Briarpatch is . . .
…fresh, imaginative and tough. This is writing by free thinkers for free thinkers. Canadians are lucky to have a magazine so committed to truth, justice and inspiration.”
-Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine
“…honest, insightful, and incendiary. Read Briarpatch, and then go start the revolution.”
-Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older Than Words and Endgame
“…lively, irreverent, informative.”
-Noam Chomsky
“…an impassioned piece of Canadian craftsmanship.”
-Utne Reader
“…surely among the smartest things to come out of Saskatchewan since Tommy Douglas.”
-Kenn Chaplin
“…smart, with inspired writing and brilliant cover art.”
-Murray Dobbin
“…delivering quite the combination punch of fact and opinion.”
-Canadian Magazines Blog
Briarpatch is a contemporary issues magazine with a chip on its shoulder and a fire in its belly. Fiercely independent and frequently irreverent, Briarpatch tackles today’s most pressing problems from a radical, grassroots perspective. Publishing bimonthly, Briarpatch conspires to provoke, inspire and empower its readers in their efforts to build a better world.
Since 1973, Briarpatch has been serving up regular doses of news and analysis from its home in Regina, Saskatchewan. Believing that a truly free press is essential to the creation of a truly democratic society, Briarpatch provides a thoughtful, principled, and irreverent alternative to the false consensus of the corporate media. As Maude Barlow says, we’re “one of the few voices that will still challenge the corporate agenda and present workable alternatives.”
Briarpatch is published bimonthly by Briarpatch Incorporated, an independent non-profit organization overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors. Briarpatch is a member of the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association and the staff are members of RWDSU Local 568. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publication Assistance Program (PAP) and the Canada Magazine Fund of the Department of Heritage toward our mailing and project costs.
Briarpatch is printed by union labour on Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper using vegetable-based ink.
Readers who wish to write for Briarpatch are encouraged to approach us with story ideas. Briarpatch welcomes (indeed, depends upon) the assistance of volunteers and financial donors.
Opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the Briarpatch board or staff. Please contact us before reprinting articles from the magazine (we rarely say no).
History
On August 24, 1973, the first issue of a ten-page newsletter called “Notes from the Briarpatch” was cranked off a Gestetner machine. Back then, a subscription only cost $2 a year. For the next three years the newsletter provided a forum for low-income earners, welfare recipients and the unemployed.
Briarpatch soon added extra pages and began covering a broader range of issues, becoming a magazine with a two-colour cover and two staples in 1976. When Briarpatch‘s publisher, the Saskatchewan Council of Anti-Poverty Organizations (SCAPO), disbanded, the Briarpatch Society was founded to publish the magazine. The Society continued to receive funding from the Saskatchewan Social Services Department originally obtained by SCAPO back in 1973.
Through the 1970s the magazine became increasingly involved in covering issues relevant to women, trade unionists, and farmers. As anti-uranium activitism increased throughout Saskatchewan, Briarpatch devoted increasing coverage to the issue. This shift in emphasis began to annoy Allan Blakeney’s nominally progressive NDP government, which supported uranium development. In 1979, the provincial government cancelled Briarpatch ‘s $54,000-a-year funding because they claimed the magazine no longer reflected its low-income origins. Many Briarpatch supporters felt the real reason was Briarpatch‘s vocal criticism of the province’s embrace of uranium mining.
But our supporters refused to let Briarpatch roll over and die. Donations began to flood in and a number of innovative fundraising events were developed that, over the years, have managed to keep the magazine publishing. These fundraising efforts include benefit dances and concerts, fundraiser dinners, kitchen parties, garage sales, bottle drives, art raffles, and swim-a-thons.
Our bottom line took another hit on September 27, 1996, when Briarpatch received a registered letter from Revenue Canada informing us that Briarpatch had “ceased to be a registered charity.” Briarpatch had achieved charitable status in 1975, but in 1987, in the midst of the magazine’s fierce criticisms of the provincial Tory government of Grant Devine, Revenue Canada audited us and determined we no longer fit their criteria.
A Toronto lawyer worked on our behalf for free, keeping the suits from our door for the next eight years, but the case was finally lost in the Federal Court of Appeal, and as a result, we can no longer issue tax receipts to our donors. (Meanwhile, Canada’s richest people and most powerful corporations receive tax write-offs for their donations to the Fraser Institute.)
In spite of the hardship these set-backs have caused the magazine, we’ve worn our loss of provincial funding and loss of charitable status like badges of honour: we are truly beholden to no one but our readers, who trust us to pull no punches and tell it like it is.
Since the mid-1990′s, Briarpatch has gradually expanded its focus and its readership, increasingly reaching out to subscribers and newsstands across the country as politically-minded and progressive Canadians seek out an alternative to the increasingly concentrated corporate press. The magazine now stands as one of Canada’s leading independent voices on issues of social justice and the environment.
Briarpatch Magazine acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publication Assistance Program (PAP) and the Canada Magazine Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage toward our mailing and project costs.
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