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.
When Donna Rae moved to Merritt, B.C., from Vancouver, she bought a small retirement home where she figured she'd spend the rest of her life. But late last year, that home became filled with mud, water and debris from the Coldwater River — one of many destroyed during devastating floods in November. Now Rae, 70, says she wishes she'd never moved to the city in B.C.'s southern Interior. "Now I'm wishing I'd stayed at the coast, so I don't have to deal with this," she said.
