2014 - Gorilla 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 Jordan River

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For the 11 households of Jordan River, BC Hydro’s notification they and their loved ones could be swept away in a moment should a powerful enough earthquake shake the dam upriver came as a surprise. Residents were made an offer to leave with payment; an offer that may yet prove one that can’t be refused. I went down to the local surf mecca to see what I could see.

GR Christmas Special 2014 with Chris Cook, Franklin Lopez, Janine Bandcroft Dec. 24, 2014

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“Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Happy Solstice, Greetings O! Returning Light in Desperate Times of Persistent Darkness,” and welcome to GR’s 2014 Xmas special. It’s important we celebrate and acknowledgement Humanity’s higher ideals, and potentiality now and then; especially because we spend most of our lifetimes enslaved to the basest of our species’ instincts: fear, anger, avarice, gluttony, etc.

From the intimacy of our homes, and within our relationships at school, or in the workplace, tyranny is always either directly present or lurking, ready to spring from just below the surface of our everyday.

So, tonight we’ll commemorate our collective better nature by looking in again on Franklin López, the Puerto Rico-born and raised, now Canadian hell-raising anarcho-syndicalist, award-winning director of films featured on Canadian mainstream teevee screens and at online places like, GNN, Current, BET, and DemocracyNow!

Atlanta, Georgia’s 2003’s Emerging Artist of the Year, López may be familiar to most through the release of his 2005 video remix of Kanye West’s ‘George Bush Don’t Like Black People’ following the post-Katrina failures of both New Orleans, and the US federal government. He’s also an artist, media activist, and founding member of subMedia, whose raison d’être is to stimulate “resistance movements that are working towards stopping the flows of hydro carbons, mineral extraction, natural resources and capital, through grassroots and underground organizing…” amongst other things.

Now, López is celebrating the release of the ‘subMedia.tv: A Decade of Subversion’ DVD. It’s a chronicle of a “decade of flaming subversion…” and is “a loving collection of foul-mouthed anarchy.”

Franklin López from San Juan, Puerto Rico in the first segment.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus author, 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 and beyond there too in the coming weeks.

And; we’ll have some Christmas surprises thrown in too. Like this, now traditional kick off for the Gorilla Radio X-mas Specials going way back, Ini Kamoze’s ‘All I Really Want for Christmas’.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Eric de Place, Andrea Morison, Janine Bandcroft Dec. 17, 2014

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Perhaps its the same force of gravity powering the flow of bitumen from the height of the Rockies, across the hills and dales of British Columbia, crossing its streams, dissecting its wildlife corridors, and concentrating down to the harbours of the great Pacific coast that concentrates too in the lower mainland, and at the provincial Legislature in Victoria, the basest lyingest, most con-jobbering, shit-hoarding, crap-peddling, self-serving shysters?

Maybe, after witnessing the likes of Gordon Campbell and his crew of privateers undermine the province for profit with the likes of Enron/Arthur Andersen progeny Accenture, we should not be surprised at the depths of depravity our so-called government is willing to sink in the service of corporate profit. Maybe.

Last year, Kinder Morgan applied to build a new pipeline across the province to deliver Tar Sands bitumen to Vancouver, and the sons of Enron’s former Liquid Pipelines got the “Good to go!”

Last week, the Seattle-based nonprofit research and communications center think tank, the Sightline Institute released a report on their findings on the doings of Kinder Morgan, and it should be enough to give even the BC Liberals pause — but will it?

Eric de Place is policy director, researcher, writer, speaker, and policy analyst for Sightline. He specialized in Sightline’s work on climate and energy policy, and is known as a leading expert on Northwest strategies to cut carbon pollution. He’s also a contributor to the Sightline report, ‘Energy Giant Kinder Morgan’s History of Pollution, Law-Breaking, Cover-ups.’

Eric de Place in the first half.

