s Kearl tailings spills. The northern Alberta oil sands mine continues to operate but has now been ordered by the federal government to take immediate action to stop months-long seepage of wastewater. A separate release of millions of litres of tailings at the same site was also revealed last month.
A woman whose husband saw a "wall of water rushing toward them" as the pair fled a massive torrent released from a North Vancouver dam is suing Metro Vancouver's regional district for negligence. The notice of civil claim filed by Chihiro Nakamura nearly two years after the incident says she and her husband were sitting on a rock in a shallow part of the Capilano River below the Cleveland Dam when they heard a rushing sound.
Northerners say the federal government's plan to regulate the release of treated oilsands tailings water will be met with opposition by communities downstream. As the N.W.T. Environment minister gears up for a diplomatic approach with Alberta and Canada, Dene leaders like Smith's Landing First Nation Chief Gerry Cheezie are prepared to take legal action with Dene Nation, and to bring their opposition to the release of tailings all the way to Ottawa.
