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.
In late October the largest pond at Miner's Marsh, along the Cornwallis River, was mostly dry after a year of dropping water levels, with the bottom sunbaked. While dozens of ducks and geese would normally have spent time there in the fall on their way south for the winter, only a handful of birds were walking through the water, most of it too shallow for swimming. The summertime population of ducks also seemed lower.
