Gorilla 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, Yves Engler, Anas Al Saleh February 28, 2024

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 28th, 2024

Yes by the Dickens, while it’s the best of times for war profiteers on Wall Street and their puffed up pitchmen in the Pentagon, few champagne corks were popping in Kyiv to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the coup that toppled President Victor Yanukovich and led to the quagmire of death and destruction engulfing first Ukraine, then Russia. And if celebrations were tastefully demure in Washington, in Ottawa, home of many in high places playing a role in fomenting the stock boon and distant disaster, observances were absolutely muted. In fact, not a word was uttered of the coup with a Canadian connection on the teevee, or in the Press.

And, truth be told, there’s an embarrassment of riches this week for Canadian coupsters with not one but two milestones marking the nations’ international perfidy. Likewise though, Canadians won’t likely hear about Canada’s inglorious role in the overthrow of Haiti’s duly elected. Down there they’re marking the 20th year of political regression tomorrow with more poverty and chaos in the streets.

Yves Engler is a Montreal-based political activist and the author of thirteen books, mostly detailing the dark dealings of Canada’s foreign policy elite, including ‘Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority’, co-authored with Anthony Fenton. Yves’ latest, co-authored with Owen Schalk, is ‘Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy‘. Yves’ also a prolific essayist, whose writing appears across the internet and at his website, YvesEngler.com.

Haitians Respond to Canadian announcement of millions for intervention forces.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; the deleterious effects of Canada’s pernicious foreign policies are not limited to just creating conflict, death, and retarding the social developmental of poorer nations. With its egregious – and illegal – actions regarding the current genocide in Gaza, this country has shown the World it’s ready to join history’s first tier of global infamy.

Anas Al Salah is a third-generation refugee, descended from Haifa, Occupied Palestine, currently residing here on the Saanich Peninsula, Coast Salish territory. Anas has been a featured speaker at the Gaza solidarity March and Rally in Victoria, carrying on now into its 5th month.

Anas Al Salah and struggling for peace in Gaza from Canada in the second half.

But first, Yves Engler on remembering the death of Haitian democracy and them that helped kill it twenty years ago tomorrow.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Helmer, Mazin Al-Nahawi February 21, 2024

Listen. Hear.

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 17th and 21st, 2024

Despite his death in prison yesterday, Russian “democracy activist”, Alexei Navalny will continue to serve his Western masters in their effort to unseat Vladimir Putin’s government. Since the news broke, the Free Press has inundated the cybersphere, airwaves, and teevees of Europe and America with extollations of the man’s courage and journalistic integrity with testimonials coming from them in high places; those same silent on the bitter fate of Julian Assange, long dying but not dead yet in a British dungeon.

Would it be too soon unkind to remind, Navalny cosseted neo-fascists, was a performative if not demonstrable racist, and an asset of the CIA and MI6? Yes, the only thing worse than living in prison perhaps is dying there, and few deserve that, so rest in peace Alexei, if you can find it.

John Helmer is a journalist and author who’s spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. Principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears, Helmer has too been a professor of political science, sociology, and journalism, and has served as advisor to governments at the highest levels.
Among his many book titles are: ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17’, ‘SOVCOMPLOT: How Pirates Tried to Capture the Treasure of the Russian Seas, and Were Caught Out’, and his lately released autobiography, ‘Dunce Upon a Time: A Life of Mistakes’. Helmer has also written voluminously on Navalny; his activities, methods, goals and sponsors.

John Helmer in the first half.

And; Canadians largely still believe, despite clear and present evidence of complicity in coups, occupations, and conspiracies to profit from the misery foisted upon anonymous others in foreign lands, that “we” constitute a force for good in the world.

This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in Palestine, where successive Canadian governments maintain vociferous and bipartisan support of the state of Israel, even while paying lip service to the unmet humanitarian needs of the captive populations of Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank.

Mazin Al Nahawi is a Palestinian refugee from Safad, occupied Palestine. He’s a graduate of the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts – Criticism Department, Damascus, Syria where he too studied Arab Linguistics, Mazin now lives here in Victoria, land that is the traditional territory of the Lkwungen, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.

