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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Sask Dispatch“My quality of life has been compromised”: U of S study finds STC closure has had a devastating impact on Saskatchewan people
A new study from the University of Saskatchewan has found that the 2017 closure of STC has had wide-ranging impacts on everything from social connections to the functioning of the healthcare system itself.
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A community response to COVID-19
As lockdown eases, a group providing assistance to Elders and seniors during COVID-19 is rethinking what community support looks like during the long arc of the pandemic.
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Sask DispatchRoundtable on reopening Saskatchewan schools
The controversial reopening plan for Saskatchewan public schools has seen educators, students, and parents hit the streets in protests. Four of them shared their concerns about the Sask Party’s plans with Sask Dispatch.
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“We have buried too many”: A Q&A with Tristen Durocher
Durocher, a 24-year-old Métis fiddler, has walked from Air Ronge to begin a hunger strike on the lawn of the Saskatchewan Legislature, demanding resources for suicide prevention.
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Sask Dispatch“A symbolic step”: group calls on city of Regina to rename Dewdney Avenue
As Indian Commissioner and lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan, Edgar Dewdney left a legacy of colonial violence and trauma on the Prairies. Now some have joined together in a campaign to remove his name from one of Regina’s busiest streets.
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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
