PRESS DIGEST-Canada-Sept 12

Sept 12 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

* One week after Toronto Mayor Rob Ford testified under oath that he no longer uses taxpayer-funded staff and resources for football, fresh evidence has emerged that suggests he continues to do just that. Ford appears to have relied on at least two mayor's office employees and their taxpayer-funded cellphones to help administer the summer football teams he founded after winning Toronto's top political job.

* Spending restraints are fuelling labour unrest in two of Canada's largest provinces, with teachers' unions in Ontario threatening to withdraw from extracurricular activities and public auto-insurance workers in British Columbia getting set to walk off the job.

Reports in the business section:

* Quebecor Inc's campaign to kill BCE Inc's takeover of Astral Media Inc moved from public appeals to regulatory hearings Tuesday, as its chief Pierre Karl Péladeau warned the C$3.4-billion deal would create "a monster in front of us that will kill the business."

* A week after Alberta enacted hard limits on air and water pollutants in its oil sands-rich northeastern corner, Shell Canada published a document that predicts the industry will exceed some of those limits.

NATIONAL POST

* A group of northern Manitoba chiefs is complaining that some aboriginals are being chained up in a hockey arena dressing room instead of an RCMP holding cell because of scarce police resources.

* Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is being hailed as "World Statesman of the Year" by an American organization that previously feted Jean Chretie, British prime minister Gordon Brown and Korean president Lee Myung-bak. The award, for his work as "a champion of democracy, freedom and human rights", comes from an organization called the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.

FINANCIAL POST

* Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver downplayed talk of drafting a formal national energy strategy Tuesday following a meeting with provincial energy and mining ministers. Oliver told a news conference in Charlottetown that he hadn't heard anything in proposals for a strategy that isn't being dealt with already.

* Royal Bank of Canada is among lenders bucking job-cutting trends in the United States and Europe as acquisitions help swell head counts at Canada's biggest banks.