Tag: ancient forests

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Rifat Audeh, Molly Murphy August 23, 2023

Podcast (gorilla-radio-com): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:00 — 24.2MB) | Embed

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded August 23rd, 2023

Last week the 2023 Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel, Handala ended the first leg of its two-year journey to the besieged Gaza Strip. The Handala follows a string of attempts to open up Gaza to the sea going back to 2009. The most infamous of those was the 2010 convoy, attacked by the Israeli military at a cost of dozens shot and ten lives lost.

Rifat Audeh is a longtime activist for and defender of Palestinian human rights. A Palestinian Canadian, Rifat studied engineering in Canada and Media & Journalism in Great Britain. His articles are published by numerous outlets online, in English and Arabic. Rifat was aboard the flagship vessel, Mavi Marmara when commandos descended, and his multi-award winning documentary film, ‘The Truth: Lost at Sea‘ is the account of the 2010 Freedom Flotilla and Israel’s lethal attack against it.

Rifat Audeh in the first half.

And; the struggle to save what remains of first growth forests on Vancouver Island continues. The 2021/’22 partial blockade of timber company Teal Jones at Fairy Creek in the Cowichan region resumed late last month. And last week, three more defenders joined the twelve hundred arrested last year trying to stop logging there. The arrests bring the issue back into public consciousness, even as the trees continue to fall.

Molly Murphy is a BIPOC activist, journalist, researcher and social justice warrior. She’s one of the 1200 people arrested at the Fairy Creek protests last year, and continues to “fight against the systems of oppression and supporting those who strive to do the same“.

Molly is also a builder, mother of three, and co-author of the Mudgirls Manifesto.

Molly Murphy and standing still for Fairy Creek’s old growth forest in the second half.

But first, Rifat Audeh and keeping the story of Gaza and the martyrs of the Mavi Marmara alive.

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, Richard Boyce, Alan MacLeod October 14, 2021

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:01 — 19.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded October 9th, 2021

Forest defenders are into their second Autumn staring down all Canada’s rule of law has to throw at them at the Fairy Creek front line. They’ve managed, over the last 15 and more months, to strip the provincial NDP government of the last vestige of its “green” credentials, and revealed the British Columbia court capable of little better justice than meted out by its colonial antecedents*. The resistance to the clearcutting of old growth forest policies the NDP are defending has too revealed to Canadians and the greater World watching events unfold the brutality of the province’s contracted enforcers, the RCMP.

Richard Boyce is an award-winning filmmaker who has spent most of his professional life chronicling environmental, social, and indigenous sovereignty issues – all issues at issue at Fairy Creek. Richard’s film titles include ‘RAINFOREST – The Limit of Splendour‘ and ‘Coastal Tarsands – Journey to Deleted Islands‘. He’s also the creator of the multi-media website, Vancouver Island Tree Stories.


Richard Boyce in the first half.

And; I’d like to be the first to announce Cuba’s long-awaited liberation from America’s sixty plus-year campaign to overthrow its revolution; but I guess I’ll have to wait. The new(ish) president Biden has carried on with the hawkish Cuba policy of his loonie predecessor – and even gone him one loonier. La Villa del Humor is the latest, (and suspected American-sponsored) antic hoping to bring regime change to the Caribbean island; and despite the jovial name its effort is dead serious.

Dr. Alan MacLeod is an educator, essayist, staff writer at Mintpress News, contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and author whose latest book is, ‘Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting’. His recent article at Mintpress, ‘Private Facebook Group that Organized the July Protests in Cuba Plans Biggers Ones Soon‘ exposes the methods and players behind Villa del Humor and its not so hilarious theatrics.

Alan MacLeod and Florida’s Cuba regime-change industry hoping for a hit in the second half.

But first, Richard Boyce and the impending countdown to destruction for Vancouver Island’s last remaining primeval forests.

NOTE: *Just hours before Richard and I spoke October 9th, British Columbia’s Supreme Court reinstated the court injunction Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson had quashed on the grounds, “… [A]ctions of the RCMP at the injunction site have put the court’s reputation at risk.”

The RCMP is free again to arrest in its manner any it deems in contravention of the original injunction pending an appeal against Justice Thompson’s earlier ruling. Richard and I discuss the ruling in an unprecedented “breaking news insert.”

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.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.com