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 the pandemic started, the province was testing the population and updating the number of COVID cases daily. But four years on, testing has stalled and the main way to get a snapshot of the COVID picture is through wastewater. Mark Servos is with the department of Biology in Canada and Research Chair in Water Quality Protection at the University of Waterloo.
Denmark has begun excavating the decomposing bodies of some 4 million mink, for fear they will pollute drinking water or a bathing lake. In November, Denmark culled all of its minks out of fears the animals could re-transmit the coronavirus to humans after a mutated form of the virus was found on mink farms. There were concerns that the mutated variant could threaten the effectiveness of future vaccines. More than 17 million animals were culled, devastating Denmark's fur industry -- the largest in the EU.
