Tag: Canadian Voice of Women for Peace

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Steve Poikonen, Tamara Lorincz June 25th, 2022

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded June 25th, 2022

Last week British Home Secretary, Priti Patel did what was expected of her and signed off on the extradition to the United States of political prisoner, Julian Assange. Assange you may recall has languished in London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison, enduring the harshest conditions allowable under British law, since being dragged from asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy April 11th, 2019. But as deplorable as his treatment by British authorities has been – treatment that would illicit howls of protest were it discovered to be inflicted on a caged dog – central to Assange’s defense against extradition is the prospect of an even grimmer fate at the hands of American Justice.

Steve Poikonen hosts Slow News Day on Rokfin, the pre-news news place you go to get hip BEFORE the s*it hits the fan! Steve’s also an activist, documentary filmmaker, and contributor to the Union of the Unwanted and MCSC Networks. He’s also been an organizer with Action4Assange, co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil, and has gone to the streets for Assange’s release in his home country, the United States of America.

Steve Poikonen in the first half.

And; next week NATO, the 73 year-old alliance to defend Europe against Soviet Russia, will hold its annual summit in Madrid. NATO says it’s meant to, among other things, present and endorse the war organization’s “New Strategic Concept”. Across Europe peace and civil society groups are set to demonstrate against the death and devastation created by NATO’s existing concept and protest the prospect of more of the same. Meanwhile in Canada, coinciding with the Madrid meet up, the Peace and Justice Network here is mounting Days of Action, a coordinated effort to: Stop the Weapons. Stop the War. And, Stop NATO.

Tamara Lorincz is with Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, who last year led the No Fighter Jets days of action held across Canada. She’s also served on the advisory committee of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and contributed her knowledge and talents to the organizations World Beyond War, and the No to NATO Network.

Tamara Lorincz and Days of Action to Stop the World’s greatest purveyors of violence and war in the second half.

But first, Steve Poikonen and the the next turn of the legal screw for Julian Assange.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing since 1998. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: cfuv.ca.  Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone, Finian Cunningham November 18, 2021

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded November 13th and 14th, 2021.

True to its word, the Trudeau government is determined to spend billions for a revamped fighter jet force for Canada’s military. The main debate until now has been which foreign weapons-making company will get the sweet deal – a deal worth a reported 88 billion buckaroos over the next generation – and not whether Canada should be supporting such a deal in the first place.

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 Hamilton Coalition are joining hands in a trans-Canada effort with Canadian Voice of Women, Peace Brigades International, the Regina Peace Council, and the Victoria Peace Coalition here in Victoria among many others to mount the No Fighter Jets demonstrations at Liberal MP’s offices from coast to coast to coast November 22nd.

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; more than a year after Ethiopia’s military launched a so-called “police action” to “restore order” in Tigray province, the fighting rages on. While thousands have died and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced, another casualty of the humanitarian disaster that ensued has been Western goodwill for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate prime minister Abiy Ahmed, who now faces sanctions – along with ally Eritrea – and the threat of American military intervention should the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa nation continue.

To some on the American and European left that threat smacks of the kind of “humanitarian intervention” seen in Yugoslavia, Libya, and Syria; it’s something they say is no less than naked neo-imperialism, and prompting their support for Ahmed and Eritrean strongman, Isaias Afwerki.

Finian Cunningham is a prolific journalist and two-time Serena Shim Award for Uncompromising Integrity in Journalism recipient. His articles on international affairs appear at numerous online outlets, including Strategic Culture, where his March piece, ‘U.S. Paves Way for Intervention in Ethiopia, Horn of Africa’ is proving now to be prophetic.

Finian Cunningham and competing narratives in the ongoing Ethiopian disaster in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and just saying “NO!” to new fighter jets.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Nick Mottern, Tamara Lorincz July 22, 2021

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded July 17th, 2021

Almost twenty years since its beginning, America is quitting the war against the Taliban. Or so the papers say. Though it’s clearly too late for a good news spin on stories coming from what was Afghanistan – where more than a million have perished violently since 2001, with uncounted multiples more being maimed, orphaned, and rendered homeless – there is too another story not making the frontpage, or leading the evening news; that is the fact America’s president has promised to continue bombing in Afghanistan anyone, anywhere, anytime he sees fit from somewhere “over the horizon”.

Nick Mottern is a journalist, author, and coordinator of Knowdrones.com, an organization founded in 2012 expressly to “inform the American public about the illegality, immorality and dreadful human consequences of U.S. drone attacks…”

Nick’s worked as a reporter, researcher, writer and political organizer over the last 30 years, and his book, ‘Suffering Strong’ recounts his travels in Africa. His recent article, ‘”Biden Acknowledges “over the horizon” Air Attacks Planned Against Taliban’ appears at KnowDrones.com, where they’re also engaged in a campaign to keep military whistleblower, Daniel Hale out of prison. Hale’s sentencing is scheduled for July 27th.

Nick Mottern in the first half.

And; as there are no other problems in the country, the Canadian government is entertaining bids for billions of spare tax dollars from international fighter jet manufacturers. The competition is fierce, with the winner expecting to cash in on what opponents of the purchasing spree say will amount to as much as 77 billion Canadian buckaroos, with untold riches to be had for parts, maintenance, and (constant) repairs.

Tamara Lorincz is with Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. VoW are the organizers of the No Fighter Jets days of action held across Canada since the military procurement was announced. She’s also served on the advisory committee of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and has contributed her knowledge and talents to the organizations World Beyond War, and the No to NATO Network. She and VoW joined up recently with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute to recruit more than a hundred personages of repute on both sides of border in a public campaign to kill the Liberals’ war spending plans.

Tamara Lorincz and opposing Canadian militarism in the second half.

But first, Nick Mottern and Biden’s not so sunny Afghan horizon.

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, Yves Engler, Tamara Lorincz, Janine Bandcroft October 15, 2020

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio’s continuing ‘Home Edition’, not broadcast live, but recorded on this date, October 9th, 2020.

In reacting to times of extreme societal stress there are two options: People can come together; or things can be pulled apart. The latter is exemplified by Canadian writer, Naomi Klein’s seminal work, The Shock Doctrine, and by the ominously interpreted phrase, “never let a good crisis go to waste.”

Right now, as the global pandemic wrecks havoc on individual lives and economies, the Israeli lobby is clearly not using the opportunity to mend fences, but instead is using the media cover the crisis affords to attack perceived foes and further silence critics of Israel’s egregious Palestine occupation.

Yves Engler is a Montréal-based activist, essayist, and author whose articles appear at Ricochet, The Palestine Chronicle, and at his site, YvesEngler.com among other places. The latest of his 11 published titles is, ‘House of Mirrors — Justin Trudeau’s Foreign Policy’.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; the second No Fighter Jets manifestation crossed hands across Canada October 2nd to stand in the doorways of MP offices in every province and territory. The second Pan-Canadian National Day of Action was led by Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Canada’s longest-lived national feminist peace group.

Tamara Lorincz is a PhD candidate in Global Governance whose research focus is climate and the environmental impacts of the military. Tamara’s also served as VoW’s lead person for the second No Fighter Jets day of action.

Tamara Lorincz and Canadians saying “No!” to an unjust and ecocidal war economy in the second half.

And; Victoria-based broadcaster, and host of CFUV’s Plant Based 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, Yves Engler and burgeoning blowback for the Israel Lobby.

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/