Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook 2013 Year Ender Show

Welcome to GR’s annual year-end show. We’ll leave the regular weekly format to feature the year’s news highlights and low. Mostly though, the idea is to bring some of the years most interesting stories, and more importantly its non-stories, those conveniently forgotten or undelivered by the state and corporate media nexus. We will too tonight feature a veritable musical melange along with the expected compendium of mine own bloviations. Sadly, we’ll miss Janine Bandcroft’s weekly contribution, as she’s in transit even now.

GR 07-36 Xmas 2013

Welcome to GR’s Xmas 2013 show. We’ll leave the usual format today for a very special program. Though I’ve been doing this show since 1999, the first GR X-Mas Special didn’t appear until 2004. I don’t recall why that is, but I do remember, the first program began with Ini Kamoze’s tribute, ‘All I Want for Christmas.’

As holiday commemorations are all about tradition, I’ll continue ours. And of course, the longest tradition of all around here is the contributions made to the show over these many long years by Victoria Street Newz publisher, and CFUV Radio broadcaster in her own right, Janine Bandcroft who will, that stars being rightly aligned, join us at the bottom of the hour.

But first, friend Ini Kamoze…Take it, Ini!

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Mimi German, Helen Caldicott, Janine Bandcroft Dec 16, 2013

As the birth date of Homo technologicus is debatable, so too the end time of the age will be difficult to determining with any certainty. I imagine post-technopocalyptic sociologists, sitting about the fire asking: “Was it the Industrial Revolution, Capitalist production models, or runaway resource extractive technologies that put an end to the era; a combination of these factors; or, was it something else?”

Could I be there, I would mark on the cave walls with my charcoal stick the date: March 11th, 2010. The day Fukushima blew.

More than a thousand days since the disaster in Japan, four of Fukushima’s Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant reactors are wrecked, with three melting down. The plant is today spewing poison radiation into the atmosphere and Pacific Ocean, and so far nobody knows how to stop it.

In fact, Pacific Rim governments have remained unnaturally quiet about the disaster, refusing to either monitor radiation levels, or report findings, (if they have them) to their respective populations.

Mimi German is an Oregon-based citizen activist with the grassroots group No Nukes Northwest, and founder of Radcast.org. Because the government won’t move to provide information she deems essential for public health and safety, a network of monitoring stations to keep an eye on radiation levels from California to Alaska has been formed; and, they’ve have hooked up with like-minded activists farther afield too.

Mimi German in the first half.

And; Dr. Helen Caldicott is a physician, author, and lecturer, who has for more than thirty years studied, written, and campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their derivatives, delivering impassioned speeches and making imprecations to both the suited and unsuitable politicians and power-brokers overseeing the precarious atomic tinderbox reality of our modern lives. Dr. Caldicott’s book titles include: ‘If You Love This Planet,’ ‘Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer,’The New Nuclear Danger,’ ‘Depleted Uranium: Metal of Dishonour,’ and ‘If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth.’ Caldicott was in California recently to attend the premier of Lawrence Johnston’s new documentary film, ‘Fallout,’ on the making of the Hollywood film based on Neville Shute’s seminal book, ‘On the Beach,’ a tale nuclear apocalypse and humanity’s last survivors. I spoke to Helen from her home, and setting of Shute’s book, Melbourne, Australia a few weeks ago.

Dr. Helen Caldicott on the beach fifty years later in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around our city, and beyond too, in the coming week. But first, Mimi German and what’s on our beaches?

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Kathy Kelly, David Rovics, Janine Bandcroft Dec 9, 2013

America’s Secretary of Defense visited Afghanistan over the weekend. Chuck Hagel expressed confidence in the prospects of Afghanistan’s parliament signing an agreement with the Superpower to allow its troops stay in the country past the announced 2014 withdrawal. Current president, Hamid Karzai is less accommodating, and was himself last week busy shoring up a cooperation pact with neighbouring Iran. While Afghanistan’s ongoing geopolitical intrigues may make for interesting reading and lively conversation amongst international elites cocooned in their rarefied confines, how much difference these deals and rumours of deals will make to the precarious lives led by the country’s long-suffering citizens is where the real debate should be taking place.

Kathy Kelly is a long-time peace and social justice activist who has lived with and been a witness to the suffering and struggles of people brutalized by war and the business of greed from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine, to Central America, Haiti and at home in the United States. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her peace service, including three nominations for the Nobel Peace prize, and has been convicted and spent time in prison for her refusal to allow America’s war-making go unchallenged.

