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.
Leaders from an Oji-Cree First Nation in Treaty 9 in Ontario say they want the Canadian government to take action to properly compensate all their community members enduring a long-term boil-water advisory, after learning most of them won't be eligible for a class action settlement. In December 2021, Canada's Federal Court and Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench jointly approved an $8-billion settlement for First Nations living under drinking-water advisories lasting longer than one year.
Chief and Council of Wunnumin Lake First Nation are calling on the Government of Canada to ensure that compensation is provided for community members who have suffered from boil water advisories but are being denied compensation under the terms of a settlement agreement for class-action litigation on Canada’s failure to provide safe drinking water in First Nations communities.
A promise made by the Trudeau Liberal government in 2015 to get rid of all long-term drinking water advisories on First Nations has been strengthened by a class action settlement. “It’s a legal obligation now,” said counsel Harry LaForme of Olthuis Kleer Townshend (OKT). “That whole notion that the water issue is a political issue to do the best they can and is not enforceable by law, for the 250 (First Nations) we have, that’s now changed,” said LaForme. “Their promise, at least to the class members that we have, is now no longer just their goodwill.”
