Year: 2015

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Welcome to another Gorilla Radio Year-Ender show, wherein we generally try to take the tenure of the times through some of the stories covered here over the last 12 months, and attempt to weave from them a tapestry giving fair representation of the Canadian zeitgeist, and that of the broader World in 2015.

The hope is, a thorough conning of the year past can provide hints as to where we can expect the tide of events to take us in the next, New Year. This year however, I’ve decided on a different course; instead of merely a going over of the events of 2015, I’ll play selections from my long-favoured accompanying music, Grant Wakefield’s ‘The Fire This Time.’

The instrumental side of Wakefield’s masterful work has featured as background music for X-Mas specials, and those other occasions where there are no guests, but I’ve rarely played the documentary side of the disc.

It’s a terrible account of the Forever War’s commencement, and the sowing of the dragon’s teeth determining the news events we’ve seen reported, sans context, since. Fittingly, this year I go back, way back, to provide that deeper background, beginning at the beginning of this bloody new era…

I remember like it was yesterday… I was standing at the desk of a Mexican post office in Merida, on the Yucatan Peninsula. It was January 17th, 1991. There was a television mounted on the wall, the volume turned to distortion level, (as everything seems to be down south of south of the border). CNN blared, and red rockets flared as America and her allies dared kick off Desert Storm, (what would become the Mother of All Wars, the one that’s giving even now, nearly 25 years later).

The post office clerk followed my gaze to the teevee on the wall and said, “Es bueno, no?” And I said, “No, muey malo.” Grant Wakefield said much more; his ‘The Fire This Time,’ audio-documentary is a unique and necessary chronicling of the 1990-91 Gulf War. The CD’s liner notes inform,

“In April 1999 Grant Wakefield and Miriam Ryle travelled to Iraq intending to update Ryle’s 1994 documentary “Voices From Iraq.” They shot footage of the life in and around Baghdad, and filmed several interviews (including one with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Hans Von Sponeck). On their return they offered the unedited footage to BBC and Channel 4. It was refused. Upon this, Grant Wakefield searched for another way to share the collected material with the public and decided to make an audio CD. The documentary tells the story of Iraq, and its appointed role in the geopolitics of the West, from the colonial times at the beginning of the 20th century, till the period of the embargo at the end of the nineties… The story is narrated by Grant Wakefield, and complimented by a collage of samples from the collected footage, interviews, newsbroadcasts, and official (government and military) statements. The music was provided by various electronical artists, and Grant Wakefield mixed his narrative over it. The second CD is the instrumental version of the songs used for the first disc.”

That first disc is the one I rely so heavily upon for special programs like today’s. But, it’s the second disc I believe so crucial to gaining an understanding of the world we live in today; an understanding impossible to reach outside the context of the first Gulf War, and the true motives behind it.

So, here then is Grant Wakefield’s The Fire This Time, where be the seeds of perpetual war are planted.

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Welcome to the umpteenth Gorilla Radio X-Mas Special. As we’ve done in years past so we will again today do; to wit, take a look at where we are this festive time of year, counting our blessings, while wishing the best for those around us, and too forgetting the slights we’ve suffered, unburdening ourselves the weight of animosities carried throughout the year to live finally life joyous as it is intended to be.

This year we’ll be joined by: Ini Kamoze, James Carroll, Gil Scott-Heron, Transglobal Underground, Hawksley Workman, Brian Ferry, the Pogues, Sarah Simpson, and maybe even a surprise or two.

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Yesterday, the jury in the Freddie Gray manslaughter trial against the first of six Baltimore police officers involved in Gray’s wrongful death passed a note to the judge declaring themselves deadlocked following a first day of deliberation. Gray died of injuries sustained either during his arrest, or while being transported in the back of a police van, and he joins Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, and Alonzo Smith as another of the better known in a too long list of black people killed by police in suspect circumstances.

Thanks to the proliferation of cell phone cameras, and the increasing effectiveness of social networks, public consciousness of how Black America is policed is reaching outside the Black community; but it’s not news to those within it.

Long before cell phones, Facebook, or Twitter hashtag campaigns, Carl Dix was fighting for the rights and dignity of all people. He spent two years in a military prison for refusing to fight in Vietnam, emerging to become a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and long before Hands Up and Black Lives Matter became a part of the modern media landscape, Carl initiated the ‘October 22 Coalition to STOP Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.’

