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Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Pitasanna Shanmugathas, Ingmar Lee November 5, 2022

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded November 5th, 2022.

Gorilla Radio is heard around the World, and as such I’d like to think it’s universal. But whether acknowledged or not, everyone is sourced in space and in time; rooted physically, intellectually, and spiritually. I am Canadian; born in that place in the middle of the last century. My educational indoctrination taught me many things about my home country, its history, place in the World, and guiding principles. Most of these I discovered later to be false.

After completing an advanced degree in Canada’s post-secondary education system, Pitasanna Shanmugathas felt the cognitive dissonance too. His reaction was to set out across our famously vast country on an epic three year journey of discovery – the result of which is his six part documentary film series, ‘Truth to the Powerless: An Investigation into Canada’s Foreign Policy‘.

Pitasanna Shanmugathas in the first half.

And; it’s not just Canada’s federal political infrastructure claiming allegiance first and last to democratic values and fair play. Here in British Columbia, the provincial NDP party recently held a leadership contest bearing less resemblance to those principles than to what passes as “democracy” in Banana Republic client states of the Empire.

Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender who describes himself as a “rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger.”

Besides these sterling qualities, Lee has spent a life-time investigating truth, questioning accepted wisdom, and making enemies of “greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks” of the state/corporate media and yellow press. He has in turn been called by those same an “environmental zealot”, “eco-terrorist”, and one committing the deeds of “a raving nutcase”. Just the sort for GR!

Ingmar Lee and the NDP’s uninvited in the second half.

But first, Pitasanna Shanmugathas and documenting a Canadian political odyssey.

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: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone, Eddie Petrashyn April 9th, 2022

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 9th, 2022.

The Trudeau administration has again demonstrated the elasticity of its commitment to the “international rules-based order” extends too to domestic jurisprudence. This time, the federal Liberals are turning a blind eye to the blatant recruitment of Canadians to fight in Ukraine. This flies in the face of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which clearly specifies those engaging in such activities are breaking the law, but as of this writing no arrests have been made or charges filed.

Ken Stone is a long-time antiwar activist whose served as an executive member of both the Syria Solidarity Movement and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. Ken and the Coalition have released the statement on the government’s latest failure to uphold the law, ‘Illegal Recruitment of Canadians for War in Ukraine’.

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; as British Columbia’s helicopter-assisted wolf culling season picks up, questions again are being raised about both the efficacy of the program and veracity of its claim to be necessary for saving the endangered Northern Caribou.

Eddie Petrashyn is an East Kootenay conservationist with Wildsight, an organization working to quote, “protect biodiversity and encourage sustainable communities in Canada’s Columbia and Rocky Mountain regions“. Eddie’s investigation into BC government-approved forestry practices in the Wood River basin, north of Revelstoke challenge the logic behind the BC NDP’s conservation practices.

Eddie Petrashyn and saving northern caribou habitat in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and Canada’s would-be foreign legionnaires.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Richard Boyce, Alan MacLeod October 14, 2021

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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

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Stefanie Brendl, Ken Boon, Janine Bandcroft October 8, 2020

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Welcome again to Gorilla Radio’s continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via Skype from our home-based … studios on this date, October 2nd, 2020.

Millions of marine animals will perish for the development of a vaccine for Covid-19. Though millions already die annually through medical and commercial “harvest”, the hyper-activity, or ‘Warp Speed’ race to come up with a treatment for the global pandemic, with its necessary billions of doses, poses an added extinction threat to the ocean’s already over-targeted species. None moreso perhaps than sharks, whose bodies contain a compound commonly used in vaccines.

Stefanie Brendl is a shark advocate and activist, filmmaker, social entrepreneur, and founder and Executive Director of Shark Allies, an organization dedicated to protecting that charismatic and critically endangered apex marine predator. The Shark Allies’ campaign against shark finning featured in the 2014 documentary film, Extinction Soup, exposing that ecologically disastrous international trade.

Stefanie Brendl in the first half.

And; the government of British Columbia was warned before re-energizing the long-moribund Site C dam plan it was a Frankenstein in the making. Indeed, the tales of horror to come should that Great White Elephant be roused rang across generations, but hubris and arrogance ruled the day. BC Liberal Premier, Christy Clark promised her legacy project would be realized come Hell and high water. And so it was begun.

Ken Boon is a Peace Valley farmer and president of the Peace Valley Landowners Association. Ken and his family have lived at the heart of the resistance to Site C from the beginning, and have remained long enough to see some of their worst fears realized.

Ken Boon and John Horgan’s bottomless Site C money binny in the second half.

And; CFUV broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week.

But first, Stefanie Brendl and the unnecessary price nature pays for humanity’s good.

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.ca/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Joshua Wright, Tim Takaro, Janine Bandcroft August 27, 2020

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via Skype from our home-based … studios on this date, August 19th, 2020.

The magnificent coastal rainforests greeting the 18th Century English explorers have since then been almost entirely eradicated. On the island named for the captain of one of those early ships it’s estimated less than 3% of the majestic forest giants George Vancouver would have marveled at remain. But, there is no number greater than zero small enough to stay the hand of timber interests that continue to practice “clear-cut” logging, and still pursue as single-mindedly as Melville’s Ahab, the biggest and best of what’s left.

Resistance is growing again in the woods though, along the San Juan river, where Teal Jones Group, the self-described “largest privately owned timber harvesting and primary lumber product manufacturing company in British Columbia” has begun carving roads towards the pristine Fairy Creek watershed. Joshua Wright is a a spokesperson for the Fairy Creek blockade.

Joshua Wright in the first half.

And; Before Covid-19 swallowed the World we worried about banal issues like the climate crisis and survival of terrestrial life on a way too rapidly changing planet. But even if the environmental problems of our creation are no joke, our elected officials seem unable to take the situation seriously; some apparently wanting to accelerate the process. Clearly, we have to try harder.

Right now, not far outside New Westminster, near Hume Park, along the Brunette River, twenty metres above the ground is a tree-sit. Activists there are barring the way of the infamous TransMountain Pipeline Expansion project by occupying the trees that stand in the way of the final leg of the TMX pipeline’s route to terminus in Burnaby.

Dr. Tim Takaro is a scientist-physician, health researcher, educator, and Associate Dean of Research at Simon Fraser University. Takaro has dedicated his career to studying the human health impacts of climate change, and the more difficult task of communicating to those in control of environmental policy the dire and imminent consequence of failure to alter our societal course. Tim was the first to occupy the trees along the Brunette, and says of the TMX, “In addition to the direct health risks of the project, I am considering the future of my children, their children and future generations around the world.”

Dr. Tim Takaro on environmental intersectionality and obstructing passage of the TransMountain pipeline in the second half.

And; CFUV Radio broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things you can get up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Joshua Wright and getting in the path of Teal Jones to save the Fairy Creek watershed.

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

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dr. Tim Takaro August 18, 2020

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Before Covid-19 swallowed the World we worried about banal issues like the climate crisis and survival of terrestrial life on a way too rapidly changing planet. But even if the environmental problems of our creation are no joke, our elected officials seem unable to take the situation seriously; some apparently wanting to accelerate the process. Clearly, we have to try harder.

Right now, not far outside New Westminster, near Hume Park, along the Brunette River, twenty meters above the ground is a tree-sit. Activists there are barring the way of the infamous TransMountain Pipeline Expansion project by occupying the trees that stand in the way of the final leg of the TMX ‘s route to terminus in Burnaby.

Today, Dr. Tim Takaro on environmental intersectionality and obstructing passage of the TransMountain pipeline.

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