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.
For 60 days, a public health do-not-consume water order was put in place as a precaution when petroleum hydrocarbons were found to be possibly contaminating the city’s drinking water supply. This led to a community response to provide safe drinking water by getting river water from the local Silvia Grinnell territorial park river and mobilizing resources in Canada to bring in bottled water for Iqaluit, a community of approximately 8,000 people.