Twenty years later, Carl Dix has joined with Cornel West and many others to create the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and its campaigns Stop ‘Stop-and-Frisk,’ and #RiseUpOctober that brings almost 100 families of police murder victims together in New York City. #RiseUpOctober was out in the streets this week, standing in solidarity with Hollywood film director, Quentin Tarantino, whose latest film release faces the threat of a boycott organized by the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, and the Fraternal Order of Police because of Tarantino’s support of #RiseUpOctober and its call to “Stop the Police Terror.”

Carl Dix in the first half.

And; as reports of Turkish complicity in the oil trade that sustains IS, or Islamic State, connections that go to the very top of the Turkish ruling elite, become more widely disseminated, new allegations of that country’s involvement in supplying to its “terrorist” allies the sarin gas used in the infamous Ghouta gas attacks of 2013. You may recall, those attacks were blamed on the Syrian government, and were very nearly conflated then into a pretext for an all-out American attack against Syria. If nothing else, these new revelations remind, we have a very murky understanding of what’s going on way over there; certainly not sufficient to make the life and death decisions going to war demand.

Brad Hoff is an author, journalist, educator and Managing Editor of Levant Report.com. The former Marine has taught ancient and modern history at the college and high school levels, and has lived and traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, spending most of his time in Syria prior to the 2011 uprising. His articles also appear at Antiwar.com and Foreign Policy Journal among other on-line sites. Brad’s latest article charts the curious career of ISIS commander, Omar “the Chechen” al-Shishani. I spoke to Brad in late September…

Brad Hoff getting a better idea of the players the Great Syrian Game 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 coming to the streetz of our town in the coming week, and beyond there too. But first, Carl Dix and the fight to #Stop Police Terror.

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Ten thousand kilometers from the Peace River Valley, as the purple martin flies, Brazil’s embattled environmental authority has authorized the construction of the Belo Monte Dam; despite the fact the dam does not comply with IBAMA’s, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, own legislated prerequisites guaranteeing the quote: “conditions necessary to guarantee the life, health and integrity of affected communities.”

It’s an international disgrace; one Antonia Melo, leader of Movimiento Xingú Vivo para Siempre says is simply a crime. The Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) says: “The authorization clearly violates Brazil’s international human rights commitments, especially with respect to the indigenous communities of the Xingú River basin. Those affected populations are protected by precautionary measures granted in 2011 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which the Brazilian government continues to ignore.”

And yet, the project is going ahead; clearly a case of government corruption and a callous disregard for the rights of indigenous people and the environment they depend upon for survival. Meanwhile, at the other end of the martin’s migration another dam, but the story is the same.

Ken Boon is president of the Peace Valley Landowners Association, the group challenging a BC Supreme Court decision to allow the project proceed in hopes of stopping destructive preparatory work.

Ken Boon in the first half.

And; as predicted, Haitians are not accepting the massive fraud masquerading as democracy. October’s presidential election was farcical, even by Haiti’s standards; standards so low, the poll preceding this latest, long-delayed vote, was overturned by edict of foreign powers occupying the Caribbean island. This time around, opposition parties say more than 10,000 Haitian police, aided by as many as 2,500 U.N. personnel from Minustah interfered with voting stations, and are accused of stealing and stuffing ballots.

Kevin Pina is an American filmmaker, journalist, educator, and broadcaster with Pacifica Radio’s public affairs program, Flashpoints. Pina’s film credits include: ‘El Salvador: In the Name of Democracy,’ ‘Berkeley in the Sixties,’ ‘Amazonia: Voices from the Rainforest,’ ‘Haiti: Harvest of Hope,’ ‘Haiti: The UNtold Story,’ and ‘HAITI: We Must Kill the Bandits.’ Kevin has lived in and reported from Haiti, and was jailed by the infamous Baby Doc Duvalier for reporting on the abuses of that nefarious regime. I spoke with Kevin in September about the then-coming presidential elections.

Kevin Pina and a Haitian deja vu at the ballot box 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 the coming week for our city’s streets, and beyond there too. But first, Ken Boon and Site C, damning the people’s will.

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Do you ever get the feeling things are disappearing around you? Afraid to turn your attention away for a moment, in case you look back to see the world you knew irreparably altered; gone forever?

You’re not mad. Our world has become ever more ephemeral; a lot less “reality” based lately. Whether “the cloud,” or other digital technologies emerging to nudge our familiar hardware existence aside, it’s all a part of what my first guest calls being, “Vapourized.”

And, this is not only happening in media, where the last decade has seen the newspaper, magazine, and music business rocked by new digital habits, but is also moving into the electronics industries.

