Occupying small towns isn't easy. The scale of the occupation and the issues activists want to highlight are often different from camps in larger cities. A successful occupation in rural Canada requires a few tweaks to standard organizing. Getting the message out might be the easy part - maintaining commitment and momentum with community support can be harder. But with the right approach, small towns can support all kinds of radical movements. This guide details how to

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I have the extreme good fortune to live just outside of Ayr, a small farming town in southwestern Ontario, near Kitchener. We've got a dam with waters inhabited by a pair of cantankerous swans that consistently elude capture every winter, a busy vet who must have 10 stray cats, and now a new hockey arena that everyone's got an opinion on.

It's a similar scenario to many small Canadian towns. But the one thing we have, that many other North American communities don't, is Jill Yuzwa -- a one woman arts and culture machine who has made it her mission to ensure that the people of Ayr are exposed to the arts and that Ayr is exposed to the world.