When a sour gas line explodes near a village and a saboteur isn't to blame, does anyone pay attention?

That's what dozens of Pouce Coupe residents in northeastern B.C. are wondering after regulators slammed EnCana, North America's largest natural gas company, for releasing 30,000 cubic meters of toxic sour gas into their community.

B.C.'s Oil and Gas Commission lambasted multiple failures with EnCana's safety protocols in a report released on Feb. 4.

"This is a very serious event," said commission spokesman Steve Simon. "This shouldn't have happened."

In the last fifteen years, Canadian university students have been taking it on the chin: average university tuition levels doubled across the country between 1991-92 and 2001-02, according to figures from the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies. And, in most provinces, this trend continues.

Why are students accepting this gouging?

Over five hundred protestors, lead by a kilt-wearing bag-piper, marched against the G7 Finance Ministers meetings in Halifax last weekend. Together their message to the ministers, central bank governors and International Monetary Fund (IMF) representatives was this: Globalization hurts Maritimers — and it’s time to stop.

"The protests were an enormous success,” said Jessica Squires, an organizer with the Halifax G7 Welcoming Committee, the umbrella group coordinating the weekend’s actions.

Don't worry, Abbie. Last weekend's mini-musical revolution, Evolve, which took place in Antigonish, NS, was anything but boring.

It doesn't require a PhD in economics to know that Atlantic Canada is a “have-not” region.

A group of corporate executives, the think tanks they fund, and some government officials say they have a solution to the region's relative economic deprivation: Atlantica.

Gagetown, NB — When some 2,500 people braved snow and ice to form a massive Canadian flag at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown as a part of an emotional farewell to soldiers departing for Afghanistan, it seemed like patriotism at its best.

There was only one problem: many attendees were forced to participate in the rally.

An e-mail to base employees stated, “All military and civilian personnel not in an essential service position or undergoing training are required to attend the ceremonies.”

On January 26, 708 soldiers from CFB Gagetown began deploying for Afghanistan

The eight-hour cattle truck ride through poverty-stricken southeastMexico left fifty-seven volunteers, seven from Canada, nauseous, tired and frustratedby the time they reached Guadalupe Tepeyac — a Zapatista community high inthemountains of Chiapas state.

However, on that warm Friday on July 27, 2001, the volunteer’s situation seemedslightwhen compared to that of the people of Guadalupe Tepeyac. Their town wasdestroyed by the Mexican army in 1995 and they have been refugees,strugglingfor survival, ever since.

As the U.S. election campaign kicks into overdrive, Canadian politicians and oil executives are stepping up lobbying efforts to make sure whoever controls the White House keeps purchasing notoriously dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands.

Teach-ins, movie showings, marches and other events at Montreal's recent fourth annual anarchist book-fair, represented one of North America's largest festivals of anarchy, second only to San Francisco's.

“There are probably one thousand different people here throughout the course of the day,” said Stefan Christoff, one of ten members of the book-fair's organizing collective. “It shows the growth of our movement and the growth of struggle,” he said.