Mazin Al Nahawi and the fight for Palestine on two home fronts in the second half.

But first, John Helmer and the use of Alexei Navalny in life, and afterwords.

Song: Once the Last Palestinian’s Killed

Artist: David Rovics

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Helmer February 17, 2024

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 17th, 2024

Listen Hear.

Would it be too soon unkind to remind, Navalny cosseted neo-fascists; was a performative if not demonstrable racist, and an asset of the CIA and MI6? Yes, the only thing worse than living in prison perhaps is dying there, and few deserve that, so rest in peace Alexei, if you can find it.

Among his many book titles are: ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17’, ‘SOVCOMPLOT: How Pirates Tried to Capture the Treasure of the Russian Seas, and Were Caught Out’, and his lately released autobiography, ‘Dunce Upon a Time: A Life of Mistakes’. Helmer has also written voluminously on Navalny; his activities, methods, goals and sponsors.

John Helmer and the use of Alexei Navalny in life, and afterwords.

Song: Once the Last Palestinian’s Killed

Artist: David Rovics

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ray McGinnis, Steve Poikonen February 14, 2024

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 14th, 2024

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And Happy St. Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there. Well nearly as synonymous as hearts, chocolates, and flowers this date is too remembered for the massacre of the North Side Gang 95 years ago. Further north in Canada, we remember February 14th as the day the hit was put on the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But whereas Al Capone was never fingered for knocking off seven of Bugs Moran’s goons in Chicago in 1929, we know exactly who iced democracy in Ottawa in 2022.

Ray McGinnis is a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. His forthcoming book is Unjustified: The Emergencies Act and the Inquiry That Got It Wrong. It’s a chronicle of the government’s abuse of its near unlimited power over the citizenry, ostensibly in reaction to the Trucker’s Freedom Convoy. Ray’s articles appear at Propaganda in Focus and Troy Media, among other places, where I found his recent piece, ‘Court Ruling Justly Slams Trudeau’s Use of Emergency Act’, and his late breaking, ‘Two of the Coutts Four Released in a Shocking Twist in the Case’.

Ray McGinnis in the first half.

And; Tuesday, February 20th Julian Assange is scheduled to be in court. Approaching the fifth anniversary of Assange’s detention in London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison, lawyers for the World’s most famous political prisoner are preparing for the journalist and publisher’s final appeal of the High Court’s favourable ruling on the U.S. extradition petition.
Steve Poikonen co-hosts Slow News Day on Rokfin, and “The Best Damn Morning Show on the Interwebs” AM WakeUp on Rumble. He’s been in the trenches and gone to the streets for Assange’s release in the USA, trying to spark his fellow Americans to action in the defense of justice.

Steve Poikonen and Assange’s last stand for British justice in the second half.

But first, Ray McGinnis and the Trudeau claque taking the “Emergency” axe to Canadian rights and freedoms.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Nick Gottlieb, Nick Mottern February 7, 2024

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 7th, 2024

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Canadians trying to reconcile the country’s performance on the World stage these last months and years may be suffering cognizant dissonance; aren’t we afterall the good guys? You wouldn’t know it watching our Parliamentarians salute Ukrainian proto-Nazis, or the government aiding and abetting their Banderite successors. Yes, this Great White North is definitely not your Great-Grandfather’s; but, when it comes to refusing to condemn the purveyors of ethnic cleansing and openly supporting a colonial, racist genocide, today’s Canada is starting to look a lot more like his Great-Great-Grandfather’s!

Nick Gottlieb is a climate writer based in northern BC, and author of the Sacred Headwaters newsletter. Nick’s also a community organizer and graduate student at Simon Fraser University whose studies focus on the politics of climate change, colonialism, and imperialism. His articles appear too at CanadianDimension.com, where I found his latest piece, ‘Canada has gone from complicity through silence to active participation in genocide‘.

