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 Green Party is promising to boost greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, cancel all new pipelines and oil exploration, accelerate an increase in carbon pricing and ban the sale of all internal-combustion engine passenger vehicles. The environmental pledges in the party's platform, released Tuesday, are aimed at getting Canada not just to net zero emissions by 2050, as other parties have promised, but having the country get to "net negative" by then.
Now we’re watching how the government defines these standards and what the rules will be. For example, there’s currently no definition of what “no dumping” actually means in the context of marine protected areas, or how this commitment will be implemented and enforced. We know dumping wreaks havoc on our environment and poses a risk to wildlife and people. Greywater from sinks, kitchens, showers and washing machines aboard ships can contribute to algal blooms, create ocean dead zones and contain microplastics. Scrubber effluent, which is washwater from cleaning Heavy Fuel Oil exhaust gas, basically turns air pollution into water pollution. Sewage, both treated and untreated, from toilets, can cause fecal contamination in the shellfish we eat.
