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

underground fuel spill

IN PHOTOS: 12 notable Canadian stories in 2021

IN PHOTOS: 12 notable Canadian stories in 2021

On Oct. 12, due to concerns about fuel contamination, Iqaluit issued a do-not-consume order for its tap water that lasted nearly two months. The city of 8,000 would eventually point to an underground fuel spill as the potential cause of the contamination. After learning that the city's water was not safe to drink, residents in Iqaluit collected water from the nearby Sylvia Grinnell River. The military was dispatched to help provide treated water from the river using mobile water treatment units.

City of Iqaluit says historical fuel spill likely source of drinking water contamination

City of Iqaluit says historical fuel spill likely source of drinking water contamination

An Iqaluit city official told CBC News that an underground fuel spill found near the water treatment plant could explain why the city had to declare an emergency due to fuel-contaminated drinking water. "The team located an underground spill that showed signs of historic fuel adjacent to the water treatment plant in an inaccessible, below-ground void," Amy Elgersma, Iqaluit's chief administrative officer, told Mary Tatty, host of CBC's noon hour program, Nipivut.

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