Nick Gottlieb in the first half.

And; citizens of towns and cities around the World have gathered weekly in solidarity with the people currently being butchered wholesale by the Israeli war machine in Gaza, and harassed by organized thuggery in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the bombs, bullets, and bandages necessary for Israel to continue the carnage are being supplied by the factories of countries like Canada and Germany, the Netherlands and UK. In the United States, prime supporter and supplier of the current horror, one determined group decided to take its protest from the courthouse steps to the gates of the local munitions factory, putting their bodies in the path of the Satanic Mill they call ‘The Slaughterhouse’.

Nick Mottern is a journalist, author, and co-coordinator with Kathy Kelly of BanKillerDrones.org, an organization founded to “inform the American public about the illegality, immorality and dreadful human consequences of U.S. drone attacks…” . His articles appear across the internet, and at CovertActionMagazine.com, where I found his recent piece, co-authored with Veterans for Peace activist, Jack Gilroy, ‘Welcome to the Slaughterhouse‘.

Nick Mottern and reading the government the Leahy Act in the second half.

But first, Nick Gottlieb and Canada’s transformation from silent partner to vociferous participant in genocide.

Song: Airdrop

Artist: David Rovics

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ingmar Lee Special February 4th, 2024

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 4th, 2024

NDP Post-Secondary Education Minister, Selina Robinson’s remarks on a B’nai B’rith Canada-sponsored webinar last week has erupted into a full-blown shit-storm, blowing crap back on British Columbia’s ruling party. During the two-hour discussion Robinson invoked terra nullius rhetoric to describe the creation of Israel on Palestinian land, and lamented the youth of today for having no appreciation for “history” saying,

“They don’t understand that it [Palestine] was a crappy piece of land with nothing on it. You know, there were several hundred thousand people but other than that, it didn’t produce an economy. It couldn’t grow things it didn’t have anything on it…”

All common tropes Zionist atrocity apologists refusing the existence and very history of the Palestinian people employ.

BC Premier, David Eby responded to questions about Robinson’s comments during an unrelated press conference observing, while her remarks had “crossed a line” and were divisive, and alienated “… people of Palestinian descent and people who are concerned about the death and the destruction in Palestine…” he signaled she would not be removed from cabinet as she had, “…apologized unequivocally, as she should. And she’s got some more work to do.”

That may have been the end of the story, but for Selina Robinson’s use of her office to attack Langara College professor, Dr. Natalie Knight and pressure the secondary institution to remove her. Now, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association has joined the rounding howl for Robinson’s resignation, releasing a statement saying,

“The BCCLA joins the FPSE (Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC) in calling for the immediate resignation of Selina Robinson.”

Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender who describes himself as a “rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger.” He’s spent a life-time making enemies of “greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks” – and I would add government-employed factotums abusing their authority for personal gain, and all those – “working in the service of rapine corporations and their captured legislators”.

Today, Ingmar Lee and the far-away Palestine slaughter coming closer to home, here in Brutish Columbia.

Song: ‘Lines Are Drawn’

Artist: David Rovics

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dimitri Lascaris, John Helmer January 31, 2024

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded January 31st, 2024

Friday last judges at the International Court of Justice agreed South Africa’s charge that Israel’s actions in Gaza commencing the 7th of October, 2023 constituted a violation of the United Nations’ Genocide Convention was plausible. The court ordered Israel must adhere to Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and to follow prescribed measures to guarantee the safety of those trapped in Gaza.

Israel has not complied. Instead, since that time it has, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, “…maintained its rate of killing civilians [and] … ramped up its efforts to starve them as well as forcibly displace them from their homes in the Strip.”

Canada’s response has been to join a group of nations cutting aid monies to UNRWA, the most important life-line remaining for Gaza’s increasingly desperate refugees.

Dimitri Lascaris is a Montreal-based activist, journalist, and lawyer. His interviews for TRNN are at TheRealNews.com, and his articles appear at his website, DimitriLascaris.org, where recent interviews he’s given detailing the legal dimensions of the ICJ ruling and more can be found.