Kelly is a co-founder of Voice in the Wilderness and Voices for Creative Nonviolences; has written too many essays and articles to relate, and is the author of the book, ‘Other Lands Have Dreams: from Baghdad to Pekin Prison.’ Kathy’s currently on the road again, at home in the USA this time, presenting the ‘Duvet Project,’ a local Afghani initiative supplying desperately needed winter comfort to the poorest there, while providing women a chance at a living wage.

Kathy Kelly in the first half.

And; this Friday, Victoria’s Norway House welcomes the seemingly constant-traveller and troubador, David Rovics. Victoria is just one stop on his swing through the Northwest, taking him from home-base Oregon to Seattle, up-island in Tofino, and across the water to Vancouver; this before a planned tour of Ireland in the New Year. Life on the road is nothing new to Rovics; from busking Boston’s subways to travelling the country and the world as a “professional flat-picking rabble-rouser”, David is the musical voice of his volatile times, and ours. In that time, he’s shared impromptu stages at the many Occupy Movement manifestations, and played with just about everyone on the left who can sing on key, (and more than a few who can’t). He’s also a prolific songwriter, publishing and offering up free his catalogue of more than 200 tunes from his website, DavidRovics.com, and is a regularly featured essayist for the premier progressive online publication, CounterPunch.org.

David Rovics, making revolution irresistible in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher, and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around the city, and beyond too, in the coming week. But first, Kathy Kelly and the horizons and hopes for a change coming.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Gerald Amos, Dawn Paley, Janine Bandcroft Dec 2, 2013

Last week, BC Energy Minister, Bill Bennett promised a 28% rise in BCHydro electricity rates, to be phased in over the next five years. The news was received badly by many of those who will be forced to come up with the extra cash, especially large, energy intensive businesses operating in the province.

What Bennett didn’t explain however is just why the rates must rise.

Gross, and criminal, mismanagement of the utility over the last decade and more through a series of schemes, including so-called Run-of-River hydro power projects has seen the public utility buying power through independent power production, or IPP’s for much more than they can sell that power on the open market; that, and the billion dollar Smart Meter boondoggle, means BCHydro is in tough, and there’s only one way to make good the shortfall.

Though sold to the public as “clean” energy, the Run-of-Rivers, known locally as “ruin of rivers,” is hardly environmentally benign, but the discovery of an unexpected new player in the IPP damming game has ignited renewed controversy in the province’s Heartland.

Gerald Amos is a past Chief Councilor for the Haisla First Nation, serving for 12 years, and has been a leading voice for conservation for more than thirty years. He’s also served as Chief Negotiator for the Haisla Treaty Negotiating Team, and was elected to the First Nations summit Task Force, playing a major role in the development of the BC Treaty Commission. Amos is too a founding member of Ecotrust Canada and a former member of the BC Human Rights Advisory Commission and the Provincial Parks Legacy Panel.

Gerald Amos in the first half.

And; last week, Honduras held national elections. The poll was seen as a chance to rectify the 2009 coup d’etat that saw President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya removed through a conspiracy of the country’s landed gentry and the military. Xiomara Castro’s newly-formed Libre Party ran second to the ruling Junta’s National Party on a platform of restoration of the nation’s democracy and a rejection of draconian neo-liberal economic “reforms” imposed since 2009. More than merely political, the election is personal for Castro, the wife of ousted President Zelaya, and she and her party have called foul, claiming the results were rigged.

Dawn Paley is a Vancouver-based freelance journalist whose work has been published in the Guardian, Globe and Mail, and Vancouver Sun among others. Her work also features online at the Dominion, CounterPunch, and the The Tyee. Paley’s recent work has focused on extractive industries and organized crime activities throughout the Americas, her reports being filed from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Northeast Mexico. She was in Honduras last week, checking out the election campaigns and apparent results. Dawn Paley and democracy’s fragile foothold in Honduras denied twice? in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around our city’s streets and beyond in the coming week. But first, Gerald Amos and a dam too far planned for the Clore.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Ape Goes to the Victoria Rally for Indigenous People of Elsipogtog

Indigenous people of Elsipogtog and their allies have been shutting down the highways to stop fracking exploration trucks from entering their territory. Background here: http://reclaimturtleisland.com/news/

They’ve SUCCEEDED in turning back the trucks day after day for weeks despite arrests and injunctions. Soon the ground will freeze and the fracking exploration season will be over. For now, they are asking all of us who want to defend land and water to stand up with them tomorrow (Monday).