And; it’s hung Damoclesian-like over the heads of the residents of the Peace River Valley for decades: Proposed many times, but always turned around, the Site C mega-dam took a big step towards placing its watery footprint over a great swathe of north-central BC yesterday. Defying First Nations, environmentalists, energy experts, and even the recommendations of the government’s own Joint Review Panel, the Clark government gave the project a thumbs up, (and flipped a middle finger to the people of the Peace).

Andrea Morison is spokesperson for the PVEA, Peace Valley Environmental Association. She holds a Masters of Natural Resource Management degree and has worked in that field in both Ontario and BC for more than 25 years; the last four years of which has been devoted to the PVEA’s involvement with the environmental assessment process for Site C.

Andrea Morison and the damning of the Peace River Valley in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus 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 fair city, and beyond there too, for the coming week. But first, Eric de Place and getting to know Kinder Morgan.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Loretta Napoleoni, Peter Liddell, Janine Bandcroft Dec 10, 2014

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It may be easier, even strangely reassuring, to think of ISIS, aka ISIL, or “Islamic State” as it prefers to be called, as just another in the long string of terrorist entities to have popped up over the last twenty years or so; but that would be a serious “misunderestimation” of what is currently going on in the former Iraq, Syria, and the Levant.

Or so economist, syndicated journalist, and best-selling author Loretta Napoleoni warns. Napoleoni knows her terror, having first written in her book, ‘Terror Incorporated: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks’ about the financial infrastructure underpinning 20th Century social radical movements in Europe and the Middle East.

Listen. Hear.

She followed Terror Incorporated with: ‘Insurgent Iraq: Al-Zarqawi and the New Generation,’ ‘ROGUE ECONOMICS Capitalism’s New Reality,’ ‘TERRORISM AND THE ECONOMY: How the War on Terror is Bankrupting the World,’ ’10 YEARS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD: A Timeline of Events from 2001, ‘MAONOMICS: Why Chinese Communists Make Better Capitalists Than We Do,’ and her latest, ‘The Islamist Phoenix: Islamic State and the Redrawing of the Middle East.’

Loretta Napoleoni in the first half.

And; tucked away on the edges of Saanich, above the hum of the Pat Bay Highway, is Haliburton Farm. The nine and a half acre organic community farm, sitting in the middle of a regular suburban neighbourhood has attracted attention from urban farmers the world over. Peter Liddell is one of the community volunteers sitting on Haliburton’s board of directors, and he took me for a turn around the farm last week.

Peter Liddell and a unique farming model pioneered here in Saanich in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus 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 in the coming week, and beyond there too. But first, Loretta Napoleoni and an Islamic Phoenix rising in the Middle East.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. And now heard at Simon Fraser University’s http://www.cjsf.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, Roger Annis, Jacinda Mack, Janine Bandcroft Dec 3, 2014

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Later this week, efforts will be made to shore up the tentative “ceasefire” in Ukraine. Though officially nearly a couple of months old, the firing never ceased in eastern Ukraine, where the coup regime in Kiev, the one recognized and championed by Canada and its western allies, has continued its indiscriminate shelling of populated areas using weapons that include cluster munitions.

Last week, the Harper regime in Ottawa pledged more than 20 million dollars worth of winter wear and other gear for Kiev – and even provided free delivery…free for the fascists that is. Roger Annis is a Vancouver-based peace and social justice activist and editor of the Canada Haiti Action Network website, CanadaHaitiAction.ca.

His writings can also be found at Rabble.ca, and at his site, A Socialist in Canada. Roger was recently in Crimea, from where he filed reports on the deteriorating living conditions for the people beneath the bombs of the Kiev coup regime, and now serves as a contributing editor to the new web site newcoldwar.org.

Roger Annis in the first segment.

And; having presumably finished its mission, KinderMorgan has backed off Burnaby Mountain for the time being. But not before sparking a showdown that saw more than a hundred “caretakers” arrested for defying a court injunction. Nina Jankovic was one of those; arrested with the Klabona Keepers. She’s published an account of the mistreatment, courtesy of the RCMP, she and her fellows’ suffered at Vancouver Coop Media’s website.

