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.
A tap in the basement of Winnipeg City Hall has been deliberately left running for nearly as long as the COVID-19 pandemic has lasted in Manitoba. Coun. Shawn Nason (Transcona) raised the issue of the flowing faucet at Thursday's council meeting, saying it has poured the equivalent of three Olympic-sized swimming pools down the drain. "If a 50-year-old building requires taps to be on 24 hours a day, we have some serious issues," Nason told reporters after the city council meeting.
Students plan to launch a second letter-writing campaign in the new year addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller calling for clean running water for First Nations communities. The letter campaign is called "We haven't forgotten you," said Frank Pio, the school board's Indigenous education teacher. "It's really unfair that they don't get safe water to drink," Comazzi said.
The NDP MPP for the region with the longest-running boil water advisories of any First Nations in Canada is demanding the Ontario government become part of the solution. Sol Mamakwa, who represents the riding of Kiiwetinoong in northwestern Ontario, said the provincial government could do more to help alleviate the suffering of communities on long-term drinking water advisories.