Robert Tercek is a 21st Century Renaissance man whose nearly 23 year career pre-dates most of what makes up our modern world.

Tercek has created breakthrough entertainment experiences across digital platforms, including: satellite television, game consoles, broadband Internet, interactive teevee, and mobile networks. His expertise includes too working the executive suites; most recently serving as President of Digital Media at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a Senior Vice President of Digital Media at Sony Pictures, and as Creative Director at MTV. Robert also co-founded five startup ventures, including 7th Level, Inc, and is the author of the book, ‘Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success In A Dematerialized World.’

Robert Tercek in the first half.

And; last month, barely a week into his mandate, Canada’s new prime minister, Justin Trudeau ordered Transport Canada coordinate with the Fisheries, Natural Resources, and Environment Ministries to put in place an oil tanker moratorium along BC’s north coast. It’s a stunning reversal of federal policy; but what does it mean in real terms?

Ingmar Lee is a long-time, BC-based environment defender whose latest effort is ‘10,000 Ton Tanker’ campaign to clear BC’s inside passage of dangerous tanker traffic currently flying under the radar. His past efforts to save the forests and watershed ecosystems of Vancouver Island include being among the few who took to the trees in the iconic Cathedral Grove, and remaining for two years while the law, loggers, and Weyerhaeuser threatened them every day in every way they could. The fact the Grove remains at all is due in great part to he and his “outlaw” cohorts.

Between campaigns like Cathedral Grove, fighting the destruction of the suburban forest to make way for highways in Langford, scaling the BC Legislature flag pole to garner press in opposition to the Enbridge pipeline scheme, and dismantling seismic explosives in the heart of Sandhill Crane nesting grounds, Ingmar earned an Asia Studies degree from the University of Victoria, with a minor in Environmental Studies.

Ingmar Lee and a tanker by another name in the second segment.

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 doings and otherwise planned for the streets of our town in the coming week; and beyond there too. But first, Robert Tercek and ‘Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success In A Dematerialized World.’

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Nuclear power’s role in our energy future will doubtless play a large part in the forthcoming COP21 talks in Paris.

Long-cited as the “safe” and “carbon friendly” alternative to fossil fuels, even environmental stalwarts like George Monbiot promote nukes, if only for the transitional period required for the world to switch to CO2-free forms of energy generation.

But does nuclear power really buy us time when its downstream by-products are an eternal threat?

John LaForge is a long-time staffer at Nukewatch, the Wisconsin-based nuclear watchdog and environmental justice group. His countless articles on the topic have appeared in Nukewatch’s quarterly and at online sites like: New Internationalist, Z Magazine, The Progressive, Earth Island Journal and at CounterPunch.org, where I found his latest, ‘Exploding Radioactive Waste Warning: Keep It Above Ground’ a disturbing account of a homegrown nuclear emergency you probably haven’t heard about.

John is co-recipient of the US Peace and Justice Studies Association’s 2004 Social Courage Award, and is a 1986 War Resisters League Peace Awardee who has spent in total more than four years in prisons and jails for his non-violent resistance to our war system.

John LaForge in the first segment.

And; the World became a distinctly more dangerous place yesterday with the shooting down by Turkey of a Russian warplane. That the two Russian pilots were reportedly shot dead* as they hung in their parachutes, and the body of at least one paraded across social media, makes a Turkish walkback from its actions, and any Russian face-saving measure, even more difficult. Turkey’s actions are, in the opinion of my second segment guest, the gravest crisis NATO has ever faced – seeing one of its members unilaterally provoking war with a regional Superpower.

Patrick Henningsen is a freelance journalist and co-founder of the online news site, 21st Century wire, launched during the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. Patrick’s geopolitical analyses and commentaries are featured online at RT and Al Jazeera, and of course at 21Wire, where he’s been working overtime these past two weeks since the attacks in Paris, and now covering this stunning development over Syria.

Patrick Henninsen and what bitter grist Turkey’s shootdown brings to NATO’s table in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFIV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz of the coming week from our city’s streets, and beyond there too. But first; John LaForge and “when it rains it burns,” Nevada’s little-known nuclear mishap.

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This past summer, the retreat of a salmon farming operation from Clayoquot Sound marked a first for the long fight to protect wild salmon.

For those whose epic migration cycle begins and ends in the rivers and creeks of the Sound, they must first and last traverse a gauntlet of more than twenty such operations.

