Canada

OTTAWA - The federal government is seeking a way to regulate underwater shipping noise as part of its plan to protect an endangered group of killer whales from increased oil tanker traffic off Vancouver.

The news comes as environmental groups are poised to file a new lawsuit challenging the Liberal cabinet's approval of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, alleging the government failed to mitigate the project's impact on the iconic southern resident killer whales.

After excluding them from a critical discussion on indigenous people and climate change earlier this year, both the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) hoped it was a mistake Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would not repeat.

But one week after his second annual meeting with First Ministers and indigenous leaders on clean growth and climate change, the two national aboriginal organizations have been disappointed again.

A Norwegian oil giant is selling off its assets in Canada's oilsands, just after the federal government approved new pipelines that were meant to promote growth in the slumping industry.

In a statement, Statoil said it was selling off a demonstration plant, an undeveloped project and some other contracts to the Athabasca Oil Corporation, as part of a plan to end its operations in the oilsands.

Last week, Toronto mayor Join Tory announced a plan to toll two major Toronto highways, the Gardiner and the DVP. The city is starved for cash with huge shortfalls for both infrastructure (new housing, new transit lines) and even everyday operating expenses. Tolls are supposed to help close this gap. But despite the absolutely huge revenue needs of this city, there a case to be made against tolls from the left.

The Trudeau government says Canada’s national police force respects the right to peaceful demonstrations by indigenous activists, after it was revealed the RCMP compiled a list and distributed profiles of indigenous protesters it deemed “threats” who it determined were potentially willing and capable of criminal activities.

Dubbed Project SITKA, the RCMP began soliciting information on indigenous activists who could be perceived “to have committed or commit” crimes from all of its divisions and local police departments across the country in March 2014.

“The real rights holders of Aboriginal treaty rights are the grassroots peoples, not just the chiefs.” ~Russell Diabo, policy advisor to the Algonquin Nation Secretariat.

Russell Diabo is concerned with the chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations and their fawning over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government. Such outright acceptance could spell trouble for First Nations people down the road, he told Windspeaker.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to green-light Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline has prompted First Nations youth to launch a "water protector fund" to raise money for cross-country protests to stop pipeline construction.

VANCOUVER — An annual Amnesty International human-rights campaign is taking aim at a Canadian project for the first time — the Site C dam.

The $8.8-billion hydroelectric dam project in northeast British Columbia was one of 10 global issues targeted by the Write for Rights campaign on Saturday.

The campaign involves events held across the world where people write letters petitioning leaders for action on human-rights causes.