Dimitri Lascaris in the first half.

And; New Zealand’s ending of its funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees – deserting the people under fire there at their most dire hour – makes thirteen the number of nations enacting that infamy. The Kiwis enjoin Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, and of course leader of the damned, the United States of America. But more than standing on the global stage and spitting in the face of justice and humanity some of these same are waging a war against Yemen; the one country fulfilling its obligation under international law to do its utmost to stop a genocide.

John Helmer is a journalist and author who’s spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. Principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears, Helmer has too been a professor of political science, sociology, and journalism, and served as advisor to governments at the highest levels.
Among his many book titles are: ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ ‘The Jackals’ Wedding: American Power, Arab Revolt’, ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17’, ‘SOVCOMPLOT: How Pirates Tried to Capture the Treasure of the Russian Seas, and Were Caught Out’, and his lately released autobiography, ‘Dunce Upon a Time: A Life of Mistakes’.

John’s recent article at Dances with Bears, ‘RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY TIES RED SEA BLOCKADE TO GAZA BLOCKADE, BACKS HOUTHIS IN MOSCOW MEETING‘ explores Russia’s delicate balancing act in the region.

John Helmer in the second half.

But first, Dimitri Lascaris and Israel’s “crushing defeat” at the International Court of Justice and Canada et al.’s despicable targeting of UNRWA in retaliation.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Joe Emersberger January 24, 2024

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded January 24th, 2024

Monday Canada’s military aided in the bombing of Yemen. The Department of National Defence says Canada and a coalition of like-minded nations “support” the Anglo-American bombing of the country the CIA World Factbook says suffers, “massive poverty, food insecurity, unemployment [and] high inflation“. Yemen is also one of the poorest places on the planet, and has been victim to a long-running regime-change campaign sponsored by the same Anglo-American Axis powers now bombing it. All factors making it a sterling candidate for Canadian political – and military – meddling.

According to my first guest, Canada has contributed to the undermining and overthrowing of more than twenty separate national governments since the middle of the last century; all of them in countries that dared declare political and economic sovereignty.

Yves Engler is a Montreal-based political activist and the author of twelve books, mostly detailing the dark dealings of Canada’s foreign policy elite. Make that thirteen titles as of next week, when Baraka Books releases Yves latest, co-authored with Owen Schalk, ‘Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy‘. Yves is also a prolific essayist, whose writing appears across the internet and at his website, YvesEngler.com where his most recent piece, ‘When ‘leftists’ use ‘antisemitism’ smears to weaken Palestinian solidarity’ is featured.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; on January 7th, Ecuadorian gang boss, Adolfo Macías escaped from prison, embarrassing the recently elected “tough on crime” president, Daniel Noboa. Since then, para-military raids and assassinations of public figures – one notably killed on live television – have ping-ponged, marking an escalation of violence that at first paralyzed, and continues to terrorize the South American nation.

Joe Emersberger is a Canadian-Ecuadorian engineer, journalist, and co-author with Justin Podur of the book, ‘Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela‘. Joe’s many articles focusing on Western media coverage of the Americas can be found at FAIR.org, CounterPunch, and Telesur English among other places.

Joe Emersberger and the chaotic descent of Latin America’s once “most peaceful” nation in the second half.

But first, Yves Engler and Canada’s regime-change cowboys high in the saddle over Yemen.

Song: Once the Last Palestinian’s Killed

Artist: David Rovics

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Cavanagh and Pedro Cabezas, David Rovics January 17, 2024

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded Jan. 17th, 2024

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January 11th marks the first anniversary of the arrest of the “Santa Marta 5” in El Salvador. Known as “The Water Defenders”, the five were instrumental in bringing about a 2017 national ban on mining in the country. But now political winds have shifted, with current office-holders eager to reverse the ban. Part of that determination apparently includes using the courts to neutralize inconvenient impediments.

