
50th Anniversary Issue
Briarpatch is 50 years old! In our 50th anniversary issue, we look at the history of the fiercely independent magazine: when the Harper government defunded Briarpatch; the readers that helped us stay afloat; former editors' reflections on the magazine's influence; and Briarpatch's relationship with Saskatchewan's radical Métis magazine. Plus, stories about the state of the media in Canada: indie media's bad labour practices; what Big Tech funding means for journalism; and media co-ops standing up to corporate power.
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Happy 50th birthday, Briarpatch
This issue tells the story of Briarpatch’s survival, and explores how to build better media in Canada.
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File rejected
In 2009, Briarpatch’s $33,000 application to the Canada Magazine Fund was rejected, without explanation, by Stephen Harper’s Minister of Canadian Heritage. It would take an access to information request to reveal that, behind the scenes, the fund’s staff were also being stonewalled by the minister’s office.
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50 years of editing Briarpatch
Four editors reflect on decades of editing Briarpatch: what they learned, the stories that challenged them, what’s changed, and what’s stayed the same.
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The people’s magazine
The funny, strange, and dogged ways that Briarpatch’s readers have helped this magazine reach its 50th anniversary
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Métis militancy and Saskatchewan media
In the ’70s and ’80s, Saskatchewan’s left was chronicled by two formidable magazines: New Breed and Briarpatch. This is the story of how they made grassroots media in Saskatchewan.
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“Don’t hate the media, be the media”
How New Brunswick’s Media Co-op is standing up to the Irvings’ corporate power
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Doing anti-imperialist journalism while the world marches to war
After Russia invaded Ukraine, anything other than support for sending unlimited weapons to Ukraine was painted as pro-Russian propaganda. What does anti-war journalism look like in a climate of social media harassment and state attacks?
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Independent media’s bad labour problem
From union-busting to systemic racism, when bad labour practices have embedded themselves in the very publications trying to write into existence a more just world, what is to be done?
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The dangers of Big Tech funding journalism
Google and Meta are spending millions on programs and awards to help news outlets in crisis. What’s at stake when tech giants are allowed to brand themselves as the saviours of an industry they helped destroy?
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A reading list on alternative and grassroots media
Alternative media’s promise is that all people have a right to participate in making media, free of commercial and government control. These are a few of the guiding voices on how to build media for people, not profit.
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Journalism with movements in the South
When journalists insist the world’s problems, no matter how big or small, are caused by U.S. government interference, grassroots struggles against austerity and authoritarianism fall out of view.