"Of all the Idle No More protests that sprung up on Wednesday's national day of action across Canada, what may have worried the conservative government of Stephen Harper the most was a gathering of aboriginal young men banging tribal drums outside a hotel in downtown Vancouver."

"No one was hurt, no traffic was disrupted.  A large white tent shaped like a whale sat beside them on the pavement.  The mood was almost festive.

Not so inside, where all last week officials from Canada’s National Energy Board were running the latest round of public hearings into plans by a Calgary-based energy company, Enbridge, to lay a brand new 730-mile pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta west across British Columbia to the Pacific Coast. A new terminal in Kitimat, southeast of Prince Rupert, will enable crude to be loaded on to tankers that would then speed it to markets in Asia."

David Usborne reports for the Independent January 18, 2013. [2]