Opposition to the fish farms, referred to by opponents as the sea-based equivalents to land-based feedlot, or “factory farms,” has grown throughout British Columbia due to environmental impacts and concern for the genetic survival of the five distinct Pacific salmon species.

While the success at home, in Clayoquot, is heartening for all engaged in the effort to preserve wild salmon, sometime the fight must be taken to the source; and it is with that in mind a delegation of First Nations and local enviros are heading to Norway, the very heart of the salmon farming industry, to attend a transcontinental Wild Salmon Conference and meet up with their European counterparts.

Bonny Glambeck is with Clayoquot Action, the Tofino-based conservation society committed to the Sound’s biocultural diversity. Their goal is simple, they say; “keep Clayoquot Sound clean and green for future generations, to preserve the diversity and integrity of the ecosystems, and to maintain and develop community and cultural richness.”

Bonny Glambeck in the first segment.

And; it’s not only on the streets of Europe’s capitals, militarization is taking hold in the most varied of venues. For example, a newly released report reveals the so-called security strategy of the Canadian/US mining giant Tahoe Resources, and to the people of southeastern Guatemala, the Escobal Project looks a little like the Third-World War. Investigative Journalist, Luis Solano’s ‘Under Siege: Peaceful Resistance to Tahoe Resources and Militarization in Guatemala’ untangles, says MiningWatch Canada, a web of relationships and tactics leading to the militarization of local farming communities.

“From the outset,” writes Solano, “Tahoe Resources hired a US security and defence contractor that boasts experience with corporations working in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan to develop a security plan that treated peaceful protest and community leaders as if they were armed insurgents.”

Jennifer Moore is the Latin America Program Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada. From her Ecuador-base, Jen spent years in Latin America as a freelance print and broadcast journalist, specializing in communities affected by Canadian-financed mining companies and exposing, among others, Blackfire Explorations’ and its notorious Payback Mine in Chiapas, Mexico. MiningWatch Canada helped sponsor Luis Solano’s recent ‘Under Siege’ tour through Canada.

Jennifer Moore and resisting Tahoe 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 newz of happenings on and around our streets, and beyond, in the coming week. But first, Bonnie Glambeck and On to Norway! with Clayoquot Action.

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[Note: This is a reloaded version of an interview lost during one of the site’s numerous hack attacks. – ape] This week: Marking Armistice Day in Victoria, I went down to the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion memorial, tucked quietly in the bushes beside the fountains, between the Legislature Buildings and the Grand Pacific Hotel, there to stand with the stalwart, white-poppy adorned peace proponents who speechify and personalize what war and peace mean to them. And;Terry Glavin is an award-winning journalist, editor at Transmontanus Books, a new columnist at the Ottawa Citizen, and he recently delivered the Harvey Southam Fellowship lecture in journalism, ‘Orwell and Everything After’ at the University of Victoria. Terry Glavin is the author of six and co-author of four books, and his latest is ‘Come from the Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan.’ He is also co-founder of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee. Terry Glavin and where next Afghanistan in the second half. And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from Victoria’s streets and beyond. But first, remembering all the fallen on Armistice Day in Victoria.

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Twitter’s recent teapot tempest in Canada over a petition to rename Calgary airport after Stephen Harper illuminates a point pertinent to the comin’ round again Remembrance Day pageantry. As with the proposed christening of ‘Stephen Harper International,’ shouldn’t we put a proper end to first, and wait some respectful period of time after, to be sure what’s passing is indeed past before rushing to ribbon-cutting ceremonies and military parades, or consigning historical dates and plaques?

If Armistice, now Remembrance and/or Veterans Day is meant to mark the end of war, and that great accomplishment via the War to End All Wars, isn’t it premature, or just plain rude, to begin the celebration without the guest of honour?

As my old Grandpappy used to say, “Carve it, sure; but, don’t put a headstone in the cemetary before its namesake is in the ground!” And, like putting that grave marker in the boneyard early, it seems to me, getting out to celebrate the end of War while there’s still so much of it around is more than bad manners; it begs bad luck.

David Swanson is a most active peace and political justice activist, journalist, radio host, and author whose book titles include: ‘War No More: The Case for Abolition,’ ‘When the World Outlawed War,’ ‘War Is a Lie,’ and ‘The Military Industrial Complex at 50,’ among others. He’s director of WorldBeyondWar.org, campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org, and blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He too hosts Talk Nation Radio, and is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.

David Swanson in the first segment.

