We have entered an age of protest. Social media tools allow new ways to mobilize activists into public and private spaces and also provide new avenues for amplifying their actions. The Internet, when used properly, can drive activists to an action — or a worldwide coalition of actions — and then make sure thousands more people see and hear about them after. Using simple tools like hashtags, we can monitor the response to actions in real time in a way never possible before.

So here I thought moving back to Canada from Washington, DC, I would get a little break from politics. That isn’t happening and it’s thanks to an amazing citizens movement that is taking the country by storm.

The movement is called Idle No More, and it is right now centered around an amazingly strong-willed First Nations woman named Chief Theresa Spence who is now more than two weeks into a hunger strike. Spence will continue her hunger strike until Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with her to discuss her concerns over recent changes to laws concerning aboriginal rights and environmental protection.