Tag: Christopher Black

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone, Nikki Skuce May 27, 2021

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, May 20th and 21st, 2021.

In December, 2019 Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was intercepted at Vancouver’s International Airport and ultimately arrested by the RCMP. It soon became apparent Meng was taken at the behest of the United States who hoped to use her incarceration as a “bargaining chip” in negotiations with the Chinese telecommunications giant. This mainly because more than merely a top-tier executive, Meng Wanzhou is also the daughter of Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei. Today, two and a half years after her arrest, Meng Wanzhou is still a political captive who, like Julian Assange in Great Britain, awaits extradition orders to the United States.

Ken Stone is a long-time antiwar activist, serving as an executive member of both the Syria Solidarity Movement and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. Ken and the Hamilton Coalition have joined forces with online investigative journalism site, The Canada Files and rank and file Canadians upset with the country’s legal tradition being so rudely sullied in this case to pursue a Cross-Canada FREE MENG WANZHOU campaign. Last week, the webinar, “New developments in the Meng case” again addressed this ongoing sore point.

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; last week Environment NGO’s SkeenaWild and the BC Mining Law Reform Network released a study of mining practices in British Columbia. ‘Dirty Dozen 2021: B.C.’s Top Polluting and Risky Mines calls for reforms and better enforcement of scofflaw companies whose current practices threaten both community cohesion and the natural environment.
Nikki Skuce is Director of the Smithers-based Northern Confluence Initiative, (in Wet’suwet’en territory). She also works on salmon conservation and land-use decisions, and is the co-chair of the BC Mining Law Reform network.

Nikki Skuce and airing the dirt on B.C. mining in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and new developments in the festering Meng Wanzhou case.

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, Christopher Black April 29, 2021

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, April  18th and 26th, 2021.

Contained within his 17th State of the Nation address President Vladimir Putin delivered the unambiguous warning that efforts by the United States and its allies to undermine the country’s security, sovereignty, or well-being of its people would not be tolerated. The speech came just a month after President Biden labeled his Russian counterpart a “killer”, and only three days after a report detailing the foiled assassination plot against the Belarus president, allegedly engineered at “the highest levels” of the Biden administration. The report follows too tit for tat diplomatic expulsions, leading to what my first guest calls the “nadir” of U.S./Russia relations.

Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war crimes cases. He’s also an executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress. Black’s articles on international law, politics, and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places, where I found his latest, ‘Biden, The Killer President‘. His timely novel, ‘Beneath the Clouds’, “a story of how people, acting collectively, can defeat tyranny” is published by Badak Merah and is newly out.

Christopher Black in the first half.

And; when long-time friend and frequent guest of the show, Dr. Pablo Ouziel suggested one of his promising, graduated political science students collaborate with Gorilla Radio as part of his entrance prerequisite for London’s prestigious Goldsmiths’ University journalism program, I was only too happy to help. Denver Willson-Rymer II is a Victoria/Vancouver-based street and fine art photographer, political blogger, short story author, and principle behind the website, Indulgent.online.

Denver Willson-Rymer’s interview with Victoria activist, Caleb Asfaw in the second half.

But first, Christopher Black and Joe Biden’s promising “killer” presidency.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Christopher Black, David Rovics, Janine Bandcroft August 13, 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 5th, 2020.

Twenty months in to her Vancouver house arrest, Huawei CFO, (and daughter of the Chinese corporate leviathan’s founder) Meng Wanzhou entered a new court filing in B.C.’s Supreme Court. In late July Meng’s legal team charged that, among other things the proceedings against their client had quote, “been poisoned” and “can no longer be reasonably regarded as fair…”. Meng has already lost one appeal to throw out the extradition petition filed by the United States in B.C. courts, and the case has predictably proven a particularly prickly political sticking point in Canada-China relations.

Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war crimes cases. He’s also an executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress. Black’s articles on international law, politics, and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places. And, his timely novel, ‘Beneath the Clouds‘ “a story of how people, acting collectively, can defeat tyranny” is newly out.

Christopher Black in the first half and the international tug-of-war testing Canada’s “Rule of Law” credentials.