Over the past week transnational environmental and social justice organizations mobilized in defense of the five men, manifesting demonstrations in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Washington, DC. Press conferences were called, letter campaigns launched, and “State of Deception“, an exhaustive report on the findings of an international delegation investigating the charges was released.

Pedro Cabezas took part in the virtual press conference, along with John Cavanagh and others. Pedro is coordinator of the Central American Alliance on Mining, ACAFREMIN; while John, as well as being a past UN economist, is currently a Senior Advisor at the DC-based Institute of Policy Studies. Both are co-authors of The Water Defenders report, ‘State of Deception: A fact-finding report on El Salvador’s detained water defenders, the potential return of environmentally destructive mining, and the state of human rights under the Bukele administration’.

John Cavanagh and Pedro Cabezas in the first half.

And; for the last 100 and more days and nights Israel has visited Hell upon the heads of the people of Gaza. That what it is doing is an outrage against humanity is beyond question, and indefensible; and yet the bombing continues. Millions around the World have taken to the streets and public places in their towns and cities – especially those in Western capitals – in efforts to shake support by their respective governments of Israel – if only by omission of censure – for the killing. So far to no avail.

David Rovics is a confessed “Singer/songwriter, writer, anarchist, dad, and lover of life,” (not necessarily in that order). He’s been expressing his outrage in song, as he has done on so many issues for so long. The result is a collection of twenty songs, compiled in the album, ‘Notes from a Holocaust’. He says, “I wrote them to bear witness to the genocide of the Palestinian people that continues by the hour as I publish this album.”

David Rovics and killing war with music in the second half.

But first, John Cavanagh and Pedro Cabezas defending The Santa Marta 5, El Salvador’s Water Defenders.

Songs: ‘If a Song Could Raise an Army’

‘Once the Last Palestinian’s Killed’

Artist: David Rovics

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone, Selam Gebremeskel January 10, 2024

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded January 10th, 2024

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Approaching 100 days of Israel’s bombing of civilians in Gaza, (and its kidnap and murder campaign in the West Bank) Britain’s newest Foreign Minister, David Cameron says he’s worried Israel may have committed some breaches of international law. Responding to questions from the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, the former UK PM admitted to “deep concern” over Israel’s methods, but said he was reassured by his government’s legal advisors Israel has exhibited a “…commitment, the capability and the compliance” to international law in Gaza. Though the issue of Israel’s assassination of foreign nationals in neighbouring countries wasn’t broached, that too presumably fails to meet Britain’s threshold for international criminality.

Ken Stone is an activist and author working for peace with the Syria Support Movement International and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. His book, ‘Defiant Syria: Dispatches from the Second International Tour of Peace to Syria’ is a compilation of his dispatches from his 2016 visit.

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; while Israel’s three months-long martial rampage in Gaza has knocked many other stories of desperation from the news cycle to be fair, Ethiopia’s civil war and the dismal disappointment of the Pretoria agreement for Tigrayans was long-forgotten long before October 7th.
Selamawit Gebremeskel is an Ethiopian emigre who has lived in Canada for nearly thirty years. Now a health care professional in Victoria, she has relatives in Tigray who were caught up in the war the Abiy government waged against its civilians, and are now suffering the peace accord Addis Ababa fails to honour.

Selam and the GVTRRS community invite Victorians to join them February 3rd at the Oddfellows Lodge, down town Victoria, for a special evening titled “Feast to Fight Famine“, a dinner fundraiser focused on delivering much-needed support to Tigrayan families suffering from the post-war famine.

Selamawit Gebremeskel and Ethiopia’s continuing struggle in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and Israel’s “deeply concerning” behaviour.

Music: If a Song Could Raise an Army

Artist: David Rovics

Feast to Fight Famine: Contact us @ gvtig.ref.relief@gmail.com or call in Victoria, 250 217-9692

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jeremy Kuzmarov, Terry Wolfwood January 3, 2024

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded January 3rd, 2024

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The most famous journalist in the World is scheduled to appear in Britain’s High Court next month for the final act in his appeal against extradiction to the United States. Already imprisoned on spurious grounds since April 11th, 2019 none but the most desperately optimistic expect justice for Julian Assange.

