Water

Know Your Local Waters

KNOW YOUR LOCAL WATERS

Last Friday afternoon a presentation by Paul Baines, our Blue Communities Program Manager, and Glen Caradus, was held at Mount St. Joseph in Peterborough for Sisters, Associates and Staff. We gathered to participate in an interactive game to learn more about the ‘waters’ surrounding our City of Peterborough and its local area. 

A large map with various symbols decorated the floor of the gathering space –with our waterways as the focus.  The game was created by Glen (Caradus) in collaboration with First Peoples of Curve Lake to explain how the land and water are essential to all of life and that we need to give reverence to it and respect and learn what the water is wanting to teach us. 

Sisters Ann and Kitty | Photos: Sr Ann Karges

Teams were set and dice thrown to determine what square on the map the team would move to.  On the spot where the dice landed various questions were asked - about Ecology, Indigenous life, Nature, and if you drew a Chance card then the Team was asked to sing a song that was sung at a campfire.

The afternoon passed quickly and there was appreciation for the creative way of getting people involved and of course some of our competitive nature came to the fore when it came to winning!

Below we share a video, An Adventure in Understanding, a beautiful reflection and understanding about our local water sources.

Sister Ann MacDonald, csj

 

Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada Proud to be a Blue Community.

World Oceans Day

United Nations World Oceans Day

Theme Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean.

I live along the Thames River and only rarely have had occasions to put my toes in the surrounding ocean of earth’s continents. Paul Bains, our Blue Community Coordinator reminds us in our June Newsletter that “Over 30 million Canadians live inland. One in two live along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. For many Canadians, it is not the ocean and coastline that frame our identity; rather, it is the vast interconnected landscape of wetlands, lakes, rivers, and waterways. Canada has over 2 million lakes and more than 8,500 rivers. All of this water flows through one of five drainage basins to the ocean – 60% of this water flows north to Inuit Nunangat (Inuktut word meaning homeland, used by Inuit in Canada). Thus, in Canada, ocean literacy is fundamentally about our relationship with the ocean and the waterways that connect us to each other and the sea.” (Sourced from: https://colcoalition.ca/our-work/)”

Our congregational heritage, having grown out of living the gospel, continually calls us to live in right relationship with God, with all people and with creation. And so, I am fascinated by this beautiful and mysterious system that God has loved into being – the ocean: the rich interplay of hundreds of thousands of marine species, deep cold currents transporting oxygen and nutrients, the fact that the ocean is really one continuous body of water that oceanographers have divided into four principal areas. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/all-about-the-ocean

The UN reminds us that “the ocean connects, sustains and supports us all. Yet its health is at a tipping point and so is the well-being of all that depends on it.”

Since 2017 when our congregation became a Blue Community, we have challenged ourselves with effecting change with the multiple relationships we have with water, from our misuse of it in over consumption, to clogging it with plastic, to advancing the awareness of water as a sacred right for all.

The many voices calling for change are heralds of hope.

This year there is a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more, and find out about the communities, ideas and solutions that are working together to protect and revitalize the ocean and everything it sustains. This day long event is hosted by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, with the generous contribution of Oceanic Global, which is made possible by La Mer. The event will be broadcast live. RSVP to join the United Nations World Oceans Day (UN WOD) virtual broadcast taking place on Wednesday 8 June, 2022.

Perhaps we will meet around the zoom screen!

Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

CSJ Blue Communities Updates

November 28, 2019

These past few weeks, our Blue Communities Coordinator Paul Baines has been following water issues in the news while also participating in a grassroots review of Ontario's bottled water permit policy. 

Wellington Water Watchers

A network of water groups have been trying to limit Nestlé's access to groundwater for years. Led by groups such as the Wellington Water Watchers, this network (which our Blue Community project is a member of) has been raising awareness about the impacts of the bottled water business and asking for a science, ethics, and rights-based approach for sustainable and just water policy. 

There is a 4-page information sheet regarding this subject available on the CSJ Blue Communities website. These past two weeks have seen major shifts in bottled water policy.

10,000 Signatures

Two weeks ago, water protectors were asking for public support to extend the current moratorium on new bottled water permits. One week ago, we found out that the ban would be lifted at the end of 2019 allowing for growth in the industry including a third well for Nestlé near Elora Ontario.

The pressure was on to let Jeff Yurek (our Minister of Environment, Conservation, and Parks) know that there are far too many unresolved issues to grant new permits. The moratorium was needed to address water flow science, plastic pollution, the rights, consent, and jurisdiction of Indigenous nations, as well as a groundswell of public opposition.

None of these issues have been addressed since the ban started two years ago. Then, just days ago, the Ontario provincial government announced it would add another nine months onto the ban.

What happened during these two weeks?   Environmental Defence launched a petition that gathered 10,000 signatures. The Council of Canadians also launched a petition that gathered 10,000 signatures!

Save Our Water in Elora launched a letter writing campaign and Wellington Water Watchers held four high profile public events (called All Eyes on Nestlé tour) in four cities and launched a campaign organizing people to phone Minister Yurek (MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London).

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Canada's Lead Crisis

These past two weeks have also seen an explosion of stories about Canada's lead crisis in tap water. Earlier this week, an investigative report by several media outlets revealed dangerously high levels of lead in tap water across Canada.

This investigation took a combined effort from 120 journalists, working at nine universities and 10 media organizations across the country.

They reported that millions of Canadians are exposed to this neurotoxin through the aging lead pipes that distribute water from municipal water treatment plant to households across 11 cities. Please click here to read a story about this on Canadians.org. The Toronto Star also published a column, How to Solve the Lead Crisis in Canada, which you can read by clicking here.