"MONTREAL - A prominent asbestos merchant is headed to Parliament Hill as part of a broader counter-offensive to salvage the reputation of his beleaguered industry."

"EDMONTON -- Environmental groups are hoping to trigger what they call the "largest civil disobedience action in the history of Canada’s climate movement"Monday in Ottawa — a sit-in on Parliament Hill to protest federal government support of Alberta's oilsands."

A group of nine Nobel Prize winners called on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.

"ST. JOHN'S — Canada's doctors are condemning the Harper government for its 'shameful' decision to block listing asbestos as a hazardous product.

Delegates to the Canadian Medical Association's general assembly voted nearly unanimously — 99 per cent — in support of a motion Wednesday opposing the federal government for contesting the international designation of chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous substance.

The tar-sands oil entering the pipeline in Alberta contains a small amount of water. Whether this will cause corrosion of the pipeline is a question that has brought high emotions and little actual study.

"What landed in the Tyee's inbox was entirely in keeping with the government's handling of a contentious proposal by a natural gas company to divert large quantities of water out of Williston Reservoir. When word leaked that the government had approved the diversion scheme, a rather strange statement was issued that began by noting that the provincial Cabinet minister in charge was unavailable."

Ben Parfitt reports for The Tyee August 22, 2011.

"The federal Conservative party has sent a threatening email to the widow of an asbestos victim in the latest chapter of Canada's debate over the hazardous mineral."

"OTTAWA — The federal government's advocacy strategy to promote the oilsands sector in partnership with oil and gas companies and the province of Alberta was not just about polishing the industry's image and countering foreign climate change policies."

"OTTAWA — Natural Resources Canada says a powerful oil and gas industry lobby group was responsible for organizing a key meeting and some controversial messaging, in partnership with government, to polish the image of Alberta's oilsands industry."

"SCRIBA, N.Y. — Officials at Constellation Energy are investigating a leakage in a containment structure that caused the shutdown of the Nine Mile Point Unit 2 reactor on Lake Ontario over the weekend.

"Canada's environment ministry will cut or reassign around 10 percent of its workers, unions said Thursday, prompting fears that services like weather forecasting and environmental protection will suffer."

"Critics are concerned that the B.C. government is allowing a natural gas company to draw water from a northern BC Hydro reservoir to use in a controversial technique called fracking."

"With hundreds of fires scorching northern Ontario, and Alberta and Northwest Territories battling bigger blazes than usual, this is potentially shaping up as one of the nation’s most destructive wildfire years."

"The devastation that bark beetles and fungus have wreaked on hundreds of thousands of acres of whitebark pine trees in the northern Rockies has been tracked and chronicled for 30 years. Now the Fish and Wildlife Service has weighed in with a finding that climate change threatens the long-term survival of the species."

"Newfoundland and Labrador intends to join the growing ranks of provinces that have banned the sale and use of cosmetic pesticides on household lawns."