Ape Goes to Eva Bartlett at UVic Nov. 27, 2013

Eva Bartlett has spent much of the past seven years writing from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and doing human rights accompaniment with the International Solidarity Movement. She has reported for Inter Press Services, Global Research, Russia Today and her blog In Gaza, among others. In November 2008 she sailed with the Free Gaza Movement to Gaza, reporting during the 2008-2009 Israeli attacks on Gaza and later during the November 2012 Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Co-sponsors: Independent Jewish Voices Victoria,
Univ. Victoria Social Justice Studies

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Eva Bartlett, DeerSafeVictoria, Janine Bandcroft Nov 25, 2013

To say Gaza City and the Gaza Strip, that thin slice of remnant Palestine walled on three sides by Israel and Egypt, patrolled with deadly seriousness from the sea, and whose airspace is entirely controlled by Israel’s air force, is in crisis is labouring the obvious.

Targeted by a ruthless campaign of managed starvation by Israel, the so-called “Gaza Diet” has ensured an entire generation of children will be stunted physically and intellectually, while deliberate and repeated attacks by Israel’s military guarantee emotional trauma.

But, things in Gaza have taken a dramatic turn for the worse since political turmoil in neighbouring Egypt closed the Rafah border, and the military Junta there began a program of systematic destruction of the tunnels that had supplied Gaza with the necessities of life Israel’s illegal embargo routinely denies.

Listen. Hear.

Eva Bartlett landed in Gaza with one of the only Gaza Boats able to break Israel’s blockade in 2008. She stayed on with the International Solidarity Movement, or ISM, as an accompanier in time to suffer the horrific Cast Lead bombardment, and to bear witness daily to Gazans’ tribulations in their homes and streets, in the farmers’ fields, and on the fishers’ boats, subject to the caprices of Israel’s naval forces. Eva will be speaking here this Wednesday November 27th at the University of Victoria as part of ‘Gaza in Crisis: Eyewitness Reports’.

Eva Bartlett in the first half.

And; Oak Bay council recently decided to launch an “experimental” deer culling program aimed at “controlling” urban deer. Predictably, the decision is controversial, and one group opposed to the scheme held demonstrations in Oak Bay over the weekend. DeerSafeVictoria says the cull plan is cruel, and will ultimately prove ineffective. I went down to the demonstration to talk to some of the people involved. Deer hunting behind the tweed curtain in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around our city’s streets, and beyond too.

Ape Goes to the DeerSafeVictoria Rally Nov 23, 2013

Rally for the Deer in Oak Bay

DeerSafe will be holding a rally in Oak Bay on Saturday, November 23 at 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. We will meet at the corner of Oak Bay Ave. and Foul Bay Rd. at noon, on the grass at the “Welcome to Oak Bay” sign, and from there we will walk to city hall along Oak Bay Ave.

Some signs will be provided, but please bring a sign with your heartfelt sentiments about the violence that is planned for inconvenient deer. Bring your antlers and invite your friends too. The rally will be light-hearted enough to bring our children to. I’m inviting my grandchildren, so nothing graphic, please.

See you there.
http://deersafevictoria.com

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Helen Caldicott, Gordon Pollard, Janine Bandcroft, Christina Nikolic N18, 2013

For all of my life, and the entirety of the lives of most of the World’s population, we have lived with the fear of nuclear annihilation. Swinging over our collective heads since August 6th, 1945 is a real, and seemingly inevitable, fiery atomic destruction. In an address to the United Nations in 1961, then president of the United States, John F. Kennedy summed up the global nuclear stand-off, saying;

“Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness.”

But today, in 2013, we’re beginning to realize the “madness” is not in the use of these horrific weapons of total destruction alone, but in the very existence of nuclear programmes, regardless of their stated purpose or beneficial application.

Dr. Helen Caldicott is a physician, author, and lecturer, who has for more than thirty years studied, written, and campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their derivatives, delivering impassioned speeches and making imprecations to both the suited and unsuitable politicians and power-brokers overseeing the precarious atomic tinderbox reality of our modern lives. Dr. Caldicott’s book titles include: ‘If You Love This Planet,’ ‘Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer,’The New Nuclear Danger,’ ‘Depleted Uranium: Metal of Dishonour,’ and ‘If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth.’

