Credit river in danger!!!

[majorlifts]

If your a fly fisherman, or just love the Credit river for its natural beauty and tranquil spots to pick up the odd trout with a panther martin, this might twist your colon in a knot.

 

http://www.thestar.com/article/187841

 

Ya know, it seems people just cant wait until everything is ruined. I guess they figure, hey, its my right, and I have religious freedoms and customs that allow me to destroy in the name of God and in the sake preserving my culture.

 

I wonder if I went to, oh,... lets say Rome Italy, waved my ethnic flag, then went and did half the crap people do here, how long dya think Id last before ya found me swimmin with the fishes?

 

I respect everyone, no matter where you are from, or what your race, religion or otherwise. But I also respect the Earth and all its creatures, so I must protest these actions.

 

Peace fellow humans.

[bbnotty]

I don't want to show any disrespect to any culture but the river back in India that is mentioned is extremely polluted and is also massive compared to lets say the credit. If a place is set aside on the credit and it is used for this ritual and ashes from all in Canada put into it then you might as well kiss the river goodbye. I understand rituals but the size of the rivers here may not allow for this.

my 2cents.

 

bb

[Danubian]

So that's the mystery of the floating coconuts in the Credit... I kind of thought of that, and once I've even seen people doing some "sort of ritual" laundry in the river - I mean, not cleaning their underwear, but laundering some sort of a veil.

 

Dude, tell you what's the moral dillema: if they were ritually discarding ashes of the departed into the Credit, then they must know that sometimes I urinated - more or less ritually - into the same river. (And I can bet I'm not the only one...) How would they take that, metaphysically speaking? How would a particle of them ashes cleanse when surrounded with my pee?

 

I mean, no disrespect, but just a fact of life...

 

On the other hand, ashes -human or not- is a good fertilizer and unless we speak of mass cremation, a bowl tossed here and there wouldn't have a serious impact.

 

I'd be more concerned of people tossing bicycle frames, worn-out tires and shopping carts, than of ontarian Hindus.

 

My 2 cents...

[Clampet]

Credit River ritual raises ripple in Peel

 

Phinjo Gombu

STAFF REPORTER

 

"We started receiving calls from landowners, not just on Fletcher's Creek but also in the main Credit area," said Duff, a watershed-monitoring specialist with Credit Valley Conservation.

 

..Devout Hindus hope their cremated remains will be dispersed in moving water...

 

"Right now this is happening in Ontario," Sharma said. "People are dying and people are depositing ashes (in lakes and rivers). We're not sure whether it's against the law."

 

"The time will come when people won't (send their ashes) over there (to India) if there is a nice place here," said Bhagria, a volunteer at the temple.

 

"We can assure you that if we are given a place where we can freely put our offerings in the water, people will not go quietly in the night and make their offerings" (elsewhere), Magoo said.

 

"This is the motherland, and it should be done here."

[urbanangler1990]

they should have a certain place, or special land set aside for this ritual, not just wherever they desire...

[Pigeontroller]

I must be a Hindu. Since when I die I want to be cremated and put into the Ottawa River right above McCoy's Shute.

Edited March 5, 2007 by Pigeontroller

[irishfield]

..and my neighbours husband' ashes went over the sucker creek dam behind my house..down in the woods...as it was his favourite spot to sit and drink a 6 pack!. 200,000 coffee cans full of ashes aren't gonna do much to the Credit. All the other items floated with them could be another story, but as has been mentioned probably do less than the bikes/tires/etc/. Coconut shells and flowers disintegrate at least.

[huntervasili]

Well... I too think that some sort of comprimise must be reached... They just cant dump everyones cremated remains in there but instead something more reasonable ans I think acceptable would be a small portion of the ashes...This should have no effect on the system and I, one of tha many fishers of the credit, would have no problem with something that small... as well as for flowers and offerings I think that some flowers are ok but these plastic icons they throw in have ABSOLUTELY no place in our rivers and lakes. This is and should remain Illegal, considering it is littering. Coconuts well I think that that too is pollution as it will stay in the river for a while and I dont want to have plastic wrappings or coconuts hitting me whhile I am wading the rivers... Thats my opinion and what I think would be the most fair especialy in such a diverse country...

[Jigger]

Makes me think of that scene in "The Big Lebowski" when John Goodman goes to toss "Donnys" ashes over the cliff facing into the wind hilarious!

[majorlifts]

Danubian, I read also that jewelry and yes plastic figures and candles have been put afloat to the Credit. Now if we do for the Hindus ( of which I have great respect for, being a believer in many of the teachings of Shakyamuni, and yes Buddhism and Hinduism share many ideas coming both from Sanscrit) I believe we would have to do for the Shintoist, the Chinese and many others who each year put little paper boats with candles in the rivers for those that have past. Then.

 

Yes on top of the reckless Canadian youth dumping bikes, and careless people dumping garbage by the 14th st bridge on the Rouge, (ya you know who you are), On and on and on we will all put things into the earth, hoping they will by some divine intervention disappear, till the day will come when the fish no longer produce, the rivers flow in waste (human or otherwise), and the children no longer play outdoors due to the stench of backed up sewers, because some one thought it was right to put culture and ideas above what we knew to be common sense and environmental soundness.

 

Peace fellow humans.

