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.
The Atikamekw community of Manawan, 250 km north of Montreal, is going on day five of a drinking water outage. School is cancelled, the regional health centre is closed, members are unable to bathe or use running water and elders are being evacuated in order to keep an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at bay. In a press briefing held Monday, Manawan Chief Paul-Emile Ottawa explained the outage – which began on Sunday – could have devastating effects for the community of 2,500 if not rectified quickly.