And; in another BC first: the Mount Polley tailings spill is the worst of its kind ever. In the fading days of summer, the earthen dam holding back years of accumulated gold and copper mining waste failed, sending millions of litres of slag and other contaminated material into Quesnel Lake, while compromising the entire aquatic and shoreline ecosystem. So far, no one knows exactly how, or even if, a clean-up can restore the environment.

First Nations activist Jacinda Mack is speaking tonight at 7pm in Camosun College’s Young building. The Xat’sull First Nation’s Natural Resource Manager and Mining Response Coordinator of the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council has come down to the capital to keep the spill on the government’s agenda, and on the public radar.

Jacinda Mack, describing the cause and consequences of the Mount Polley spill and its implications for the province of BC and native people along the Fraser River watershed in the third segment.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here somewhere in the middle of all that to bring us up to speed with some of the good things going on around our town in the coming week, and beyond there too. But first, Roger Annis and Ottawa warming neo-nazis, while stoking the fires of a new cold war.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Karen Spring, Alison Thompson, Janine Bandcroft Nov. 26, 2014

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In the wee hours of June 28th, 2009, Honduran president Manuel “Mel” Zelaya woke to find his room filled with soldiers, and his presidency finished. Zelaya, a moderately populist leader with a year left on his mandate, would spend the next two years in exile, trying to get back to Honduras and return democracy to his country.

But it was not to be. Thanks in part to the quick recognition of the military junta by Stephen Harper’s government in Canada, (and bolstered by a hastily agreed Free Trade agreement) the coup garnered a financial footing, and measure of international legitimacy.

In the mean times since, globally Honduras’ murder rate is Numero Uno, and it’s now also one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalists, union member, or labour organizer. On the bright side; it’s a great place for Canadian mining interests to do business.

Listen. Hear.

Karen Spring is a Central America-based human rights activist, working with grassroots organizations on various issues, mostly in Honduras. She’s the author of the blog, Aqui Abajo providing, “Opinions, Experiences and Perspectives from the grassroots in Central America.” Spring’s recent article, ‘Aura Minerals Ready to Dig up the Dead in Honduras’ reveals just how low Canada’s miners are willing to go.

Karen Spring in the first half.

And; the BC Liberals plan to make a decision about the long-contested proposed Site C dam project on the Peace River before Christmas; right before it, if past behaviours are any predictor. The as-yet unscheduled in-Cabinet decision follows a Joint Review Panel process meant to explore all interests in, and effects of, the proposed project.

Alison Thompson is Chair and Managing Director of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association, or CanGEA. Thompson was in Victoria yesterday to give a press conference for a CanGEA report on a made-in BC alternative to placing a third dam on the river. It’s a prospect for the Peace the Joint Review Panel itself admits has been woefully overlooked.

Alison Thompson and a renewable, cost effective alternative to Site C in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus 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, and beyond there too, for the coming week. But first, Karen Spring and the dark, Canadian aura haunting the dead in Honduras.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Zoe Blunt, Kathy Kelly, Janine Bandcroft Nov. 19, 2014

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Last week, the stand-off between locally concerned Burnaby Mountain residents and allied environmentalists opposed to the proposed TransMountain project, and Kinder Morgan, the company hoping to “twin” its Tar Sands interests by doubling down on pipelines, took another turn.

The BC government granted an injunction ordering those blockading surveyors, who hope to map a pipeline route through a conservation area on the mountain, to leave or face arrest.

Some have left, some say they will leave, and others are not prepared to bow out; while still others are organizing to reinforce the blockade.

Zoe Blunt is a Victoria-area based environmental activist, organizer, and facilitator with Wildcoast and the Victoria Forest Action Network. She’s a citizen journalist whose work has been instrumental in the implementation of myriad campaigns locally, and throughout the province, to protect B.C.’s wild lands, ensuring habitat viabililty and cultural continuity for the people and animals in it. Wildcoast sees Burnaby Mountain as vital in its attempts to forestall plans to make Vancouver a major trans-shipment hub for Tar Sands bitumen.