Caldicott was in California recently to attend the premier of Lawrence Johnston’s new documentary film, ‘Fallout,’ on the making of the Hollywood film based on Neville Shute’s seminal book, ‘On the Beach,’ a tale nuclear apocalypse and humanity’s last surviving in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia.

Helen Caldicott live from Melbourne in the first half.

And; this week marks the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of JFK. The November issue of the Victoria Street Newz is marking that milestone with the first installment of an extensive, three part article written by long-time student of the Kennedy’s killing and its aftermath, Gordon Pollard. Pollard is a former journalist and teacher who holds a Masters degree in History from Columbia University in New York City and Bachelors in History and English from the University of Victoria.

Gordon Pollard and the day that really changed everything in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around our city. But first, Dr. Helen Caldicott and a nuclear peril undiminished.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

Gorilla Radio Goes to Defend Our Coast Rally Nov. 16 2013

This winter, the Joint Review Panel will give their recommendation on Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to the federal government and Kinder Morgan is expected to submit an application for their proposed new Trans Mountain pipeline. If these proposals are approved, hundreds of tankers per year will put B.C.’s coast at risk.

British Columbians do not want tankers threatening the coast. A single oil spill would devastate marine ecosystems, coastal communities and coastal jobs.

Thousands have written and spoken out against Enbridge’s pipeline plans. More than 160 First Nations have signed the Save the Fraser River Declaration prohibiting the transport of tar sands crude through their lands and waters. Coastal First Nations have declared a ban on oil tankers in the Great Bear Rainforest.

Join us November 16th for a rally against tanker and pipeline projects in B.C.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ann Jones, Dave Lindorff, Janine Bandcroft N11, 2013

Happy Armistice Day! Today is of course the day named to celebrate the end of a terrible war. It is now a day to remember not only the millions killed during The Great War ended in 1918, but the many more millions killed in wars since.

Before it was numbered, that war was billed as “the war to end all wars,” but ending wars and War is, as our recent history attests, not anywhere as simple as beginning, or continuing them.

We here in Canada, and those in the other nations who joined America’s invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, have been given several dates for the cessation of hostilities there – the latest promising an end sometime in 2014; but even if true this time, as one of my first guest’s book titles reminds: War is not over when it’s over.

Ann Jones is an independent journalist and photographer, educator, and human rights advocate. She has authored eight books, contributed to fifteen more, and written articles too numerous to recount. Some of her book titles include: ‘Uncle Tom’s Campus,’ ‘When Love Goes Wrong,’ ‘Women Who Kill,’ ‘Next Time, She’ll Be Dead,’ ‘Looking for Lovedu,’ ‘Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan,’ ‘War is Not Over When It’s Over,’ and her latest is the just released, ‘They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America’s Wars — the Untold Story.’

Ann Jones in the first half.

And; nearly seven months after the Boston Marathon bombing few are aware of the efforts still being made by the FBI, ostensibly to uncover possible accomplices, especially amongst a group of emigres from Russia’s Chechen region. One such investigation culminated in the death in custody of Ibragim Todashev, who was allegedly killed during a solo interrogation by an FBI agent. The circumstance of Todashev’s final conversation is still a mystery, and the FBI seems determined it should remain that way.

Dave Lindorff is an award-winning investigative reporter, long-time muckraker, and founder of the online news site, ThisCan’tBeHappening.net. His writing regularly appears online at Counterpunch.org, and he’s now collaborating with one of America’s preeminent online investigative journalism sites, WhoWhatWhy. Dave’s work has also appeared in mainstream interests like BusinessWeek, the Nation, Extra! and Rolling Stone magazine.

Lindorff is author of the books, ‘This Can’t Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy,’ ‘Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For Profit Hospital Chains,’ ‘Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal,’ and ‘The Case for Impeachment: Legal Arguments for Removing President George W. Bush’ co-authored with Barbara Olshansky. Dave is also now .

Dave Lindorff and the FBI harassment of friends, and friends of friends in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s going on on our city’s streets and beyond. But first, Ann Jones and the soldier’s return.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

Ape Goes to the 2013 Victoria Armistice Day Commemoration

Went down to the annual commemoration of Armistice Day at the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion memorial statue. The Mac-Paps were the Canadian volunteers who defied their government by going overseas to defend the Spanish Republic from Franco’s fascists. This year saw more than a hundred people come out, (the largest turnout this reporter can remember). There was some drama, with participants in the official Remembrance Day military pageant across the street on the lawns of the Legislature Buildings taking exception to the “noise” made by the small PA set-up.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Gary Engler, Monsanto Marchers, Janine Bandcroft Nov. 4, 2013

Why do war, social inequality, environmental degradation, human and non-human animal suffering, and rampant disease plague us? Are these horrors we witness daily merely the normal state of things, something endemically human and immutable, or can we do something to fundamentally change the state of life on this planet?

