• A woman in a wheelchair with dark skin and curly black hair is in the foreground, wearing dark clothes and holding a sign that reads
    Magazine

    Terry Fox, the Freedom Convoy, and disability politics

    Terry Fox is the most famous disabled person in Canadian history. Now, his iconography is being used to support the Freedom Convoy’s anti-vaccine, anti-mask agenda.

    by Danielle Peers and Kelly Fritsch – 11 min read

  • A digital illustration showing assistive devices – a wheelchair, a cane, and a blood glucose monitor – floating against a light blue background.
    Magazine

    Care without institutions

    by seeley quest and Briarpatch Staff – 7 min read

    Four case studies of projects that are meeting disabled people’s needs through community care.

  • A vase holding many long stems sits on top of a decorative pedestal. Some stems have bright green inked leaves at their ends while others have hot pink inked anti-depressants at their ends. The anti-depressants are printed with the letters “VX” to represent their name, Venlafaxine.
    Magazine

    The pressure to be cured

    by Kendra J. McLaughlin – 7 min read

    Both professional and popular psychology are focused on “curing” individuals of distress. But without looking at a person’s social and political context, the pursuit of a cure can do more harm than good.

  • Digital illustration of a hospital room with the focus on a pornographic scene playing on a wall-mounted television, from the perspective of a viewer next to the hospital bed. Also shown is the lower half of a person's body covered in blankets on the bed, a window with lowered curtain, a closed door, and a vital signs monitor.
    Magazine

    Fighting for the right to fuck

    by Vicky Levack and Megan Linton – 10 min read

    For more than a century, eugenicists have tried to eliminate disabled people through sexual sterilization. Today, disabled people’s sex lives are still surveilled, suppressed, and punished in institutions.

The Latest

  • The cover of Briarpatch's Disability Justice Issue on a light blue background. On the cover, someone with light brown skin, who is wearing a mask and a black hoodie, is seated and looks ahead into the distance. On their right arm, just above the elbow, is a tourniquet. A person with light brown skin, curly brown hair, and a mask stands over them, inserting a needle into their arm.
    Magazine

    Disabled leadership and wisdom

    by The Disability Justice Issue editorial collective – 7 min read

    When we say we want disability justice, we don’t just mean wheelchair-accessible buildings and sign-language interpretation. We mean an end to the systems and structures that disable and debilitate us and a future where there is enough care, community, and support for everyone to thrive. 

  • Online-only

    Future on Fire: Defending a ravaged planet

    by Sara Birrell – 8 min read

    In his upcoming book “Future on Fire,” David Camfield dispels false solutions to the climate crisis and argues that building collective mass movements that threaten capitalism’s power is our only hope against fossil fuel companies.

  • Dark purple and black ombre background with white stars. In the foreground are yellow pills and red and blue capsules across the length of the image. A range of objects are floating around the page which include (from left to right); a mask, a prescription bottle of pills, a handheld nebulizer, two cannabis buds, a joint, nasal spray, an asthma inhaler, and a needle.
    Magazine

    What we need to be well

    by Carlyn Zwarenstein – 12 min read

    There’s a big overlap between communities of disabled people and illicit drug users. A safe supply of drugs should be considered a fundamental part of disability justice.

  • An array of military weapons fan out to create a Rorschach test, including artillery shells, bullets, guns, planes, and surveillance cameras. Smoke billows behind them on an orange background.
    Magazine

    Disability and war

    by Destiny Pitters – 10 min read

    Across the world, people are disabled in vast numbers by war, occupation, and imperial violence. How can disability justice confront the U.S. and Canadian war machines?

Current Issue

September/October 2022

This special 56-page issue takes readers through the history of the disability justice movement; addresses present-day issues affecting disabled people like COVID, racism, institutionalization, poverty, war, and climate change; and envisions a future of joy, safety, and liberation for disabled people. 

Issue cover

Browse back issues »

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