Articles

If you’re like me, your path out of this prison will follow the path of grief: denial, anger, negotiation, depression. But only acceptance and behavioural modification open the Big Locked Door. The staff say you are here to get better, but you are here to mourn your illusion of sanity.

nowhere is a prison / is a psych ward / is a suicide / is a death / from ‘natural causes’ is a mass grave

Three years after leaving my family’s home and leaving the double life I was living as a closeted queer Muslim teen, I moved back. With this series, I explore how my relationship with religion, family, and my own queer identity has grown and has manifested in the atmosphere of our home.

In Niagara Falls, Ontario, low-income seniors are left with no choice but to move into an uninhabitable motel: the Happiness Inn.

granny’s voice cracks when she calls. “when you coming home baby?” i am burrowed in darkness to be reborn. fingers stained ink indigo, daddy’s prison letter is scratched on paper like he already faded into the massive metal mouth that consumed him before we met.

As far as being a good Indian, well, I don’t know. Some people look at me as good. Some people look at me as bad. It doesn’t bother me. I am what I am. And I’m proud of what I am.

Best of Regina winner of the 2021 Writing in the Margins contest.

For professor Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, “when we embrace the use of repressive political policing, we’re mobilizing the tools that will primarily be used against our own movements.”

We don’t need to confine elderly and disabled people to deadly and dehumanizing institutions. What if they lived in the community and received at-home care from a support worker?

If we could reimagine our world in order to put trans women’s well-being at its centre, maybe we could make the system more equitable and safe for all parents and children. 

In Carlyn Zwarenstein’s new book, “On Opium,” she forces us to reconsider everything we’ve ever thought about pain and opioids. Her call to action is unmistakable: policies that criminalize and dehumanize drug users will continue to drive the opioid crisis.

After revelations of rampant sexual violence and abuse in Regina’s non-profits, where can survivors turn for justice?

Police-free schools means kicking cops out, keeping them out, and much more.

In 2018 the Kaska Dena created their own hunting permit system, to protect their land and the animals that share it. In doing so, they amplified a complex dispute between the Kaska and settler governments about who has authority over the land.

In British Columbia, a little-known arm of the RCMP is dedicated to enforcing injunctions for resource extraction companies. Interviews with land defenders, a C-IRG commander, and an anonymous source reveal details about their history, training, and practices.

The fight to protect old-growth forests – one of the last few places where it’s possible to witness land before capitalism.

The theme of property – and the vision of a world no longer organized by its logic – is one that is threaded through most of the stories in this issue.

In Ohio, where Aramark is contracted to provide food to state prisons, the corporation seems more interested in profit than the safety and health of prisoners.

An interview with the judges of Briarpatch’s 11th annual Writing In The Margins contest.

We must use as many tools as possible to fight against oppression, including – or maybe especially – rest.