Culture
Briarpatch
PLATFORMS FOR PEOPLE, NOT PROFIT
Digital platforms boast that they’ve “democratized” cultural production. But what would truly democratic platforms look like in Canada?
10 min |
January/February 2020
Briarpatch
ORGANIZING THROUGH LOSS IN THE HEART OF OIL COUNTRY
The story of climate justice organizing in Alberta, at the heart of the tarsands, is the story of a group of young activists learning what it means to lose, and keep on fighting
10+ min |
January/February 2020
Briarpatch
GROWING THE LABOUR MOVEMENT
How unions are using community gardens to engage members, nourish communities, and help strikers weather the picket line
10+ min |
January/February 2020
Briarpatch
A NEW ERA FOR OLD CROW
In the Yukon’s northernmost community, the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation is reckoning with how to preserve their land and culture, amid a warming climate and an influx of tourists
10+ min |
January/February 2020
Briarpatch
“At Least Hookers Get Wages”
The risky business of sex work in the gig economy
10+ min |
November/December 2019
Briarpatch
The Literal – And Literary – Futures We Build
Briarpatch editor Saima Desai talks to two judges of our Writing in the Margins contest about Idle No More and MMIWG, ethical kinship, writing queer sex, and their forthcoming work.
9 min |
November/December 2019
Briarpatch
The Cost Of A T-Shirt
In Honduras, women maquila workers are fighting back against the multinational garment companies that they say are endangering their health and safety.
10+ min |
November/December 2019
Briarpatch
Milking Prison Labour
Canada’s prison farms are being reopened. But when prisoners will be paid pennies a day, and the fruits of their labour will likely be exported for profit, there’s little to celebrate.
10+ min |
November/December 2019
Briarpatch
Bringing Back The Beat
In mainstream media, labour journalism has been replaced by financial reporting and business sections. But journalism students are raising the labour beat from the grave.
10 min |
November/December 2019
Briarpatch
There's No Journalism On A Dead Planet
Corporate media owners are killing local newspapers – which is making it impossible for everyday people to understand the on-the-ground impacts of the climate crisis
10+ min |
September/October 2019
Briarpatch
The Loud Silence Of Queer Poverty
The loud silence of queer poverty In every sense that matters, poverty is an LGBTQ2S issue. So why aren’t mainstream Canadian LGBTQ2S organizations treating it as such? And who’s picking up their slack?
10+ min |
September/October 2019
Briarpatch
Reading Truth To Power
The struggle over whom Winnipeg’s downtown library belongs to serves as an unexpectedly sophisticated example of what’s possible when leftists organize outside of the electoral sphere and commit to winning a single protracted struggle.
10 min |
September/October 2019
Briarpatch
Not Just A Pretty Instagram Profile
Lessons from high-school organizers fighting Ford’s education cuts
10+ min |
September/October 2019
Briarpatch
Mutual AID For The End Of The World
Conversations with disabled, trans, and racialized survivalists who are changing what it means to be a disaster prepper
10 min |
September/October 2019
Briarpatch
A Dignified Death
Winner of the 2019 Andrea Walker Memorial Prize for writing on women’s and non-binary people’s health
10+ min |
September/October 2019
Briarpatch
The McGill Experiments
The McGill Experiments
9 min |
March/April 2018
Briarpatch
A Thousand More Beds
The homeless shelter system in Canada’s largest city is in crisis. Toronto’s sky-high rental market,government cuts to social housing and assistance benefits, and a city council that voted against immediate respite during a recent cold snap are jeopardizing the lives of homeless people.But anti-poverty and housing activists are fighting the systemic abandonment of homeless people, andthey’re winning important gains.
7 min |
March/April 2018
Briarpatch
Distinct Histories, Shared Solidarity
Black and Indigenous activists’ reflections on land, policing, and gender
10+ min |
July/August 2018
Briarpatch
The Dangerous Illusion Of The Humane Prison
The right of trans prisoners in Canada to self-identify their gender is an important win. How can it be used to fuel – and not drain – our efforts towards a future without prisons?
8 min |
July/August 2018
Briarpatch
'We Don't Need Permission To Be Free'
On January 1, 1994, the Zapatistas’ armed uprising seized several cities and towns in southern Mexico, on the same day that the NAFTA agreement took force. Now, as Trump threatens to rip up NAFTA and others seek to “modernize” it, it’s once again Indigenous peoples who will bear the fallout of neoliberal policies. In March of 2018, thousands of self-identified women Zapatistas and activists gathered in Chiapas to share their struggles and victories in building a world beyond capitalism.
10+ min |
July/August 2018
Briarpatch
Start-Up Nation, Apartheid State
The myth of “peaceful” R&D in Israel
9 min |
July/August 2018
Briarpatch
'They Take My Labour, But Not My Family'
The federal government is preparing to end the Caregiver Program – and caregivers are fighting back by demanding permanent residency upon arrival
10+ min |
November/December 2018
Briarpatch
'To Create Other Worlds Inside This One'
An interview with Writing in the Margins judges Gwen Benaway, Alicia Elliott, and Jalani Morgan
7 min |
November/December 2018
Briarpatch
Busted
Aaron Doncaster was fired from his job for organizing a union. But in Alberta, workers have new protection against union-busting bosses.
9 min |
November/December 2018
Briarpatch
The Leftist's Case Against The Carbon Tax
It’s a fundamentally libertarian policy – and one that tends to just piss people off, not invigorate them about the possibility of a just and sustainable future.
10+ min |
January/February 2019
Briarpatch
Sending Josephine Home
Josephine Pelletier was shot to death by Calgary police in May. Her life and death shed light on the complicated interplay between colonialism, incarceration, and police brutality. This is her story.
10+ min |
January/February 2019
Briarpatch
The Battle For Heron Gate
Organizing from the ground up to fight one of the largest eviction campaigns in the country
8 min |
September/October 2018
Briarpatch
TS Just Wanna Have Fun
“Okay, let’s do something about it.”
7 min |
September/October 2018
Briarpatch
Checking In With The Oil Crowd
At the 50th annual Global Petroleum Show, are they planning a post-oil world, or digging into climate destruction?
10+ min |
September/October 2018
Briarpatch
Remembering The Drumheller Strike
“Hell’s Hole,” “the Devil’s Row,” and “the Western Front” – these were the nicknames for the coal mines of the Drumheller valley. In 1919, around 6,500 Drumheller coal miners walked off the job after voting to join the radical and militant One Big Union. Nearly a hundred years later, the 1919 Drumheller strike remains one of the most famous examples of workers’ power on the Prairies.
9 min |