And; Haiti held its first round presidential and parliamentary elections in late October, and as with everything political in Haiti, there’s much more going on there than meets the media eye here. Ezili Dantò is a New York City-based human rights attorney dedicated to “correcting the media lies and colonial narratives about Haiti.” She’s a performance poet, founder of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, and runs the website, listserve, and eyewitness project, FreeHaitiMovement, and the on-line journal, Haitian Perspectives, and author of ‘Vodun Woman: A Performance Poetry Collection,’ and the ‘Kenbe La’ books.

Ezili Dantò and who the West chosen for Haiti’s future this time 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 our city’s streets in the coming weeks, and beyond there too. But first, David Swanson and Armistice Day at 97.

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. 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.

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As spies go, the 600,000 cubic foot, eye-in-the-sky blimp floating at 16,000 feet outside Washington, D.C. is hardly discreet, but until it went rogue, breaking its tether and hieing for the coast, most Americans knew nothing about it, or its mission. Similarly, despite the ubiquitous presence of law enforcers of every description ceaselessly broadcast into the living rooms of the nation, few understand how and upon who their force is fully exercised.

Dave Lindorff is an award-winning, long-time print journalist, and founder of the web news site, This Can’t Be Happening. His recent articles about the wayward spy in the sky, and of West Palm Beach, musician, Corey Jones’ recent fatal encounter with an undercover policeman while waiting for a tow on the side of a Florida highway are illustrative of both the misuse and increased use of secret policing in America.

Dave Lindorff in the first half.

And; in a recent CounterPunch article, Brooklyn-based freelance writer, Christopher Ketcham quotes biologist E.O. Wilson’s dire assessment for life as we’ve known it on good old Planet Earth. Wilson predicts, “Extinction is now proceeding thousands of times faster than the production of new species,” which means, “Between 30 and 50 percent of all known species are expected to go extinct by 2050, if current trends hold.” Consider that the next time you see a still wild animal cavorting across the sky, or lying dead on the side of the road.

Ketcham’s work has appeared in most of America’s finer magazines: Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, National Geographic, and Hustler among others. He was selected as a Livingston Awards finalist for his Salon.com coverage of the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2002, and published ‘Notes from 9/11 Poems and Stories’ based on his observation of that attack’s aftermath. His article revealing the plundering of the public lands of the American West by the livestock industry featured on the cover of Harper’s February issue this year.

Christopher Ketcham and ‘Extinction, the New Environmentalism, and the Cancer in the Wilderness’ 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 what’s happening on our city’s streets in the coming week, and beyond there too. But first, Dave Lindorff and as above, so below; keeping an unblinking eye on America.

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Daily it seem things are getting worse in Palestine. Sensing the sea-change in World opinion perhaps, desperate Israeli extremists are committing unspeakable crimes against innocents, to what end we can only speculate.

From a distance, it’s easy to polemicize, but what we rarely see in the news here is resistance to policies in the Occupied Territories from within Israeli society, and the price those who refuse to go along with it pay.

Yonatan Shapira is a peace activist who’s refusal to fly missions over Gaza led to the Pilot’s Letter of 2003.

Listen. Hear.

Shapira has since participated in non-violent demonstrations within Israel, supported the BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement, “Boycott from Within,” and was a member of the 2012 Freedom Flotilla, sailing on the MV Estelle to Gaza with former Canadian MP, Jim Manley.

Yonatan is currently on speaking tour in support of Israeli Refusenik’s scheduled to stop here at UVic Thursday, November 5th.

Yonatan Shapira in the first half.

And; dramatic images of a great migration of humanity, the scale of which has not been witnessed since the late days of the last century’s Second World War, has transfixed people around the globe. Though a full accounting of the truth of what lay behind the Syria conflict remains unrevealed, the scope of suffering inflicted upon those seeking refuge is beyond debate. Earlier this month, demonstration across Canada were held in solidarity with those teeming millions dispossessed by war, and I went down to join the demo in Victoria.

Refugees Welcome in Victoria 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 thing going on on our town’s streets and beyond in the coming week. But first, Yonatan Shapira and refuser solidarity in Israel.

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It’s a movie cliche; “Who do you call when the police are the criminals?” But that’s exactly the situation for women victimized by violent spouses who happen to be police officers.

In his new book, ‘Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence,’ award-winning Canadian investigative journalist, Alex Roslin informs, “[S]pousal violence takes place in up to 40% of police families – as much as 15 times the public average,” and “Police departments mostly ignore the problem.”

He also reports, abusive RCMP officers have a less than one-in-6,500 chance of facing a criminal charge for spousal abuse.

Alex Roslin in the first segment.