Zoe Blunt in the first half.

And; 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; the Bradford-O’Neill Medallion for Social Justice; Oscar Romero Award; War Resisters League Peace Award; The Chomsky Award of the Justice Studies Association, and too many more to name. She’s also been recognized by the US government, which has convicted and imprisoned her for steadfastly refusing to allow America’s war-making go unchallenged. Kelly is also co-founder of Voice in the Wilderness and Voices for Creative Nonviolence, has written too many essays and articles to relate, is co-author of the book, ‘Prisoners on Purpose: a Peacemakers Guide to Jails and Prison,’ and authored the book, ‘Other Lands Have Dreams: from Baghdad to Pekin Prison.’

Kathy Kelly, returned from Afghanistan again in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us some of the coming week’s newz from our city’s streets, and beyond there too. But first, Zoe Blunt and tellling it on the mountain.

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, White Poppie Crew, Mike G., Janine Bandcroft Nov. 12, 2014

Canadians observed Remembrance Day yesterday. This year's event was more poignant than most, following the murder of a Canadian soldier standing post at Ottawa's War Memorial last month, and the targeting of two other soldiers in a Quebec hit-and-run automobile attack leaving one dead and the other grievously injured.

The government here has run a seemingly endless series of television and other ads emphasizing the centennial anniversary of the Great War, or War to End All War, also called World War I. The veritable barrage of messaging aimed at us by the military enthusiast prime minister conflates Canadian identity with the long-past conflict, and subtly suggests true citizenship depends on support for ongoing military involvement overseas.

Perhaps because of the events in Ottawa and Quebec, turnout for yesterday's event was predicted to be higher than usual. I went down to the annual gathering of "white poppies" at the MacKenzie-Papineau Brigade memorial located adjacent to the main event at Victoria's Legislature Buildings.

Remembering war in another way in the first half.

And; British Columbia's new leader of the New Democrat Party, John Horgan published an Op-Ed piece in the Vancouver Sun Monday voicing support for the LNG industry. In the piece, titled, 'B.C. Liberals get it wrong on LNG,' Horgan attempts a bit of linguistic gymnastics to both attack the ecologically vulnerable Liberals, while keeping his party's traditional labour and "green" support on-side.

"LNG" is BC political-speak for fracking, the practice famously chronicled in the documentary film, Gasland, where people living in proximity to fracked wells found their ground water polluted, and kitchen and bathroom faucets explosive. Mr. Horgan's support for the industry, he says, is contingent on it being "done right." But is there a way to do the wrong thing rightly?

Mike G. is a San Franciso-based writer and journalist who may beg to disagree with Mr. Horgan. His recent article, 'Confirmed: California Aquifers Contaminated With Billions Of Gallons of Fracking Wastewater' documents this disturbing situation in America's fruit and vegetable producing heartland, already suffering record-breaking drought. Mike G.'s work appears on the web at DeSmogBlog, Mongabay, Alternet, and Treehugger, among other places. He's also worked on climate and forest issues for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network, specializing in online organizing and communications.

Mike G. and California fracking done wrong in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus 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 there too. But first, remembering the real reason for remembering Armistice Day.

Ape Goes to the MacKenzie-Papineau Armistice Day Observance 2014

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Canadians observed Remembrance Day yesterday. This year’s event was more poignant than most, following the murder of a Canadian soldier standing post at Ottawa’s War Memorial last month, and the targeting of two other soldiers in a Quebec hit-and-run automobile attack leaving one dead and the other grievously injured. The government here has run a seemingly endless series of television and other ads emphasizing the centennial anniversary of the Great War, or War to End All War, also called World War I. The veritable barrage of messaging aimed at us by the military enthusiasist prime minister conflates Canadian identity with the long-past conflict, and subtly suggests true citizenship depends on support for ongoing military involvement overseas. Perhaps because of the events in Ottawa and Quebec, turnout for yesterday’s event was predicted to be higher than usual. I went down to the annual gathering of “white poppies” at the MacKenzie-Papineau Brigade memorial located adjacent to the main event at Victoria’s Legislature Buildings.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dawn Paley, Joan Russow, Janine Bandcroft Nov. 5, 2014

