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

most precious resource

This week’s mailbox: Yukon’s water and John Streicker’s car

This week’s mailbox: Yukon’s water and John Streicker’s car

Water is essential to life and common to everything that lives. It is our most precious resource and, therefore, needs our protection. This is precisely what Maude Barlow, Canada’s renowned water advocate, has argued for years. In her most recent book, Whose Water Is It Anyway?, she states that a water secure and a water-just future depends upon our adoption of four principles: “1. Water is a human right and an issue of justice and charity; “2. water is a common heritage and public trust and, therefore, access to water must not be allowed to be decided by private, for profit interests; “3. water has rights beyond its service to humans and must be respected and protected for the ecosystem and other living beings; and “4. rather than being a source of conflict and division, water can be nature’s gift to teach us how we might learn to live more lightly on the planet and in harmony with one another.”

Tay council hears from water museum pitcher

Tay council hears from water museum pitcher

Even the smallest drop can help make waves. A delegation from Dan Travers of the Canadian Museum of Water/Musée canadien de l’eau (CMW-MCE), a recently launched initiative by locals intent on offering the history of the planet’s most precious resource through Port McNicoll, was presented to Tay council at a recent regular meeting. “There are physical assets that make Port McNicoll the right choice,” explained Travers.

Canoodling Canada's original highways

Canoodling Canada's original highways

On the rack in the backyard, the little red canoe is withdrawn, overturned and not liking it, and the crest of snow on the canvas is visible along the tumblehome. It yearns for open water now closing in on this writer. Back in 2007, after much input from listeners and a panel of judges, the CBC Radio show Sounds Like Canada picked the canoe as one of the country's seven wonders. One of those judges was Roy MacGregor. “It may have been the promise of a railroad to the Pacific that made Canada whole,” writes Roy in his book, Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada, "but it was rivers that carried the people west and made that railroad necessary.”

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