And; federal troops are in Portland. Nearly two months in to daily police brutality demonstrations there, the president decided to deploy the “Minneapolis” treatment; or as Attorney General, Bill Barr calls it, the “Occupy Model”. And there are other cities slated to receive the same.

Itinerant musician and now covid-caged broadcaster, is in Portland, where his relatively mild-mannered home city has suddenly become the center of Civil War 2.020. As he can’t tour, David is doing the next best thing, raising Hell on the internet, and helping foment a Renters strike.

“Welcome back to the program, David. I think it’s three of the last four years, fire has been the big story out of Portland. We’ve had a late summer up the road here in BC, what’s your forest situation like down there?”

David Rovics and tearing down community in Portland in the second half.

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, Christopher Black August 5, 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 5th, 2020.

Twenty months in to her Vancouver house arrest, Huawei CFO, (and daughter of the Chinese corporate leviathan’s founder) Meng Wanzhou entered a new court filing in B.C.’s Supreme Court. In late July Meng’s legal team charged that, among other things the proceedings against their client had quote, “been poisoned” and “can no longer be reasonably regarded as fair…”. Meng has already lost one appeal to throw out the extradition petition filed by the United States in B.C. courts, and the case has predictably proven a particularly prickly political sticking point in Canada-China relations.

Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war crimes cases. He’s also an executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress. Black’s articles on international law, politics, and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places. And, his timely novel, ‘Beneath the Clouds‘ “a story of how people, acting collectively, can defeat tyranny” is newly out.

Christopher Black in the first half and the international tug-of-war testing Canada’s “Rule of Law” credentials.

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.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/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Caitlin Manning, Christopher Black, Janine Bandcroft July 18, 2019

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It was all going to be so good. The new man promised, he had a plan: No more would they bow to outsiders; no more allow nature be subsumed by industry; and no more would they be left to watch as the best of everything was taken. It would be a shining new day.

Thus Mexicans received Andrés Manuel López Obrador, (or “AMLO” as he’s colloquially known) into the presidency. But that was last year.

Caitlin Manning is an American filmmaker and active participant in the movements against patriarchy, racism and capitalism. She’s currently working on Resistant Mexico, a series of films documenting resistance to neoliberal economic expansion, and retention of cultural modes, methods, and memory in Mexico.

Caitlin’s articles, and links to her films appear at CaitlinManningfilms.com, and at ROAR Magazine, where I found her article, ‘AMLO in office: from megaprojects to militarization‘.

Caitlin Manning in the first half.

And; last week Britain dispatched its navy to take into custody, at its still contentious Gibraltar sinecure on the Iberian peninsula, the Panamanian-flagged Iranian oil tanker Grace I. The Grace was, allegedly, Syria-bound when intercepted, something the UK says violates European Union sanctions. Iran denies it, but the bigger question bearing begging is, “Does the EU, America, or Britannia have the right to rule the waves?”

Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war crimes cases. He’s also an executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress. Black’s articles on international law, politics and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places, where his latest, ‘A League of Perpetual Peace: An Impossible Dream?‘ reveals the West’s relentless chicanery that would, in its audacity, risk another global war.

Christopher Black and pyrates again off Barbary’s Coast in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time CFUV Radio contributor, 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, Caitlin Manning and the AMLO change Mexico did not hope for.

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.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/

Gorilla Radio with Christopher Black, J Ocean Dennie, Janine Bandcroft May 16th, 2019

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It’s difficult to believe we didn’t see this coming. Everywhere Bellum Americana is in force today, the “rule of law” is no more. And, despite Trudeau’s, or Chrystia Freeland’s repeated invocations, that parrot is neither sleeping, nor getting back on its perch! It is dead: dead as the Magna Carta; dead as the Treaty of Westphalia; dead as the Nuremberg Charter. The sad truth is, we really are, finally, on our own.

Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war crimes cases, and executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress.

Black’s articles on international law, politics and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places, where a perusal of his latest efforts reveals the relentless assault by the empire and its satraps against international jurisprudence and nations in all quarters of the globe.

Christopher Black in the first half.

And; what worth a tree? How much for a forest? The inexorable mastication and digestion of British Columbia ‘s forests by timber interests and their servants in various governments is an old story – in human terms.

