Unmaking Saskatchewan
Harbinger Media Network
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Unmaking Saskatchewan is a proudly anticapitalist and anticolonial podcast series on how the province of Saskatchewan was made - and how it can be unmade. This series examines how this province's history impacts its present, and how we might be able to change its future.
Hosted by sara birrell (@sbirlios), a queer settler, sometimes journalist, writer, and anti-capitalist from southern Saskatchewan.
Support the show and find transcripts at https://www.patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Mar 13, 2023
Medicare Before Tommy Douglas
For better or for worse, Tommy Douglas is the figure most closely associated with Medicare in Canada. But long before the CCF was first elected in 1944, Saskatchewan people were organizing and strategizing to ensure their communities had access to doctors, nurses, hospitals, and infectious disease treatment. This episode looks at the evolution of public healthcare in the province between 1872 and 1944.
Follow Sara on Twitter at @sbirlios.
Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan
Sources:
Boychuk, Gerard _Explaining Public Health Insurance in the United States and Canada_
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Countess of Aberdeen _What is the use of the Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada?_
Daschuk, James _Clearing the Plains_
Houston, C. Stuart _Steps on the road to medicare: why Saskatchewan led the way_
Houston, C. Stuart _Leading the way: __A Matter of Life and Breath. The 75 Year History of the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League and the Saskatchewan Lung Association_
Middleton, F.C. _Evolution of Tuberculosis Control in Saskatchewan_
Ostry, Alec _National History of Medicine: The Foundations of National Public Health Insurance_
Rands, Stan _Privilege and Policy: A History of Community Clinics in Saskatchewan_
Shandel, Tom _Bitter Medicine, Part One: The Birth of Medicare_
Taylor, Malcom G. _Health insurance and Canadian public policy: the seven decisions that created the Canadian health insurance system and their outcomes_
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Feb 14, 2023
The Healthcare Crisis is Intentional
Medicare is a project that was never finished. The failure to make it comprehensive left chinks that the right has exploited to push for ever more privatization. The crisis in the system right now is one that is by design, and until Canadians are willing to reckon with the fact that political leaders in the country don't believe in public healthcare as a value, we won't be able to fight back.
*Links:*
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*https://www.barrietoday.com/local-news/homeless-hopeless-man-to-seek-medically-assisted-death-6420855*
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*https://theconversation.com/as-eligibility-for-maid-expands-the-ethical-implications-of-broad-access-to-medically-assisted-death-need-a-long-hard-look-198380*
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*https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/toronto-woman-in-final-stages-of-maid-application-after-nearly-a-decade-long-search-for-housing-1.6145487*
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Oct 28, 2022
Neil Stonechild and the Starlight Tours (Part 1)
On November 29, 1990, the body of Neil Christopher Stonechild, a 17-year-old Saulteaux high school student, was found frozen in a field on the outskirts of Saskatoon. Despite his family's suspicions of foul play, less than a week after he was found, the Saskatoon Police closed the investigation into his death. It would take another 10 years - and two more freezing deaths - before Neil's death was properly investigated and it was revealed to the world what many Indigenous people in Saskatoon had known for years: the Saskatoon Police had a habit of driving Indigenous people far beyond the city limits and dumping them on the roadside to walk home, or die.
Support us on Patron (and find episode transcripts) at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan
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Sep 29, 2022
Eugenics and Disability Confinement (w/ Megan Linton)
Saskatchewan has a long history of incarcerating physically and intellectually disabled people. Megan Linton of Invisible Institutions comes on the show to talk about the history and present of disability confinement in the province.
Find Megan on Twitter at @invinstitutions and find Unmaking Saskatchewan on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan
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Aug 24, 2022
(Un)hidden History - Chinese Restaurants in Saskatchewan (w/ Julie Yu)
Guest Julie Yu calls it "the story everyone knows, but no one knows anything about." Chinese restaurants are a small-town Saskatchewan staple, especially along the rail lines. But who are the people behind them and what was life like for the first Chinese restaurateurs who made their home on the prairies?
