After watching one of the many DVDs exposing the myth of 9/11 and attending 9/11 truth conferences in Los Angeles and Chicago, Joe Hawkins made a life-altering decision. He gave up his lucrative practice as a chiropractor to launch a full-time crusade to enlighten his entire Midwestern city.

In short order, he started his own radio program, hosted three well-attended events, coaxed semi-respectful local media coverage, and went around town sliding copies of Loose Change under professors� doors and sticking them in car windshields. Now he leads workshops sharing activism strategies he hopes will take hold throughout the country.

Canada, that is.

This inspiring model of urging your neighbors to awaken to what really happened on 9/11 emerged not from Minneapolis or Ann Arbor but from Winnipeg, Manitoba. And Joe Hawkins hopes to light the torch in Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, and Thunder Bay, although if anyone south of the border wants to catch the spark, that�s fine with him.

I heard Hawkins speak at the recent Vancouver 9/11 Truth Conference, which drew some 450 attendees only weeks after David Ray Griffin had attracted an even larger crowd in Vancouver. More than half the presenters were Canadians, including Toronto journalist and media critic Barrie Zwicker, author of Towers of Deception and producer/host of the TV-style DVD The Great Conspiracy: The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw. Zwicker�s passionate, thoughtful, and articulate interviews and commentaries have led many to call him the Bill Moyers of Canada. Can you imagine the impact on the 9/11 truth movement if Bill Moyers ever started seriously questioning the lies of 9/11?

But the message from the conference lectern and the streets of Canada is not to wait for high-profile names�and certainly not the corporate media�to pave the way toward a new an open and honest investigation of 9/11. Thanks to the rapidly spreading DVDs and books, and the ever-growing number of websites featuring scholars, scientists, independent journalists, pilots and dozens of other groups and individuals sharing new evidence, the grassroots movement has seen a legitimate surge. And the example of Joe Hawkins reminds us that the spirit of 9/11 truth will continue to rise when more of those who believe 9/11 was an inside job take the courageous step to start talking about it.

For some, that remains an intimidating prospect when even many �left-leaning� members of our communities remain under the spell of the brainwashing media. Even when confronted with the overwhelming evidence that blows the 9/11 lie to pieces, they scoff or sneer as they say, �That�s for conspiracy buffs, and I�m not one of them.� Zwicker recommends that the next time someone calls you a conspiracy theorist or one of the nastier offshoots, you say, �Stop right there.� Then you remind them that, as documented in Senate hearings in the �70s, those dismissive terms emerged from a CIA Psychological Warfare operation in 1967 as a directed strategy for the media to squelch the early truth movement of the JFK assassination. Of course, you might also remind your rebutter that 9/11 was a conspiracy.

Dismissive labels, though, are tame versions of what we�d expect if we dared to go door-to-door or windshield-to-windshield with 9/11 truth DVDs. People in Canada are generally considered kind, respectful, and more inclined toward dialogue than insulting confrontation when met with differences, while we live in the Age of Limbaugh. Even approaching local media about something as innocent as a public library meeting to discuss questions about the 9/11 Commission Report can seem an open invitation for ridicule, despite recent polls that show more than half the people in our country don�t believe we�ve been told the full truth.

That�s why it�s encouraging to know our friends up north have our backs. They care about what�s happened in our country because of 9/11, in large part because it�s happening more and more to Canada too. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who once called the Kyoto accord a �socialist scheme,� is widely regarded as a Tony Blair-like Bush poodle. Canadian troops remain in Afghanistan despite large-scale resistance, and Canada recently installed its own no-fly list, which blocked one Vancouver conference presenter from traveling to the event.

�It�s like the elephant in bed with the mouse�every time the elephant moves, the mouse has to get out of the way,� said Ian Woods, publisher of Global Outlook, a Canadian magazine devoted to 9/11 truth. He was paraphrasing a line former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once used in describing the Canada-U.S. relationship. �We here in Canada are seeing our country move in lockstep with the rising fascist state in the U.S. But if we show the official story of 9/11 is a big lie, we can derail the neocon agenda,� said Woods.

In 2004, Woods and Zwicker organized one of the earliest 9/11 truth conferences, opening the door for dozens more since then. �We thought we could nail it then and there�get a real investigation going. We had enough evidence,� he recalled. �Then a few months later the official report came out.�

So, along with like-minded Americans and doubters from all corners of the world, Canadian 9/11 truthers dug in for the long haul. �If we here in Canada put our shoulder to the wheel, we can help make a real difference,� said Woods. �This is the most important populist revolution in the world.�

Hawkins, whose presentation included reading the names of Canadians killed on 9/11, admits that he had doubts about the �official� version early on but didn�t do much about it. Work, bills, and the other stuff of life got in the way. But something kept stirring.

�You reach this reality inside and that becomes the point of no return,� he explained. �Then you work overtime to do what you can.�

For some Canadians, the lies of 9/11 and the changed climate of American life hit closer to home. Will Thomas, author of All Fall Down and the recently released Days of Deception: Ground Zero and Beyond, was an American until that day in 1970 when he was visiting his family just before heading to Vietnam as a Navy pilot.

�As I was driving into the driveway, I had a vision: the plane I was flying was dropping napalm bombs that were landing on my family�s house,� Thomas recalled. �It was an epiphany.�

He soon packed up and headed for Canada, and he�s lived there ever since. When he told the Vancouver gathering �this outpouring of compassion and concern is most heartening,� he was speaking as someone whose heart beats in both countries.

To Thomas, those seeking the truth about 9/11 in Canada, the U.S., and everywhere else are answering a spiritual wake-up call. Others are emphasizing more pragmatic steps. The Vancouver 9/11 Truth Conference closed with international lawyer Alfred Webre�s call for an International Citizen�s 9/11 War Crimes Tribunal.

So we all do what we can. On the long trip back over the border, I decided on one action I will take. I have begun gathering material for a 9/11 truth book that will chronicle dozens of personal accounts of ordinary people inside and outside the U.S. I invite anyone who would like to participate to share their responses to these two questions: How and when did you first begin questioning what we were told about 9/11 and seeking the truth of what really happened? How has your involvement in 9/11 truth impacted your life?

By openly sharing our own experiences, we can encourage those who may be just beginning to question (even if secretly) the Bush-Cheney version to keep asking questions, to look at the evidence, to think. Together, we can help move our global community toward justice and healing.