Briarpatch Magazine

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Real climate action means defunding the police
A little-known arm of the RCMP has spent tens of millions of dollars brutalizing Indigenous land defenders and their allies while enforcing injunctions for resource extraction companies in B.C.
by Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines – 11 min read
Magazine
The labour movement is stronger without police in it
by Sophie Birks – 10 min read
It’s time for unions to expel police from their membership, because a strong labour movement can only be built on a foundation of safety for Black and Indigenous members.
Magazine
“Do not ever get used to it”
by Claire Nicolson-Hurtig – 15 min read
Union members and staff say that sexism, anti-Black racism, and other oppressive attitudes are deeply entrenched in many unions. Drawing on a history of women, trans, and racialized workers fighting for their place in the labour movement, trade unionists share ideas to transform unions today.
Magazine
A union for sex workers
by Savannah Stewart – 11 min read
Canada’s sole sex worker’s union wants to organize the industry coast to coast. But with members spread out in different cities, and working for online services like OnlyFans, how much support can a union provide?

The Latest

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Amber Dawn, jaye simpson, and Jeff Bierk on ethics, futures, and rejection in art

by Saima Desai and Sophie Birks – 7 min read
An interview with the judges of Briarpatch’s 11th annual Writing In The Margins contest.
Announcement
We’re contracting a part-time assistant editor

by Saima Desai – 4 min read
Briarpatch is looking for an editor to help us produce the Sask Dispatch and the RWDSU union newsletter. Applications are due November 8, 2021.
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Can you do good work in Indigenous communities with bad money?

by Lana Ray, Tabitha Robin, Kristin Burnett, and Barbara Parker – 7 min read
When settler non-profits take bad money and attempt to use it to do good things in Indigenous communities, they reduce reconciliation to something imagined and managed by settler governments, non-profits, and corporations.
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“That’s how we protect one another”

by Sara Birrell – 12 min read
Mi’kmaq water protectors and Nova Scotian settlers worked together to stop the Alton Gas project. Their success shows the power of Indigenous-settler solidarity in the fight to defend land and water.

Current Issue

November/December 2021

In our annual Labour Issue, contributors write about work, unions, and the labour movement. Inside, you'll find a profile of Canada's sole sex workers' union; an article about the subminimum wage workers who make Canada's Remembrance Day poppies; an argument for removing police from the labour movement; a look inside the short-lived union at HuffPost Canada; and more.

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by Harsha Walia – 8 min read
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by David Gray-Donald – 4 min read
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The co-option of mutual aid

by Regan de Loggans – 8 min read
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Four case studies of Land Back in action

by Riley Yesno and Xicotencatl Maher Lopez – 9 min read