Sask Dispatch

What we're looking for For this issue, we're specifically looking for pieces looking at the state of labour in Saskatchewan. Pieces on the state of labour organizing and the role of unions in Saskatchewan, working class art and culture, queerness and labour, rural Saskatchewan and labour are all of interest, as are any other perspectives on this issue.

Regina activist Florence Stratton was announced as the winner of the Ursula Franklin Award of Excellence from the Canadian Voice of Women (VOW) for Peace during the organization’s 2026 Peace Awards ceremony on Saturday, March 7, 2026. “I was honoured and humbled, and I'm hoping as a result [of the award], peace and justice will have more force behind them,” says Stratton.

It’s a long journey across Saskatchewan from fabric artist Elaine McArthur’s home in Regina to towns including Rosthern, Watrous, Humboldt, and Estevan. She started her journey in November 2025 and will be on the road until April 2027, braving frigid winters and gravelly country roads. But McArthur’s handcrafted doll, Junior Girl’s Jingle Dress Buddy, never loses her cool or her happy pink smile.

Beginning in May 2025, Saskatchewan’s last wildfire season was one of the worst on record, with 504 fires burning approximately 2.9 million hectares of land (the area of 128 Saskatoons), forcing over 30 communities to evacuate 16,000 people. The estimated costs of these fires to the province is $500 million, with the fires inducing a projected $427 million provincial budget deficit.

Jeffery Straker remembers the first time he actually made money playing music. Starting off with a tip jar in piano bars in Toronto, the Punnichy, Saskatchewan-born singer-songwriter remembers the connections he made with people as he watched them from his piano stool. Besides being the first time he got paid to make music, seeing how people reacted to his musical talent was what made him keep going, he says, not that he knew at the time how he would grow into the singer-songwriter he is today.

The Sask Dispatch is accepting pitches for our Summer 2026 housing themed issue. Pitches are due February 16, 2026. What we're looking for For this issue, we're specifically looking for pieces looking at the state of housing in Saskatchewan.

When the Saskatchewan Party won their record-tying fifth election in 2024, they did so with a party platform that seeks to deliver a strong economy and bright future for the people of the province. In their platform were promises of increasing affordable housing, improving community safety, and providing tax cuts for mom-and-pop businesses. This is all to be done in an effort to make Saskatchewan a province where people can thrive and invest their futures.

In Saskatchewan’s early labour history, asking for fair pay or safer conditions could mean arrest  – or worse. Without legal protections, workers had only each other. Three exemplary events have had a defining impact on Saskatchewan’s labour history: the 1931 Estevan strike, the 1944 Trade Union Act, and a 2015 Supreme Court ruling.

In a summer in which the climate crisis continued to grow, with devastating fires decimating our forests and communities, smoke filling our lungs, and drought choking our crops, on June 18, 2025, the Saskatchewan Party threw literal fuel on the fire.

The Sask Dispatch is accepting pitches for our Spring 2026 issue. Pitches are due November 14, 2025. What we're looking for Broadly, we're always looking for pitches covering provincial and municipal elections, grassroots activism, Indigenous rights, arts and culture, economic justice, ecology, gender equity, harm reduction, and more. This editor would like to increase reporting on rural Saskatchewan, arts and culture, and grassroots activism.