EDMONTON - The Alberta government has struck deals with two northern Alberta First Nations over a proposed open-pit oilsands mine that's awaiting Ottawa's approval. The Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations had previously reached deals with Teck Resources Ltd. for the Frontier mine, but were still negotiating with the province over environmental and cultural concerns. Earlier this month, Alberta's Indigenous relations minister expressed concern that a public spat over the [Read more]

ST-LAMBERT, Que. - About two dozen protesters remain at a blockade south of Montreal in defiance of an injunction delivered Thursday ordering them to leave the site and stop disrupting rail traffic. Police patrols passed by the blockade in St-Lambert, Que., regularly overnight but there was no sign of a mobilization to eject the protesters from the site on Canadian National Railway tracks. The blockade in solidarity with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in British Columbia has interrupted [Read more]

GUERNSEY, Sask. - An estimate of oil spilled in a fiery train derailment in rural Saskatchewan has increased to 10,000 barrels Saskatchewan's Ministry of Environment says new figures from Canadian Pacific show the spill was more than the 7500 barrels initially calculated. The ministry says a significant amount of crude was burned off during the fire, and CP estimates 7500 barrels of oil has so far been recovered. The freight train jumped the tracks on Feb. 6 near Guernsey, about 115 [Read more]

ST-LAMBERT, Que. - Quebec Premier Francois Legault says that police will dismantle a rail blockade in St-Lambert, south of Montreal, if a court grants an injunction. He says the blockade that went up Wednesday is not on First Nations land, making it easier to take action. The blockade in solidarity with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in British Columbia was erected on CN tracks, and it has disrupted rail service for suburban commuters and for travellers between Montreal and Quebec [Read more]

Here is the latest news on protests across Canada over a natural gas pipeline project in British Columbia: Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says the RCMP have offered to move officers away from the area where traditional leaders of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation have been opposing a pipeline on their territory. Blair says that meets the conditions set by the chiefs, who have demanded that Mounties leave their traditional lands southwest of Houston, B.C. But yesterday Chief [Read more]

VANCOUVER - A Wet'suwet'en hereditary chief says the chiefs won't meet with the federal government over their opposition to a natural gas pipeline until both the RCMP and Coastal GasLink leave their traditional territory. Na'moks, who also goes by John Ridsdale, said Wednesday the chiefs have communicated their terms to Carolyn Bennett, the minister responsible for Crown-Indigenous relations. Bennett has sought to meet with the chiefs as the federal government faces mounting pressure to [Read more]

EMO, Ont. - Canadian National Railway Co. says a train carrying crude oil has derailed in northwestern Ontario. CN says 31 cars came off the tracks near Emo, Ont. at around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The company says 26 of those cars were carrying crude oil at the time and at least two are leaking oil. It says no oil has entered local waterways and no one was injured in the derailment. Provincial police issued an evacuation order for anyone within 800 metres of the site, but CN says [Read more]

VANCOUVER - A small, mobile RCMP detachment in a remote area of British Columbia has become a bargaining chip in proposed talks that many hope could put an end to blockades that have disrupted rail and road traffic across the country. The demonstrations are in support of Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs who oppose a natural gas pipeline through their territory and the federal minister in charge of Indigenous relations has proposed a meeting with the chiefs to diffuse the situation. However, [Read more]