The Assange tragedy proves, in conjunction with the shooting wars currently underway, and those planned for the future, there is too a war being waged on the People’s right to know just why these wars are being waged.

Myriad methods have been employed to create an environment of fear, ensure ignorance, and promote confusion in the public mind about issues crucial to the survival of functional democracy. And where guile, gatekeeping, lies, and propaganda fail, outright murder prevails – as Israel has demonstrated one hundred and twenty times in Gaza between October 7th and New Year’s Eve.

Assange’s colleague, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hraffnson, summarises saying, “There is no press without the protection to operate freely.” But then, even a free press can’t operate long for free.
Jeremy Kuzmarov is a journalist and author of five books on American foreign policy. Those titles include, ‘Obama’s Unending Wars’, ‘The Russians Are Coming, Again’, written with John Marciano, and his latest, ‘Warmonger: How Clinton’s Malign Foreign Policy Launched the US Trajectory from Bush II to Biden’.

Jeremy also serves as Managing Editor at CovertActionMagazine.com, where you can discover the stories meant to stay under wraps – for now.

globalchallenges.ch

Jeremy Kuzmarov in the first half.

And; what can be done to stop the horror of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the West Bank? Director and co-founder of the Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation, Terry Wolfwood says, “As the death toll and destruction continue in Gaza we can help by ending Canada’s complicity.”

Terry has served as local coordinator for the Women in Black for many years, and has traveled numerous times to the refugee camps in Palestine and Western Sahara to bear witness and bring the message of the people she meets there back to Canada. Her articles have appeared at Briarpatch, Peace News, Third World Resurgence among other places, and at the Foundation’s site, BBCF.ca.

Terry Wolfwood bringing the war against Palestine back to Canada in the second half.

But first, Jeremy Kuzmarov and supporting journalists writing for your life.

Songs: Anti-Semite

Wounded Child – No Surviving Family

Artist: David Rovics

John Pilger Présente

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John Pilger Présente

by C. L. Cook – Gorilla-Radio.com

December 31, 2023

I’ve just heard, journalism legend, John Pilger has died. There will be tributes galore for the filmmaker and print journalist; tributes that will tell more about his epic career and uncompromising character – and better – than I can here.

But, I can relate my brief acquaintance with the great man.

https://johnpilger.com/

I tracked John down in hopes of an interview for this obscure radio show, produced in the basement of some backwater university, somewhere on the edge of the backward nation of Canada in 2007. He graciously accepted my invitation, but as I was making the long-distance call I discovered my long-distance calling card (Google it) was empty.

I raced to the nearest gas station to get another one, but by the time I returned to the studio he couldn’t be reached.

I sent him abject emails of apology, and he agreed to try again the next week. And so, this guy who had filed from war zones, and investigated the most gruesome crimes against humanity and their perpetrators came on to discuss his then newly-released film, ‘The War on Democracy’.

That was in 2007, and here’s the interview…

I don’t know what Pilger thought of Che Guevera and the Cuban Revolution, but I’m pretty sure he would appreciate the sentiment:

Hasta La Victoria, Siempre!

Canada and Palestine: An article based on a speech at Rally, Oct. 14. 2023, Victoria, BC at Legislature

Canada & Palestine: An article based on a speech at Rally, Oct. 14. 2023, Victoria, BC at Legislature

by Terry Wolfwood – BBCF

December 2023

I have had the privilege of going to Palestine many times. When I ask what can I do to support Palestine, I am told: go home and tell people what you see and experience here.

What I see is a country that is a fraction of its size 75 years ago. In fragments joined by check points guarded by soldiers with stone eyes and guns pointed at every person, ordered to stop, show papers, answer rude questions.

I see a land where thousands of homes & buildings, even whole villages, are destroyed all the time. When we try to help those Palestinians save their homes, soldiers threaten to shoot us from behind rolls of razor wire.

