Energy

An investigation by National Observer indicates there is reason to be worried that's exactly what Canada has done.

Two have pled guilty to contempt of court for crossing the court-ordered injunction line while protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion at the gates of its Burnaby terminal construction site in British Columbia.

The leader of the Alberta opposition United Conservative Party has vowed to repeal the province’s carbon pricing regime if elected to power in the 2019 election — a move backed by his party at a convention over the weekend.

CanLit star Shaena Lambert tied herself to the gates of Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby pipeline terminal in an act of civil disobedience on Saturday. Lambert was arrested by the RCMP along with Cat Roivas, a Chippewayan woman who had already been arrested twice for blocking access to the Texas-based company’s tank farm.

In a letter penned to the prime minister, the Canadian Gas Association asks the federal government to spare the Centennial Flame from an environmental study that could see its fire snuffed by a more eco-friendly alternative.

The federal government is failing to protect Canadians from toxic refinery emissions pumped into the air at rates far above those in the United States, opposition politicians said Thursday in response to a Toronto Star/Global News/National Observer investigation. Federal MPs said they were shocked and troubled by the findings.

“The facts and circumstances which have given rise to this motion are highly unusual and, indeed, extremely alarming,” said the motion, submitted on May 2 to the Federal Court of Appeal by lawyers for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.

John Helin, mayor of the Lax Kw'alaams Band in northwest British Columbia, was in Ottawa on May 3 to tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that his government’s bid to impose an oil tanker moratorium is “imposing on us more hardship, without any consultation."

The incessant grumbling from Canada’s oil industry—on pipelines, environmental reviews, carbon pricing and competitiveness—is obscuring the obvious.

“At this moment in history, where we’re supposed to be moving towards reconciliation in Canada, these important stories are not going to be told, and Canadians can therefore not be informed."

The Chiefs of Ontario, representing 133 First Nations across the province, has lent its support to the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion in a May 2 letter of support.

Nearly 50 labour, environmental and anti-poverty groups have written to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, urging her to champion a new NAFTA trade agreement that favours workers and community rights, as opposed to corporate interests and profits.

The average Canadian refinery produced less oil while emitting substantially higher rates of sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides compared with the U.S. average in 2014, the data shows from a joint investigation by National Observer, Global News and The Toronto Star.

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation "is of the view that the new evidence, viewed in the larger context of the existing evidence which is already before the Court, casts further unfavorable light on Canada's approach to 'consultation' with TWN," wrote lawyer Scott Smitt in a letter sent to the Federal Court of Appeal on April 29, 2018.

The Heiltsuk Nation in coastal British Columbia has announced a new partnership with Horizon Maritime in a joint effort to prevent and respond to marine incidents and preserve the west coast for future generations.