A small group of climate activists on Tuesday forced the shutdown of five major pipelines carrying crude from Canada to the United States, stepping up opposition to Alberta’s oil industry as it seeks support for major export projects.

Alberta’s energy watchdog is responding to a pipeline failure that is believed to have leaked oil into a flowing wetland in northwestern Alberta.

Calgary-based Trilogy Energy Corp. said it discovered the leak Thursday afternoon at its Kaybob project about 15 kilometres northeast of Fox Creek.

The Alberta Energy Regulator said oil emulsion, consisting of half water, half oil, has leaked into a flowing marsh area that isn’t home to fish.

The watchdog said Friday afternoon it was still trying to determine the volume of the spill and whether it affected any wildlife.

The Struggle at Standing Rock:

Pipeline Protest, First Nations’ Uprising

“What white man can say I never stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say that I am a thief.” — Sitting Bull, Lakota Holy Man, Grand River.

The fresh new face Canada showed the world at the Paris COP21 climate meetings held out hope for many Canadian climate activists that a national course change was in the works.

In its less than a decade in power, the Harper government extinguished multiple important Canadian environmental laws, muzzled climate scientists, harassed environmental NGOs, created "anti-terrorism" legislation that targets First Nations and other pipeline activists, and generally introduced regressive and reactionary social policy while promoting Canada as the world's new petro-state.

Trudeau spent the last campaign talking about righting the environment/energy balance. Based on the LNG decision, equilibrium between Canada's contribution to the mitigation of climate change and its energy ambitions remains as elusive as ever.

PUBLISHED : Monday, Oct. 3, 2016 12:00 AM

MONTREAL—As Liberal leader and subsequently as prime minister, Justin Trudeau has talked in the abstract of the need to secure a social licence prior to undertaking any major energy project. Until this week, no one was sure what he actually meant by that.

We speak with 350.org’s Bill McKibben about how the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of hundreds of other tribes from across the U.S., Canada and Latin America have resisted construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, even as police carrying assault rifles responded to them with armored vehicles, tear gas and helicopters. "We cannot pump more oil," McKibben says.

Meanwhile, a Reuters investigation finds pipeline spill detection system severely flawed

Close to 100 scientists have signed onto a letter decrying "inadequate environmental and cultural impact assessments" for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), and calling for a halt to construction until such tests have been carried out as requested by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

It’s a simple choice: stop all fossil fuel prospecting, or break the Paris agreement on climate change.