I see a land where 1 million trees have been destroyed or uprooted and stolen. Some more than 1000 years old olive giants; where farmers holding on to their precious trees are beaten & imprisoned.

But a land where determined Palestinians have replanted 2 million trees to show that this home & where they stay. Making a livelihood for their family and nation. A Palestinian Authority Cabinet Minister I knew was choked to death when planting trees*.

It is a land where students are shot in broad daylight crossing a city street; where hundreds of children are in Israeli jails with no trial or charge.
A land where “civilized people”, aka illegal settlers, can stone a pregnant woman to death. And there are nearly one million of those settlers abusing Palestinians every day.

This is what has been happening for 75 years.

Our Canadian Government has seen it all & done nothing: NO! it has done a lot – supporting the oppressive occupier; making these terrible deeds possible by complicity as Israel breaks the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions on War-all of which Canada professes to support.

It is time now to change our government’s policy! We have work to do. YALLA- let’s get going!

Speak truth to every politician & official. Speak up everywhere always.
Boycott Israel! Do not buy its products. Divest from & boycott companies that profit from the occupation: Puma, Sodastream, Bank of Montreal to name a few, for more see: https://bdscoalition.ca/

End the Free Trade Agreement with Israel.

Check out the Canada Pension Plan Investments & any other pension plans you contribute to; many invest in companies profiting from war & occupation.

If Canada can sanction human rights offenders-Russia, Iran, why not Israel?

Keep at it-justice will prevail with ‘Sumud’ !
Long live the Palestinian people!
Shukran.

Audio file: https://gorilla-radio.com/2023/10/23/ape-goes-to-victoria-gaza-solidarity-demo-october-22-2023/

*Death with live tree

It was in December, a good time
to plant saplings in a land where
one million olive trees of every age
from 2000 years to two years old
have been stolen and destroyed
by a relentless purveyor of death.

When Ziad Aby Ain, fifty-five years old
father and politician joined farmers
laden with small trees to plant
on stolen land, he was beaten,
gassed, choked by armed soldiers
of a global power.

He died in the ambulance on a short trip
from Turmus Aya to Pamallah.
The world blinked and looked away.
No cabinet minister anywhere
stood for a moment of silence for
a parliamentary colleague.
No UN vote of censure;
no government sanctioned the invaders.

A lover of children and trees
mourned by his family, friends,
and the fragile olive tree that
died with him; he was cherished,
this good man, this good Palestinian.

By Theresa Wolfwood
In ‘Passion and Commitment’ Yalla Press, 2023

Gorilla Radio 2023 Year-Ender December 29, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio’s 2023 Year-Ender show.

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Gaza is the only story. Whatever else happened, the last quarter of 2023 defines the entire year. It serves too as the logical terminus of Israel’s murderous progress in Gaza and Palestine as a whole for the entirety of its 75 years. How could that sordid history lead anywhere but here; the unapologetic genocide, supported by a Western consensus, of another indigenous population in the way of colonial development.

Gorilla Radio has covered just some of the litany of outrages against humanity and international law in Gaza for many years: 2002, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2023 are years where extraordinary escalation of crimes committed occurred, but all are merely the peaks and valleys in an overarching tableau of depravity.

In 2002 I talked to Victoria-based human rights activist, Kevin Neish from Bethlehem. I introduced the segment then saying,
“The situation in Palestine is getting worse by the hour. The weekend saw protest in cities throughout the world, and those protests have continued. Today, a group of internationalist, people who have travelled to Palestine to act as human shields and witnesses to Israeli atrocities, were fired upon by the Israeli Defense Forces. Kevin Neish, a Victoria man known to many here for his work with human rights and social justice is one of those internationalists and he was in the march in Beit Jalla when the bullets started to fly.”

Here’s Kevin from Palestine in April, 2002.

2:00 Kevin Neish from Palestine April, 2002. (8:30)

In earlier years of this show, Jon Elmer was a vital source of information on Gaza. Jon was then a Canadian freelance photographer and photo-journalist who reported from many of the World’s most troubled regions. He’d lived in and reported from Occupied Palestine during the first decade of the new century, his dispatches being carried by Inter Press News Service, Al Jazeera English, Le Monde Diplomatique, and The Progressive among others.

