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.
At the Verhaegen-Bonneau dairy farm in the Montérégie, about three kilometres away from Saint-Georges-de-Clarenceville, the well has dried up. "When the animals don't drink enough, you hear them cry," says farm co-owner Lucie Bonneau. "It's very particular. It's stress. A headache. You don't sleep well. All that gets to you." The town of Saint-Georges-de-Clarenceville, a one-hour drive from Montreal, does not have drinking water, and its mayor says the situation is getting worse every year.
