Alexandra Mazur

On its first day in Asuncion, Paraguay, during a stroll along the Paraguay River, the LIFE Team was exposed to the stark reality of inequality. High-rises towered above the flood-plain slums revealing the intense economic disparity of the city. When heavy rain pours and the river rises, squatter [...]

It may be hard to believe now, but rail tracks once crisscrossed the National Capital Region like lifelines on a palm, foretelling the life of a growing nation. In fact, the birth, expansion and perhaps the key to the Ottawa-Gatineau area clinching the capital title is largely due to the extensive rail [...]

The Canadian Union of Skilled Workers was founded in 1999 to create a pathway for workers and other Canadians to transition from the industrial economy that had formed the base of our society for more than 200 years, to the “information”, knowledge-based economy of the 21st Century. The founding [...]

Images by Roseanne Lake. The Festival of Small Halls is exactly as it sounds, a bunch of bands going to historic and beautiful places around Ottawa playing big shows in small places. The festival is meant to bring life and vitality back to small venues outside of the city landscape. It also gives the [...]

Iman Najibzadeh migrated to Canada from Iran in 2011. Once here, he began his apprenticeship to become a licensed electrician. During his time spent studying, he had to find work; he worked for two years with a non-unionized construction company. “The biggest thing I noticed is that they didn’t [...]

Canada is a country born from colonization. This process, and the residential schools that followed, have had monstrous effects on First Nations peoples, effects that we are only beginning to acknowledge through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. But the colonization of the North, for the First [...]

Natacha was at a crossroads. Should she marry the man she loved, even though he lived in the water-deprived village of Anoum (Benin), in West Africa? For women in other villages, choosing to live in Anoum was not a decision to take lightly. Young girls and women are traditionally tasked with providing [...]

There's a Moose on the Loose and It’s Making Commercial Rail a Reality in the Capital. There’s been quite a buzz around the Prince of Wales Bridge lately. The City of Ottawa bought the bridge that cuts across the Ottawa River in 2005. It has been sitting unused ever since, except by “trespassers”. [...]

A Jane Glassco Northern Fellow  Who is Helping to Build a Sustainable North The Gordon Foundation is a not-for profit that has invested over $27 million over the last 50 years into northern community projects and freshwater initiatives. The Foundation aims to promote innovation in public policy for [...]

Photos by Alex Mazur. Have you ever let your mind wander while watching passing clouds floating through the sky? Suddenly those white wisps look like a sailboat, or that fluffy cloud looks unmistakably like a cuddly bunny. This psychological phenomenon is called pareidolia, an instance where the mind [...]