It appears that the Empress of Canada was the 3rd ship of the Class built by Vickers Armstrong in Newcastle - the earlier builds were the Empress of Britain and the Empress of England
The WEB site
http://www.liverpoolships.org/empress_of_canada_of_1961.html has many images of each of the three vessels, however The Empress of Canada is the only example to display those 4 x angled white drums
Again, the angled mounting of these drums?, must have some functionality however are a mystery
I find no evidence to support it, but they could be roller bollard drums for flag lines??
Each of the vessels in original build show 2 + 2 Sampson Post hoists [cargo wire cranes] at different deck levels over the focsle , however in latter age images these have been removed
The only part as you have marked
??? is in your lower photograph, is a long white lever that is attached to a control box........the lever is supported in a white vertical plate arrangement, further aft of the control box
A model of the Empress of Canada is shown in a WEB page, however this model does not appear to display the 4 x
angled white drumsDerek