[Garyv]

When I die there will be no formal wake or funeral. I want to be cremated and have my neighbor fly over my favorite smallmouth spot here on Lower Huron and let my ashes fly. As far as I know there is some ordinance against this but once I'm dead I really don't give a crap. Couple of cans full of ashes probably won't hurt the river but as for the other stuff...flowers OK but the rest lets not litter folks. Yeah I know I may be a bit insensitive but I hate political correctness and it's ramifications on society.

[Grimace]

The speed river and the Grand river in the Cambridge area has a whole bunch of crap in it, no paper boats, no plastic figures but a whole bunch of crap like broken catch basins busted storm drain pipes, shopping carts, waste from factories, plastic bags, garbage, just about anything you can think of. I think maybe the Grand and the Credit could use some help, if a Hindu puts a little floating paper boat down the river I am sure it would not touch the level of toxicity in it. There are enough people puking in the rivers there and have been for almost a hundred years but there is not much sense in complaining about them because they look and act just like we do. maybe some of us work for them...

[irishfield]

When I die there will be no formal wake or funeral. I want to be cremated and have my neighbor fly over my favorite smallmouth spot here on Lower Huron and let my ashes fly. As far as I know there is some ordinance against this but once I'm dead I really don't give a crap. Couple of cans full of ashes probably won't hurt the river but as for the other stuff...flowers OK but the rest lets not litter folks. Yeah I know I may be a bit insensitive but I hate political correctness and it's ramifications on society.

 

Gary...be sure to leave proper instructions!

 

DO NOT open the ash container lid until the window has been opened...the container has been held out said window and WELL behind the rear door post. Only at such time should the container be opened and tilted back into the air stream. Do not lose grip on said container..it makes an expensive dent in the stabilizer.

 

Opening the container anywhere else sees all the ashes IN the airplane. Don't ask...but his name was Ted and his last sight was a vacuum cleaner hose...not Giant's Tomb Island as he'd wished.

[DMASSE]

WOW I have always wondered why I have seen numerious cocnuts at the ice breakers..

 

Dave

[majorlifts]

Grimace, with all due respect I think you missed my point and didnt clearly read my second reply. This wasnt a complaint, more of a debate on the issue. Garyv, I discussed the bit about ashes with my girlfriend and it seems I would have to agree with you. Ashes to ashes dust to dust and so forth, not much impact on the environment, unless someone has any good stats on that type of thing.

 

We are all interwoven into the fabric of society, whatever we do effects everyone indirectly. I do believe this to be true.

 

Peace fellow humans.

[JerseyDog]

While I'm all about religious freedom and everything, but we have a lot of Hindu followers in Toronto.

 

What happens if its not just a few but hundreds and more likely thousands of people and their various offerings being legally dumped in the Credit. I think it would turn into a pretty disgusting mess in short order. See below for a blurb about pollution in the most holy of Hindu rivers...

 

re. The Ganges river...

However, industry is not the only source of pollution... inadequate cremation procedures contributes to a large number of partially burnt or unburnt corpses floating down the Ganga, in addition to livestock corpses.

[ehg]

The practices outlined in the news link surely have to be controlled.

If not 15 yrs. down the road the Credit will be nicknamed 'Little Ganges'.

 

Kinda explains the coconuts in this picture i took last March of garbage on the Toronto lakeshore.

Also a racoon carcass in there. Saw over a dozen coconuts there that day.

 

The CVC spokesperson did say that, "Anything that is placed in the river that is not naturally found there

has the potential to affect the health of the river."

 

Like non- native browns ,chinooks, etc....

 

Anyways, the Don or Etobicoke creek are probably better choices for discarding expired items,

from my uneducated enviromental viewpoint.

 

ehg

[bigfish1965]

Human ashes are primarily made of phosphate, calcium and sulphate. Depositing someones ashes in the water is far less of a pollutant that what was dumped via the persons sewage when they were alive.

Instead, by embalming, we place many toxic chemicals into the ground which eventually make their way into the water supply.

Trying to make a comparison between a river in India and one here is a bit of a stretch.

Here's the chemical composition of human ashes....there are also dozens of trace elements found..

* Phosphate 47.5%

* Calcium 25.3%

* Sulfate 11.00%

* Potassium 3.69%

* Sodium 1.12%

* Chloride 1.00%

* Silica 0.9%

* Aluminum oxide 0.72%

There aren't enough dead people in Toronto to have an adverse reaction to the water supply if everyone did as the Hindus did.

As for me..as I have said before..send me down the water at Burleigh Falls.

[lilkynan]

One land - one law for all

[ryanheritage]

Ashes ..........OK..... plastics.....no way.......paper....no way..... I think anything that could harm the wildlife or not endup "melting" into the environment should not be put there. Does anyone know about the gangees river? I am ok with cultures and beliefs I am just not paitient with people for whatever reason destroying the environment. Im sorry if I am going to offend anyone with this but my culture (west indies) trinidad has alot of of hindu religion and all I have to say is that if you plan to contiue culture and beliefs here to please be aware of the affects on everyone else or the canadian culture.I dont think that they should be allowed to out offerings into the water, I think they should be charged with littering and be sentenced to clean up the river. I also feel that the church that allows this should be fined aswell. I know that this is harsh but I don't think if I threw litter into a hindu backyard it would go unnoticed. The fact is no matter what your culture is or who you are it should not be allowed and you should be dealt with accordingly