Here’s a piece of a segment I recorded with Jon from Palestine in May of 2007. The issues will sound familiar.

10:30 Jon Elmer from Palestine May, 2007. (9:28)

In 2010, International Solidarity Movement member, Kevin Neish sat in again with Gorilla Radio to talk about his impending return to Gaza with the Viva Palestina’s May sailing of a fleet of ships to Gaza, Palestine to challenge the Israeli blockade of the troubled Gaza Strip. Kevin was to be aboard the Turkish small cruise ship, Mavi Marmara which Israeli commandos would later attack, killing ten of the unarmed activists.

20:00 Kevin Neish May 2010 (13:00)

The horrors of Israel’s full-scale military attacks against the civilian population of Gaza – its so-named “operations” Cast Lead over Christmas in 2008, Pillar of Defense in 2012, and 2014’s Protective Edge killed thousands and destroyed “tens of thousands of homes, schools and office buildings” as noted by Al Jazeera. But worse was to come with the slaughter of the Great March of Return in 2018, where unarmed civilians in their hundreds were killed by Israeli snipers, with thousands more maimed.
Outrage manifested on the streets in cities and towns around the World. In April I went down to the demonstrations in Victoria. Here’s some of the streeters I did then with locals: Larry Hannant, Terry Wolfwood.

36:10 Streeters w/ Larry Hannant, Terry Wolfwood CAIA March of Return Demo April 2018 (8:20)

All that we’ve seen in these last twenty-two years has led to the Genocide Israel is committing at this moment. The failure of the United Nations and the international community of nations to stop the violence of the United States and its allies has allowed this happen. The next manifestion of that impunity, it can be safely assumed, will be more terrible still…
Canadian doctor, Tarek Loubani was in Gaza in 2018, tending to the wounded at the Great March of Return when he was shot through both legs.

In 2023, Canadian doctors are under attack again for their support of Palestinian rights and lives, this time here at home by the press, their employers, and the government; even as hospitals and clinics are bombed, and doctors and medics are assassinated at work and in their homes in Gaza.

I spoke to Tarek last in December about the ongoing genocide. Exerpted here, we discuss the targeting of Gaza’s doctors.

45:38 Tarek Loubani The Genocide December 2023 (13:00)

Dr. Tarek Loubani… Over the Christmas period, Israeli rhetoric has become hysterical, its indiscriminate and targeted bombing campaigns increased. Daily hundreds are killed, while more of Gaza’s infrastructure is destroyed. In the West Bank, gangs of settlers, aided by police and the army are committing crimes worthy of Kristallnacht. It all promises this New Year will be anything but happy.

David Rovics takes us out. Go to his website DavidRovics.com to support his long service to humanity.

58:50 David Rovics Just Like the Nazis Did

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Helmer December 27, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded December 27, 2023

Listen. Hear.

The latest manifestation of Israel’s murderous, self-declared war against the Palestinian people taking place these past months in Gaza, and increasingly across the West Bank, has also spread offshore. Yemen’s Ansar Allah, or Houthi movement is waging a war on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea in an effort to relieve the brutal embargo Israel is levying against Gaza.

A recent Houthi statement says, “If Gaza does not receive the food and medicine it needs, all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality, will become a target for our armed forces.” Those vital supplies have so far been denied the two and half million people currently being bombed, and the Houthis have been as good as their word.

What has resulted is a growing crowd of armed international actors floating around the Bab-al-Mandeb straits in both the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, with more promised to come.

Among his many book titles are: ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ ‘The Jackals’ Wedding: American Power, Arab Revolt’, ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17’, ‘SOVCOMPLOT: How Pirates Tried to Capture the Treasure of the Russian Seas, and Were Caught Out’, and his lately released autobiography, ‘Dunce Upon a Time: A Life of Mistakes’.