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

learning disabilities

Patricia Elliott: Time for Regina to make our drinking water a priority over swimming pools

Patricia Elliott: Time for Regina to make our drinking water a priority over swimming pools

Safe drinking water? That’s another matter. Too expensive. Too hard to schedule. It’ll take at least 15 years. Meanwhile, over 3,000 central Regina homes are hooked to aging City infrastructure that is leaching lead into their drinking water at alarming rates, as reported in the Leader-Post in 2019 as part of a national investigation. Among a lengthy list of threats, lead is linked to low-weight babies, kidney damage and early onset dementia. Children face lower IQ, learning disabilities, hearing problems and slowed growth. The city has known about the problem at least since 2017, when a random study of 89 central Regina homes recorded some sky-high lead levels.

Lead levels in Prince Rupert drinking water could point to B.C.-wide problems

Lead levels in Prince Rupert drinking water could point to B.C.-wide problems

Leona Peterson doesn’t drink the water from her tap anymore. The single mother says she was warned about lead in the water by a neighbour as soon as she moved into the subsidized Indigenous housing complex where she lives in Prince Rupert, a city of almost 12,000 people in northwestern B.C. “She said, ‘There is lead in our water,’” Peterson said. “‘Don’t doubt it, just start flushing.’”

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