Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

A hamlet in northern Alberta has been placed under an evacuation order as a wildfire burns nearby.

Imperial Oil’s president and CEO described the failure to alert downstream communities to toxic oilsands tailings leaks as a “communication breakdown” during his testimony on Parliament Hill Thursday.

In a note to area First Nations, the Alberta Energy Regulator says the water is from a pond used to settle suspended solids in surface water collected from parts of the site that haven't been mined. Once the sediments settle, the water is emptied into a creek that drains into the Athabasca River. 

Alberta’s energy regulator is a captured entity that should be dismantled, multiple Indigenous leaders and representatives told parliamentarians Monday.

Premier Danielle Smith says laggardly public notification of Imperial Oil oilsands wastewater spills has illuminated the need for Alberta to ensure future alarms are sounded quicker.

The recent revelation of a massive leak from Imperial Oil’s tailings ponds highlights the question of what to do with the rest of the oilsands waste accumulating along the Athabasca River.

Pollution from oilsands tailings dominated the agenda at the Dene Nation Water Summit this week as northern Indigenous leaders and community members discussed how to respond to recent news of multiple leaks hidden for months from neighbouring Indigenous communities.

Alberta's nine-month silence over two releases of toxic oilsands tailings water is "worrisome," says federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.

Drew Yewchuk of the University of Calgary's Public Interest Law Clinic is asking the province's Information Commissioner to investigate how and why the Alberta Energy Regulator chose not to release information on the leak at Imperial Oil's Kearl mine, despite direction in provincial law to do so.

Federal politicians have joined the chorus of anger over Imperial Oil’s failure to alert a downriver First Nations community of a massive release of oilsands tailings first reported last May.

A northern Alberta Indigenous leader has accused Imperial Oil Ltd. of a nine-month coverup over a massive release of toxic oilsands tailings on land near where his band harvests food.

Can carbon markets bring affluence and autonomy to Indigenous Nations? Or further exploitation in a new era of green colonialism?

Environmental groups are calling on the federal government to step in after oilsands tailing ponds grew by 90 million cubic metres in 2020 despite a drop in oil production, according to a report released last week by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). 

Several First Nations asked the Supreme Court of Canada on Wednesday to look beyond intergovernmental clashes over the carbon tax, and recognize that the climate crisis infringes on treaty rights.

Charges were dropped against a prominent northern Alberta First Nations chief on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, as it was revealed that one of the officers involved in his violent arrest had been charged in an off-duty assault seven months earlier.