January/February 2023 cover

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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  • A copy of Briarpatch laying on a pink background. On the cover, it shows a cartoon-like illustration of a house with an orange roof, and a a big pink tree. In front of it is a cluster of people, representing different members of the Briarpatch community: someone wearing a sasquatch costume, people holding cameras, ice skates, a baby, a receipt, and a stack of magazines. On the cover it reads
    Magazine

    Happy 50th birthday, Briarpatch

    by Saima Desai   Jan 3, 2023   4 min read

    This issue tells the story of Briarpatch’s survival, and explores how to build better media in Canada.

  • A photo of copies of Briarpatch from 2009 strewn across a wooden table. The cover of the topmost issue shows a police in riot gear looming behind a woman, with the words
    Magazine

    File rejected

    by Patricia W. Elliott   Jan 3, 2023   13 min read

    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. 

  • The covers of four archival issues of Briarpatch, against a light blue background
    Magazine

    50 years of editing Briarpatch

    by Beth Smillie, Adriane Paavo, Shayna Stock, and Andrew Loewen   Jan 3, 2023   12 min read

    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.

  • An illustration of a gaggle of Briarpatch community members: someone wearing a sasquatch costume, people holding cameras, ice skates, a baby, a receipt, and a stack of magazines.
    Magazine

    The people’s magazine

    by Saima Desai   Jan 3, 2023   5 min read

    The funny, strange, and dogged ways that Briarpatch’s readers have helped this magazine reach its 50th anniversary

  • A collage of magazine clippings from New Breed, showing Métis people cooking, meeting, and protesting, along with headlines like
    Magazine

    Métis militancy and Saskatchewan media

    by Alex Birrell and Mike Gouldhawke   Jan 3, 2023   13 min read

    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.

  • A digital illustration of a ship (similar to the one on the New Brunswick Flag) sailing on an inky purple sea against a yellow sky. The sail on the ship is a newspaper copy of the NB Media Co-op.
    Magazine

    “Don’t hate the media, be the media”

    by Tracy Glynn and Aditya Rao   Jan 3, 2023   11 min read

    How New Brunswick’s Media Co-op is standing up to the Irvings’ corporate power

  • An illustration from the perspective of a person working at a laptop. Looming over their laptop screen is a wide man in a suit and Canadian flag brooch, his hands grabbing the laptop screen. Beside the laptop is a sticky note that says
    Magazine

    Doing anti-imperialist journalism while the world marches to war

    by Alex Cosh   Jan 3, 2023   14 min read

    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?

  • An illustration of a person with six arms. They have brown skin and black locs. With their many arms, they are frantically sipping an energy drink, typing on a laptop, holding a cell phone to their ear, waving a newspaper, and holding a
    Magazine

    Independent media’s bad labour problem

    by Matthew DiMera and Nora Loreto   Jan 3, 2023   13 min read

    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?

  • A digital collage showing an underwater ecosystem. Fish swim near fish-shared lures with Google logos for eyes. At the top, a dragnet made of interlocking Meta logos looms over the fish.
    Magazine

    The dangers of Big Tech funding journalism

    by John Cameron   Jan 3, 2023   9 min read

    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?

  • Four pieces of media against a blue background: a book cover for Indigenous Media Arts in Canada, a movie poster for Writing With Fire, a movie poster for Tell The Truth And Run, and a book cover for the Community Radio Toolkit.
    Magazine

    A reading list on alternative and grassroots media

    by Patricia W. Elliott   Jan 3, 2023   5 min read

    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.

  • Magazine

    Journalism with movements in the South

    by Dawn Paley   Jan 3, 2023   4 min read

    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.