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War. What is it good for? With apologies to Edwin Starr, way beyond absolutely nothing for some fortunate few war is worth billions. Whether declared against countries, or concepts, poverty or ebola war and preparation for war is so lucrative it has become a supporting pillar of the global economy.

Nowhere perhaps is war’s profit potential more apparent than in the perpetual War on Drugs. Well into its second generation, the iteration of the drug wars, coined “The War on Drugs” by Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon has earned uncounted billions for gangs and grow ops, while making billions more for the endless retinue making up the Judicial-Enforcement-Prison Complex.

And, like it’s namesakes, this war is also responsible for the ruination of unknowable numbers of lives.

Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist and author who has spent more than a decade reporting from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Northeast Mexico. Her articles have appeared in the Nation, the Guardian, Vancouver Sun , Globe and Mail, Ms. Magazine, the Tyee, Georgia Straight, and NACLA, among other places. Her work in Latin America has focused on the business practices of the extractive industries, and the interconnectedness of high finance, politics, and organized crime.

Dawn’s first book, ‘Drug War Capitalism’ is fresh out from AK Press, who describe it as going; “…beyond the usual horror stories, beyond journalistic rubbernecking and hand-wringing, to follow the thread of the Drug War story throughout the entire region of Latin America and all the way back to US boardrooms and political offices.”

Dawn Paley in the first half.

And; more than just in America, November is election month here too. The municipal polls are set to go in a little more than a week’s time, on the 15th of this month. Joan Russow is the former leader of the Green Party of Canada who, since stepping down from the Greens, has spent her time working as a reporter and filmmaker; recording the climate change conferences in Copenhagen and Cancun, working on the film, ‘Cooperatives: Counterpoint to Capitalism,’ and traveling down to Venezuela to chronicle the groundbreaking progress cooperatives have made there since the Bolivarian Revolution. She also serves as an editor to the web news site, PEJNews.com. Now, Joan has thrown her beret into the Oak Bay councillor’s race ring.

Joan Russow and democracy behind the tweed curtain in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with what’s good going on and otherwise around our town and beyond here too. But first, Dawn Paley following the tangled Drug War threads.

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, Greg Palast, Zaria Stoffman, Janine Bandcroft Oct. 29, 2014

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November is right around the corner, and befitting the monotonous return of a least loved season, this year it means too another turn of the civic election cycle. It’s also time for our neighbours south to head to the polls for mid-term elections; and, as with all things it seems, America’s November contest has outshone us again, with the big time fraud and election-fixing Stephen Harper and his insipid robo-callers can only envy.

Reporting investigator, Greg Palast is just returned to New York after a trip into the heart of Republican America, where he and his crack team of researchers recently wrapped a year-long investigation for Al Jazeera America; obtaining among other things the first-ever copies of the lists of targeted voters, that is; voters subject to being “scrubbed” from voter rolls. And surprise surprise, the list lurches heavily towards Blacks, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans. Who could be behind such skullduggery? Stay tuned…

Greg Palast has been on the trail of ballot bandits for a long time now; breaking the story on George W. Bush’s 2000 election win assist by orange juice heiress Katherine Harris’ mass purgative of Florida’s voter rolls.

Then, as an elections official, Harris disallowed thousands of Black “felons” access to the voter’s booth. Small problem: they were innocent. Palast is also the author of several books, including New York Times bestsellers: ‘Billionaires & Ballot Bandits,’ ‘Armed Madhouse,’ and ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.’ His latest is ‘Vultures’ Picnic,’ named by the BBC’s Newsnight Review as “Book of the Year for 2012.”