For the last century and half, a mere fraction of the lives of the giant cedars routinely ground down for consumer products, nature has been regarded here as resource; merely an instrument to be used to secure the wealth, comfort, and ease of the settler caste. Now though, as with so many other systems, the coastal rainforest ecosystem has reached a tipping-point, one from which once crossed reclamation will never be possible.

J Ocean Dennie is with Friends of the Sooke Hills Wilderness, a grassroots group of concerned citizens advocating for the continued protection of wilderness areas threatened on southern Vancouver Island. His decolonizing advocacy work and environmental activism over the past few years includes: involvement with the Social Environmental Alliance, Indigenous Solidarity Working Group and Fish Farms Out Now!

J Ocean Dennie and stopping the road to ruin in the Sooke Hills Wilderness in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Christopher Black and an international rule of law run amok.

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.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/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Daniel Kovalik, Denis Halliday, Christopher Black, Janine Bandcroft Feb. 7, 2019

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The Lima Group met Monday in Ottawa to make official its determination to overthrow the government of Venezuela, as detailed in its ‘Ottawa Declaration‘.

An offshoot of the Organization of American States, the Lima Group formed following the OAS’s failure to agree on the forced removal of president Nicolas Maduro.

In addition to hosting the meeting, and adding its capital’s name to the Group’s declaration, Canada’s foreign minister promised 53 million Canadian dollars in “humanitarian and development aid” to be delivered to what Chrystia Freeland termed, its “trusted partners” in the embattled South American nation.

Daniel Kovalik is a labor and human rights lawyer, essayist, and author of the critically-acclaimed books, ‘The Plot to Scapegoat Russia’, and ‘The Plot to Attack Iran’. The third in his “plot to” trilogy, ‘The Plot to Control the World: How the US Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections Around the World’ is newly out and couldn’t be more timely. Dan has too served as an election observor multiple times in Venezuela, and other Latin American countries, and is just returned from Caracas.

Dan Kovalik in the first half.

And; despite a gruesome colonial past, and more recent history of supporting dictatorships, Canada still gets a lot of mileage out of its “democracy-loving” reputation. It scores a solid six on The Economist’s annual rating of global democratic performance, and does almost as well on international justice indices. In fact, Canada’s “rule of law” bona fides is wielded more and more by the prime minister, even as the country diverges further and further from it.

Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war crimes cases, and executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress. He’s also an author, poet, and essayist who’s latest book is, ‘Beneath the Clouds’. Black’s articles on international law, politics and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places, and his latest, ‘The Lima Group: International Outlaws’ serves as indictment of a gang of nations gone rogue.

Christopher Black and declaring Ottawa outlaws in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, 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 around our town in the coming week. But first, Dan Kovalik and a kettle of vultures over Caracas.

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.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/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Peter Lee, Christopher Black December 20th, 2018

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Stock markets tanking, uncertainty battering the currency exchanges, international commerce slowing to a crawl, rumours of trade, (and shooting) wars, and US companies considering exiting China in the New Year; all in all, Donald Trump can settle himself before the holiday hearth happily regarding his full-to-brimming America First Christmas stocking.

But how’s the view from the over there side of the trade war?

Peter Lee is a freelance journalist writing on East and South Asian affairs as they intersect US global policy. He blogs at the Asian affairs website China Matters, and his China Watch report features at Newsbud.com.

Peter Lee in the first half.

And; as most are aware, there’s a Canadian connection to the ongoing trade/tech war between the United States and China. The December 1st arrest of Huawei executive, and daughter of the company’s founder, Meng Wanzhou has, more than embarrassing Canada on the World stage and revealing the gormlessness of the Trudeau government, called into question the very idea of the country’s sovereignty and its ability to actually be a “rule of law” nation in the face of American pressure.

Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer best known for his involvement in a number of high-profile, international war crimes cases. He’s also a poet, essayist, and novelist who’s latest book is, ‘Beneath the Clouds‘. Black’s articles on international law, politics and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places, and his latest, ‘Canada Takes A Hostage: Free Meng Wanzhou’ examines the rice paper-thin case against holding Meng and Huawei hostage.

Christopher Black and unwinding the Huawei media spin in the second half.

And; Janine’s Left Coast Events Bulletin takes a break this week for the holidays. So first up, Peter Lee and US/China trade; a war by any other name?

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.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/