The Sask Dispatch is a Saskatchewan-focused publication produced by Briarpatch, launched in October 2018. Printed every two months and posted online, the Sask Dispatch covers under-reported issues in the province, centring issues that are important to poor folks and the working class, Indigenous communities, and other marginalized groups. If you have a story Saskatchewan needs to hear, get in touch at [email protected].
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The great Saskatchewan tuition crisis
Tuition rates have grown by leaps and bounds – and so has student debt. How do we reverse the trend?
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Sask DispatchWhen collecting CERB means losing disability benefits
In Saskatchewan, disabled people on income assistance live off barely half of what the feds’ COVID-19 benefit promises, an amount below the provincial poverty line.
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Sask DispatchBusiness in Wascana violates Master Plan and threatens the park’s future
A Master Plan was put in place to ensure the integrity of Regina’s iconic park, but over the past few years, the plan has been undermined and business has begun to encroach on public space.
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Sask DispatchEmergency rally for Black lives draws hundreds
As uprisings in support of Black Lives Matter continue across North America and the world, hundreds gathered in front of the Saskatchewan Legislature to show solidarity and call for justice.
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Sask Dispatch“A culture of perpetration”: what’s behind sexual violence in Saskatchewan
Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan released an in-depth report on sexual violence in the province. The report has been three years in the making, and it provides insights into the nature and the cause of sexual violence in Saskatchewan.
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Sask DispatchState of the unions
Militancy, “negative solidarity,” and fighting to win in Saskatchewan and Canada’s labour movement
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Is Saskatchewan doing enough for workers during COVID-19?
Saskatchewan’s freezing evictions and Trudeau’s promising $2,000 to laid-off workers. But activists are calling for cancelling rent and more protections for workers.
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Sask DispatchCity’s body rub parlour decision risks worker safety
City council voted to restrict body rub parlours to industrial areas, citing safety as a reason. But some workers say the decision will make their work more dangerous.
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Sask DispatchRenewable Regina forum platforms residents’ voices
Regina residents gathered to offer recommendations on the city’s Renewable Regina motion – which some say has been “denuded” – in advance of May’s Reimagine Regina conference.
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Sask DispatchYouth access to justice
Are young defendants being provided with the legal information and advice they need to navigate the court system in Saskatchewan?
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Sask DispatchRescuing Renewable Regina
When the City of Regina invited a climate change denier to their sustainable cities conference, it wasn’t a mistake. It was part of a larger pattern of the City walking back its own goal to become 100 per cent renewable by 2050.
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Sask Dispatch BriefsCLC throws support behind locked-out Refinery Co-op workers
After Unifor National president Jerry Dias was arrested on the Refinery Co-op picket line, the president of the Canadian Labour Congress flew in to support locked-out Unifor 594 members. It comes almost exactly two years after a bitter split, when Unifor disaffiliated from the CLC.
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Sask DispatchThree times P3s screwed over Saskatchewan
As Saskatchewan shows, when you allow private companies to make bank on the backs of the public, it’s the people who pay.
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Sask DispatchOn the Prairies, the drug crisis is not opioids, but meth
Almost everything about stimulants like meth is different from opioids. And Saskatchewan is woefully unprepared to care for the rising number of people seeking treatment for meth addiction.
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Sask Dispatch BriefsFreshCo contracts “a complete downgrade” for workers
As four Sask. Safeway stores convert to FreshCos, workers are looking at lower wages, fewer entitlements, and fewer benefits
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Sask DispatchRegina’s 92-million-dollar problem
A crisis of underfunded social programs leads to an increased crime rate, which is used to justify ballooning police budgets. Activists are making the case for defunding the police.
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Sask DispatchDoes Saskatchewan need a citizen watchdog for the police?
A fatal police-involved shooting has prompted calls for Saskatchewan to create an independent citizen oversight body. But what if most civilian committees aren’t made up solely of civilians at all?
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Sask DispatchNorthern forests on the chopping block
Logging has nearly quadrupled in the last 10 years, and northern residents are raising red flags about the pace of clear-cutting
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Sask DispatchThe sorry state of abortion access in Saskatchewan
From lack of access in rural and northern areas to an astonishing number of homegrown anti-abortion politicians, Saskatchewan is ground zero for attacks on reproductive rights.
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Sask DispatchSaskatoon welcomes premiers with climate justice protest
While Canada’s premiers visit Saskatoon, Treaty 6 territory, activists are camping out for four days in Kiwanis Memorial Park to urge action on climate change.