In addition to appearing in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, (who regard him as “the most important investigative journalist of our time…”) and on the BBC flagship news program Newsnight, Greg’s reports are featured stateside by The Nation Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, and online at Truthout.org and at GregPalast.com. Palast film exposés include: ‘Billionaires and Ballot Bandits – The Movie,’ ‘Vultures and Vote Rustlers.’ ‘Why We Occupy – Palast Live!,’ ‘Big Easy to Big Empty,’ ‘Bush Family Fortunes, ‘ ‘The Assassination of Hugo Chavez,’ ‘Palast Investigates,’ ‘The Election File,’ and with Jeremy Scahill ‘Big Noise: From Black Water to White Powder.’

Greg Palast in the first half.

And; though mere pikers compared to America’s anti-democrats, Canadian politicians are learning how to spike the process here too. Federally, Stephen Harper’s New Government of Canada has stifled federal employees of all stripes, barring especially scientists from talking un-minded to the press, and has allowed tax agency intimidation tactics against non-profit organisations with inconvenient politics to continue. Right here in BC meanwhile, the Chirsty Clark government recently proposed changes to the Society Act – something promising to effect, according to the West Coast Environmental Law Association, “community development organizations, church groups, secular groups, community organizations, and hunting groups” among many others. Particularly contentious is the seemingly innocuous provision, s.99.

Zaria Stoffman is an articling student with the Environmental Law Centre Society, or ELC right here at UVic. That society’s mission is to “provide research and advocacy on public interest environmental issues” and provide for an social environment where “local communities, environmental groups, and First Nations have the legal tools and resources to advocate effectively for the restoration, conservation, and protection of this province’s unique and diverse environment.”

Zaria Stoffman and BC Liberals’ Society Act engineering in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city’s streets and beyond there too. But first, Greg Palast and the purge this time.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Nedjo Rogers, Robert Parry, Janine Bandcroft Oct. 22, 2014

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Resistance takes many forms, and in the fight against the criminality and impunity enjoyed by Canadian-flagged mining corporations around the world a diversity of tactics is required. With that in mind, the Victoria’s Mining Justice Action Committee or MJAC is hosting Communities in Resistance and the Art of Solidarity Project, a visual arts exhibition and spoken word performance event presented this Friday at the Fernwood Community Association Theatre.

Nedjo Rogers is a playwright and performer, coordinator for the BC-Peru partnership project, (focused on the environmental impacts of Canadian mining) and member of MJAC. His mock epic verse play, The Trois-Rivières Tales featured in this year’s Fringe Festival.

Nedjo Rogers in the first half.

And; the recent Hollywood release ‘Kill the Messenger’ has rekindled interest in investigative reporter, Gary Webb. Nearly twenty years ago, Webb’s expose on CIA involvement in creating the 1980’s crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles threatened a political firestorm. Instead, the story was effectively extinguished by major media outlets who rather than expand on Webb’s Dark Alliance series, chose to intimidate the publishers and challenge the reporter’s credibility.

Robert Parry is an investigative reporter, author, editor, and co-founder of Consortium News.com, the internet’s first news magazine website. Parry broke many stories from Latin America during the Dirty War years for Newsweek and the Associated Press, and followed those with revelations of the Iran-Contra scandal that contributed greatly to George H.W. Bush’s single term presidency. Parry, along with Brian Barger, first exposed the Contra-cocaine scandal for the Associated Press in 1985, and recently wrote a piece about the Washington Post’s attempts, in light no doubt of its unflattering portrayal in ‘Kill the Messenger,’ to smear again the late Gary Webb. The Post says Webb’s story made “extraordinary claims [and] require extraordinary proof” not provided.

Robert Parry’s book titles include: ‘Secrecy and Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq,’ ‘Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush,’ and his latest ‘America’s Stolen Narrative: From Washington and Madison, to Nixon, Reagan and the Bushes, to Barack Obama’.

