Introducing the Briarpatch Blog!

A blog we say? We do. Here, some of our favourite activists and writers sound off on the topics of their choosing. Unfettered commentary to stir, incite, tweet, and “like.” Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for fresh links to new writing by Dave Bleakney, Jane Kirby, Baijayanta Mukhopadhy, Dana Olwan, Alan Sears, and Leanne Simpson. Leave a comment to join the debate. Check out our inaugural posts here.

Who are these bloggers, anyway?

Dave Bleakney is a member of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the national union representative for education (Anglophone). On matters of anti-capitalism, the dude abides.

Jane Kirby is an organizer, writer, circus enthusiast, reproductive justice advocate, and unapologetic feminist living in Kingston.

Baijayanta Mukhopadhyay is a rural family doctor in northern Ontario. He is an organizer with the Canadian chapter of the People’s Health Movement, and is a co-representative for the North America region of its global steering council.

Dana M. Olwan teaches in the department of women’s and gender studies at Syracuse University. She currently writes on gendered and sexual violence, feminist solidarities, and anti-colonial struggles from Canada to Palestine.

Alan Sears is a writer and activist who teaches sociology at Ryerson. He is an editorial associate of New Socialist webzine and the co-author (with James Cairms) of The Democratic Imagination: Envisioning Popular Power in the Twenty-First Century (University of Toronto Press).

Leanne Simpson is of Mississauga Nishnaabeg ancestry and is the author of Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation and Resurgence and a New Emergence. She is the editor of Lighting the Eighth Fire: The Liberation, Resurgence and Protection of Indigenous Nations and This is an Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Blockades.

With a lineup like that, you won’t want to miss out on the discussion. Check in here or stay tuned on social media.