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Jul 27, 2022
Colonial Violence in the Present (w/ Mylan Tootoosis)
On July 17, 2022, Colby Tootoosis was attacked and beaten by settlers as he returned a trailer to a friend. The assault, which was caught on camera and happened not far from where settler farmer Gerald Stanley shot and killed Colten Boushie in August 2016, laid bare the juxtaposition between how colonial law is applied to Indigenous people and how it is applied to settlers. Sara talks with Colby’s brother, Mylan, about the assault and how it fits into the context of Indigenous-settler relations in Saskatchewan. Mylan is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Saskatchewan and can be found at the Radicle Narrative podcast: https://radiclenarrative.com/.
Support the show on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan
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Jul 1, 2022
Colter Wall, Saskatchewan's Most Fortunate Son (w/ Jeremy Davis)
(Warning: This episode contains strong language) Colter Wall is one of Saskatchewan's most popular musicians. But what is Brad Wall's son actually singing about? Jeremy Davis joins Sara to talk about pan-hickism, murder ballads, and whether Swift Current is a small town, as Colter often claims (spoiler: it's not). Support the show at: https://www.patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan
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Jun 1, 2022
File Hills Colony (w/ Cheyanne Desnomie)
In the first half of the 20th century, an Indian Agent named William Morris Graham decided to set in motion one of the largest human experiments in so-called Canada. Graham moved Indigenous graduates from residential schools onto the Peepeekisis First Nation, arranged their marriages, and set them to work farming. Graham's control over their lives was absolute, and it has ramifications to this day. Cheyanne Desnomie, a scholar from Peepeekisis shares the story of the File Hills Colony.
Find out more about Cheyenne's academic work:
https://www.schoolofpublicpolicy.sk.ca/iphrc/about/our-people/cheyanne-desnomie.php
Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan
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May 15, 2022
The Economy of Land Part 2 (Beating the Train)
Although the train plays little part in the lives of most Saskatchewan residents today, there was a time when the rail line had almost unlimited power over the province's development. In this episode we'll talk about the legacy of the CP Rail.
Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan
Support the Sask Dispatch:
https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/help-the-sask-dispatch-grow
Transcript:
https://wordpress.com/home/unmakingsaskatchewan.wordpress.com
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Apr 11, 2022
Prairie Gender Troubles
Episode 4: Saskatchewan frames itself as a man's land - it's one of only three provinces that have never had a woman premier, and its capital city elected its first female mayor in 2020 - but the province couldn't exist without the free labour of women. This episode looks at women in the province.
Transcripts for episodes can be found at unmakingsaskatchewan.medium.com
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Apr 11, 2022
Land Back (w/ Mike Gouldhawke)
This episode is an interview about Land Back and Indigenous sovereignty with Mike Gouldehawke, a Cree and Métis writer whose family is from kistahpinanihk (City of Prince Albert) and nêwo-nâkîwin (Mont Nebo) in Treaty 6 territory in Saskatchewan. Mike currently lives in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territories (Vancouver, British Columbia).
Transcripts for episodes can be found at unmakingsaskatchewan.medium.com
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Apr 11, 2022
The Hunger Strategy
In Saskatchewan, governments and corporations have long used hunger as a strategy to save money, make money, and acquire land and resources. People are hungry in Saskatchewan today, because people have always been hungry in Saskatchewan.
Transcripts for episodes can be found at unmakingsaskatchewan.medium.com
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Apr 11, 2022
The Economy of Land
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Saskatchewan was sold to settlers as empty space for men to carve up and own. We still live with the consequences of that lie today.
Host sara birrell (xie/xer/they/them) is a queer settler, sometimes journalist, writer, and anti-capitalist from southern Saskatchewan. Transcripts for episodes can be found at unmakingsaskatchewan.medium.com
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