Robert Parry and the press sliming again Gary Webb in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news of good things and otherwise going on on our streets, and beyond there too, in the coming week.

But first, Nedjo Rogers and the Arts of Resistance.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Tom Engelhardt, Richard Atwell, Janine Bandcroft Oct. 15, 2014

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If you feel there’s a disconnect between the kind of values we in the West espouse and the actions our agents in government take to protect and project those values it’s important you know a couple of things: First; you are not suffering cultural dissonance, and secondly; the government you see is neither yours, nor what you think it is.

Lurking below the waterline, more ominous than any iceberg, lay the real power running this country, that country, and perhaps every country.

Averse to the light, and invisible at night, it’s the Shadow Government that rules you, and it doesn’t share any of the values its daytime doppelganger maintains.

Tom Engelhardt is an educator, journalist, news and book editor, co-founder of the American Empire Project, creator of the Nation Institute’s news website, TomDispatch.com, (where his too numerous to iterate articles appear) and author whose book titles include: ‘The American Way of War,’ ‘The United States of Fear,’ ‘The End of Victory Culture,’ ‘Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050,’ with Nick Turse, the novel, ‘The Last Days of Publishing,’ and his latest, ‘Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.’

Tom Engelhardt in the first half.

And; local elections are looming with contests for municipalities, city councils, mayoral and CRD board positions just a month away. Though not on anyone’s official radar screen, amalgamation so far seems to be one of the key talking points on the stump.

In Victoria, incumbents will have to face the electorate and answer for massive infrastructure project cost overruns – any buyers out there for a nearly designed blue bridge? – while the CRD and myriad municipalities try to explain why the lower island can’t get its shit together on a sewage treatment solution stagnating for years now.

Richard Atwell knows all about that debate, he’s director of STAG, or the Sewage Treatment Action Group, a collection of citizens promoting the R-I-T-E solution for our daily pollution; one that is: Respectful of communities; uses Innovative technologies; is Taxpayer friendly; and, Environmentally sound., and campaign organizer for StopABadPlan.ca, the group most responsible for the CRD’s about face last year on its plan to locate a biosolids plant in a Vic West neighbourhood. Now the software engineer and Saanich resident has entered the race to unseat Saanich’s near perennial mayor, Frank Leonard.

Richard Atwell changing gears to change the old guard in Saanich in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news of some of the good things going on on the streets of our city and beyond there too. But first, Tom Engelhardt and lighting the corners where the Shadow Government lives.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Andrea Morison, Greg Palast, Janine Bandcroft Oct. 8, 2014

