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.
Crews have finished the dredging of Randle Reef, a major step in the effort to clean up the most contaminated site on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. Federal, provincial and city government reps announced Wednesday that stage two of the three-part, $139-million project is finished. That means all of the toxic coal-tar sediment has been removed from the water or capped inside a double-steel container.