And; while never satisfactory, the situation in Palestine’s Occupied Territories is reaching a crisis point, with every day seeing more people killed by soldiers and settlers alike and the Israeli military again resorting to the capture and imprisoning of children for interrogation.

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh is founder of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University. He is a past chairman of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People, whose main civic interests lie in media activism and public education, and he has given hundreds of talks around the world. Mazin’s book on human rights activism, ‘Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle,’ is published electronically on his website qumsiyeh.org.

Mazin Qumsiyeh and “another Intifadah for Palestine?” in the second half.

And; does the long-awaited change in government signal a change of foreign policy for Canada? That is just one of the burning questions Canadians will want answered from the new Liberal government, and while it’s hard to imagine a worse performance on the global stage than the Harper years provided, the Liberal party’s past provenance has not proven what progressives would wish either.

Yves Engler is a Montréal-based activist, lecturer, and author whose book titles include: ‘The Ugly Canadian — Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy,’ ‘Lester Pearson’s Peacekeeping — The Truth May Hurt,’ ‘The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy,’ and his latest, ‘Canada in Africa — 300 Years of Aid and Exploitation.’

Yves Engler taking stock of Canada at the possible start of a new era in foreign policy in the final segment.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will not be here around the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with what the coming week has to offer in our city, and beyond there too. But first, Alex Roslin and a Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence.

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#NoOneIsIllegal and #FreedomtoMove organized Refugees Welcome, a cross-country effort to show Canadian’s support for the refugees of war-torn lands currently languishing in camps in Turkey and Jordan, and throughout Europe. About 75 supporters showed up with banners and marched through the streets to raise the issue’s profile.

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Here we are, election time again. And, you’ve got to hand it to Stephen Harper; for a man, even whose friends will agree is less than likable, and who despite never having achieved a genuine majority mandate in either the hearts, minds, or poll results of Canadians, is looking squarely at a possibly forming a fourth consecutive conservative government. How could it be?

Walt McGinnis is a Victoria-based political activist, citizen journalist and co-host of Citizens Forum, the popular political affairs program broadcast from the studios of Victoria’s Shaw Cable Network affiliate. He’s also the past president of Stop Smart Meters.ca, a citizen’s coalition to reverse BC Hydro’s imposition of the controversial Smart Meter technology without due consultation, and at great cost to British Columbians.

Walt McGinnis says, that experience convinced him, Canada is, “under corporate influences that are not concerned about freedom , fairness or a democratic process.”

Walt’s latest article, ‘Are the NDP and Conservatives, while working under the guidance of Hill+Knowlton, collaborating to fix the 2015 Federal election?’ is featured at Power to the People website.

Walt McGinnis and the mechanisms and mechanics at work beneath the hood of Canada’s 2015 federal election in the first segment.

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 for the coming week, and beyond there too.

But first, Walt McGinnis and are the NDP and Conservatives, while working under the guidance of Hill+Knowlton, collaborating to fix the 2015 Federal election?

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It’s been a busy week for terror in the news. In Canada, leaders of the three major parties vying for the October 19th general election “debated” foreign policy Monday, with everyone agreeing on all the safe points to be made, while in New York, the United Nations began its annual confab with international terrorism being high on the docket, though neither Canada’s ambitious men, nor the UN broached the inconvenient provenance of ISIS, the media’s most oft-cited terror group, or the terror inflicted by its paymasters in Western capitals.

Brad Hoff is an author, journalist, educator and Managing Editor of Levant Report.com. The former Marine has taught ancient and modern history at the college and high school levels, and has lived and traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, spending most of his time in Syria prior to the 2011 uprising.

His articles also appear at Antiwar.com and Foreign Policy Journal among other on-line sites. Brad’s latest article charts the curious career of ISIS commander, Omar “the Chechen” al-Shishani.

Brad Hoff in the first half.

And; Russian historian, sociologist, and author, Boris Kagarlitsky is currently traveling Canada on a speaking tour sponsored in part by the Socialist Project, the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Politics (at York University), and by UVic’s Centre for Global Studies. He’ll be speaking here at UVic today at 3:30 in the David Turpin building. Boris is accompanied by Canadian journalist, lecturer, and contributing editor to the website, New Cold War, Roger Annis.

Boris Kagarlitsky and Roger Annis in studio 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 goings-on going on on our city’s streets, and beyond there too, in the upcoming week. But first, Brad Hoff and Omar al-Shishani and the Jihadis fighting under America’s umbrella.

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/

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