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Stephen Harper’s New Government announced it will render a decision on the fate of the Peace River Valley on October 22. The crux of the matter involves the long-proposed and ever contentious scheme to dam again the Peace. Site-C would be the third hydro dam on the river, and if placed where planned would reduce already dwindling wildlife habitat, submerging First Nations hopes of maintaining traditional livelihood opportunities in the region, while flooding too some of the province’s best farmland. Naturally, there’s more than a few local detractors, and many more from down south are opposed; so, just who supports Site C? Andrea Morison is spokesperson for the PVEA, Peace Valley Environmental Association. She holds a Masters of Natural Resource Management degree and has worked in that field in both Ontario and BC for more than 25 years; the last three years of which has been devoted to the PVEA’s involvement with the environmental assessment process for Site C. Her prior experience is in forestry, and the oil and gas sectors. Andrea Morison in the first half. And; way down south, Argentina way, President Cristina Kirchner’s government has done the unthinkable and defied foreign “adventure” capitalists’ attempts to cash in on Argentine debt they bought for centavos on the peso when the country was on its financial knees. A US court has upheld the so-called vulture’s claims, but Kirchner has so far refused to budge. It’s meant massive pressure being brought to bear on the country, still digging itself out of a financial hole largely dug by the fascist regimes of the 1980’s. Reporting investigator, Greg Palast trained at Chicago’s infamous School of Economics under Milton Friedman, Godfather of Trickle Down Economics and inspiration to the Gordon Gekko mantra of the era, “Greed is Good.” He transitioned into journalism because the reporters he was feeding stories of malfeasance in high places routinely screwed them up, or allowed their editors bleed them white. But, as a trailblazing DIY investigator, he soon discovered; having a great story to tell doesn’t mean the media will tell it. Palast ventured across the Atlantic, finding a home with London’s Guardian newspaper, and later presenting his investigations on the BBC flagship television news program, Newsnight. Greg Palast is the author of several books, including New York Times bestsellers, ‘Billionaires & Ballot Bandits,’ ‘Armed Madhouse,’ and ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.’ His latest is ‘Vultures’ Picnic,’ named by the BBC’s Newsnight Review as “Book of the Year for 2012.” In addition to Britain’s Guardian, (who regards him as “the most important investigative journalist of our time…”) and the BBC, Greg’s reports are featured Stateside by The Nation Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, and online at Truthout.org. Greg Palast film exposés include: ‘Billionaires and Ballot Bandits – The Movie,’ ‘Vultures and Vote Rustlers.’ ‘Why We Occupy – Palast Live!,’ ‘Big Easy to Big Empty,’ ‘Bush Family Fortunes, ‘ ‘The Assassination of Hugo Chavez,’ ‘Palast Investigates,’ ‘The Election File,’ and with Jeremy Scahill ‘Big Noise: From Black Water to White Powder.’ Greg Palast and Argentina’s circling vultures in the second half. And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city’s streets and beyond there too. But first, Andrea Morison and seperating Site C promises from reality. Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. And now heard at Simon Fraser University’s http://www.cjsf.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, Scott Renyard, Jon Elmer, Janine Bandcroft Oct 1, 2014

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Yesterday, the World Wildlife Fund’s biennial Living Planet Report reported: “World populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles fell overall by 52 percent between 1970 and 2010.” Imagine; within most of our lifetimes, half of the world’s non-human inhabitants are no more, primarily due to anthropogenic activities. And yet, human desires are demanding ever more from the natural world even as our designs on nature diminish it.

Nowhere perhaps is that incongruity more palpable than right here in British Columbia where the majestic Pacific ocean’s coming to shore is met by deforestation, industrialization, over-population, and the introduction of foreign species into an ecosystem unprepared to cope.

Scott Renyard is a filmmaking scientist whose screen credits include more than a 100 film and television projects; projects that have seen him wear many hats, including: writer, director, and producer; as he did for the award-winning documentary, ‘Who Killed Miracle?’ Long-time Victoria residents may remember the controversial death of the orphaned Orca “adopted” by the now defunct Sealand of the Pacific aquarium in Oak Bay. Renyard’s latest film, ‘The Pristine Coast’ debuted last week at Vancouver’s International Film Festival. In it, Scott chronicles marine biologist, Alexandra Morton’s epic undertaking to document the effects of Atlantic Salmon fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago and her efforts to protect the migration routes of wild Pacific Salmon all over the province.

Scott Renyard in the first half.

And; Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations’ General Assembly this week. Just weeks after causing the deaths of more than 2100 Palestinian civilians, and destroying much of the Gaza Strip, an unrepentant Netanyahu lectured the Assembly on the need to further isolate and sanction Iran, a nation that has attacked no-one; ever. As the news circus moves on to other hotspots, the fate of captured Gaza and the Occupied West Bank is again overshadowed and forgotten.

Jon Elmer is a Canadian freelance photographer and journalist who has lived in and filed reports from Occupied Palestine on and off for the better part of the last dozen years. He has too reported on indigenous movements in the Basque country, Western Sahara, and right here in Canada. Jon’s work has appeared at myriad sites on the internet, including; Inter Press News Service, Le Monde Diplomatique, The Progressive, and Al Jazeera English, and at his web site JonElmer.ca.

Jon Elmer and staying with the Palestinian story in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz from the streets of the city and beyond. But first, Scott Renyard and defending British Columbia’s pristine coast.

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