It’s not a new question; various actors and movements have tried in the past to change the course of humanity’s existential paradigm, yet here we are, generation after generation fighting over the same old ground.

Gary Engler is a long-time Vancouver-based journalist, author, and full-time elected officer with Unifor Local 2000, the media workers union. Engler’s first novel is, ‘The Year We Became Us,’ a chronicle of the 1962 Saskatchewan doctors “strike.”

For his newest project, Gary is aided by son Yves Engler, brother Al Engler, and Jean Rands, comrades who have collaborated to transcribe the ‘The New Commune-ist Manifesto: Workers of the World, It Really Is Time to Unite,’ a book positing the question: “If Marx were to sit down to pen his classic 19th Century treatise today, what would it contain?”

Gary and Yves Engler will be here in Victoria this Wednesday, November 6th to launch the book; first at 3pm in the Camosun College Landowne Campus’ Paul building, and again at 7pm at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, in the heart of the Quadra Village.

Gary Engler in the first half.

And; last month hundreds of thousands came out in demonstrations held in countries around the world to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the activities of Monsanto, one of the world’s biggest agro-chemical companies. Victoria was no exception, holding its second march and manifestation this year to make public opposition to Monsanto and the failure of the federal government to bring meaningful legislation for the labelling of Genetically Modified Organisms included in food products, and allowing further proliferation of Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide Round-Up Ready, among other of the company’s environmentally poisonous products. I went down to the demonstration to get my fair share of the views.

Marching Against Monsanto for the second time in Victoria in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with what’s going on on our streets and beyond. But first, Gary Engler and a new New Commune-ist Manifesto.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, Caily DiPuma, Janine Bandcroft Oct 28, 2013

As sentient beings, our lives are lived as though crossing a high wire; our progress over the abyss dependent on a long pole, where the knowledge of imminent and inescapable mortality is balanced by the hopes we hold for the future, and a clinging on to faith that there is some meaning behind the whole exercise. Thus we inch our way along life’s wire, wobbling between the poles of existence as have the thousands of generations before us.

Unlike those uncountable unknowns preceding us however, we possess today a knowledge of the fragility of the World upon which our wires are strung, and the effect our lives play in bringing perhaps about Its imminent and possibly inescapable mortality.

From all quarters the World’s other inhabitants are sending distress signals; warnings we clever apes seem generally unable, or unwilling to heed. But some of us are listening, and heeding the call too.

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a scientist, author, lecturer, and defender of the wilds that remain. She is a botanist; medical and agricultural researcher; and self-defined “renegade scientist” in the fields of classical botany, medical biochemistry, organic chemistry, and nuclear chemistry. Her book titles include, ‘The Global Forest,’ ‘A Garden for Life: The Natural Approach to Designing, Planting, and Maintaining a North Temperate Garden,’ ‘Arboretum America: A Philosophy Of The Forest,’ ‘Arboretum Borealis: A Lifeline of the Planet,’ and her latest, ‘The Sweetness of a Simple Life: Tips for Healthier, Happier and Kinder Living Gleaned from the Wisdom and Science of Nature.’

Diana Beresford-Kroeger in the first half.

And; before the Edward Snowden leaks, few Canadians had likely ever heard of CSEC, Canada’s blandly titled Communications Security Establishment Canada, or had the slightest idea of just what CSEC was up to. Thanks to the Snowden revelations, more Canadians are now aware of the country’s uber spy outfit, but how many know who and what those spooks are spying upon?

It’s a question the BC Civil Liberties Association wants answered, and to that end they filed a lawsuit against CSEC, saying the outfit is engaged in illegal, warrantless spying on Canadian computers and phones that is worse than what their American counterparts, the NSA are carrying out down south.

Caily DiPuma is the staff lawyer assigned to BC Civil Liberties Association’s case against CSEC. Before joining the BCCLA she worked in private practice covering the areas of employment and human rights law with an emphasis on appeal work; including criminal appeals. DiPuma has also published articles on end of life decision-making, and civil procedure in B.C.’s courts.

Caily DiPuma and watching the watchers in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around our city in the coming week. But first, Diana Beresford-Kroeger and savouring The Sweetness of a Simple Life.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.