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

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$126-million water treatment plant opens in Comox Valley

$126-million water treatment plant opens in Comox Valley

The Comox Lake reservoir provides some of the best drinking water anywhere in B.C., but even at that, there have been numerous boil water advisories over the years in the Comox Valley. “They started in October 2014 and we had roughly 140 days of boil water notice,” said Mike Herschmiller, Manager of Water Services at the Comox Valley Regional District. With every big fall storm that stirred up the lake, a boil water advisory was sure to follow and everyone on the system in Courtenay, Comox, the K’omoks First Nation and areas of the Regional district were affected by it.

A century of water: As Winnipeg aqueduct turns 100, Shoal Lake finds freedom

A century of water: As Winnipeg aqueduct turns 100, Shoal Lake finds freedom

The taps to Winnipeg's drinking water were first turned on in April 1919, but as the city celebrated its engineering feat and raised glasses of that clear liquid, another community's fortunes suddenly turned dark. Construction of a new aqueduct plunged Shoal Lake 40 into a forced isolation that it is only now emerging from, 100 years after Winnipeg's politicians locked their sights on the water that cradles the First Nation at the Manitoba–Ontario border. "The price that our community has paid for one community to benefit from that resource, it's just mind-boggling," said Shoal Lake 40 Chief Erwin Redsky.

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