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

environmental disasters

Clean Water Act at 50: environmental gains, challenges unmet

Clean Water Act at 50: environmental gains, challenges unmet

Lifelong Cleveland resident Steve Gove recalls when the Cuyahoga River symbolized shame — fetid, lifeless, notorious for catching fire when sparks from overhead rail cars ignited the oil-slicked surface. “It was pretty grungy,” said the 73-year-old, an avid canoeist in his youth who sometimes braved the filthy stretch through the steelmaking city. “When you went under those bridges where the trains were hauling coke from the blast furnaces, you had to watch for cinders and debris falling off.” It wasn’t the only polluted U.S. river. But outrage over a 1969 Cuyahoga fire — the latest in a series of environmental disasters including a 3-million-gallon oil spill off California’s Santa Barbara months earlier — is widely credited with inspiring the Clean Water Act of 1972.

EDITORIAL: Planet under stress

EDITORIAL: Planet under stress

In his 1963 science fiction novel, author Walter Tevis writes about an extraterrestrial who travels to Earth in a grandiose quest to ship water back to his dying planet.  If the novel was re-released today, the extraterrestrial (who, incidentally, was played by rock legend David Bowie in the 1976 movie version) would more likely take one look at our once pristine home and keep on moving in hopes of finding a more inviting celestial object. 

Heavy rains drench British Columbians with more climate anxiety

Heavy rains drench British Columbians with more climate anxiety

As floods have ravaged through Abbotsford, B.C., Lindsay Finnson is among many locals experiencing the struggle and generosity of the community. Finnson has volunteered by sandbagging and providing food to those affected. But with more stormy weather in the forecast, the pitter-patter of rain is showering her with discomfort and anxiety. "As soon as the rain started, I just had this... tight feeling in my chest like that anxiety, right, that sense of impending doom. And like just that hope that we've done enough," she said.

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