Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ashley Gjøvik, Andy Worthington May 10, 2023

Welcome to GR, recorded May 10th, 2023.

Anyone paying attention knows We the People are up against an all-out assault on the rights and freedoms so hard won over the last century and a half. Corporations and their captured governments, combined with the media, are busy eroding laws meant to protect us, while rendering regulatory bodies built for that purpose worse than useless. So, what’s left for a good citizen to do when faced with the de facto impunity of corporate and government malfeasance?

Ashley Gjøvik is a lawyer, founder of the D&G Center for Megacorporation Reform, and serves as the Whistleblower Officer at the International Bar Association’s Anti-Corruption Compliance subcommittee. She’s also a former Senior Engineering Program Manager at Apple who, after asking questions about why an announced environmental health and safety team’s “large-scale project” environmental tests were taking place in her office discovered just how toxic the Apple work environment could get.

Ashley Gjøvik in the first half.

And; Charles is King, but what – if a mere colonial dare ask – for Britain now that the party is over?

Europe is in turmoil, the Ukraine war compounding the strain more than twenty years of NATO wars has wrought on EU and NATO member-country economies. It’s a cold reality neither the English Channel, nor Brexit can cushion. And if escalating weapons transfers and ever more belligerent public pronouncements are an indicator, the situation can only worsen for Britons and Europeans alike.

Andy Worthington is an English journalist, activist, author, photo-historian, filmmaker, musician, song-writer and principle of The Four Fathers band. He is too co-founder of both the ongoing Close Guantánamo campaign and successfully completed We Stand With Shaker campaign.
Worthington’s book titles include: ‘The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’, ‘Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion’, and ‘The Battle of the Beanfield’. Andy’s articles appear at his website, AndyWorthington.co.uk, where he’s inviting participants to enjoin ongoing Close Guantanamo efforts.

Andy Worthington and the state of Britain as the reign of Charles III begins in the second half.

But first, Ashley Gjøvik and biting the poison Apple.

Song: I want My Country Back

Artist: The Four Fathers

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, Sophie Papp, Zain Haq, Dan Kovalik June 4, 2022

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded June 4th, 2022

Its been almost thirty years since the Mike Harcourt NDP arrested more than a thousand people protesting the clearcut destruction of Clayoquot Sound. More than a generation later the ‘War in the Woods’ seems a cause lost to those still fighting to protect ancient forests here. Save Old Growth is a nascent citizen’s resistance campaign organizing to pressure the provincial government to legislate an end to old growth logging now!

Sophie Papp and Zain Haq are coordinators of the Save Old Growth campaign. Sophie is an islander who while studying at UVic worked too with Access4All advocating for expanded online access for immuno-compromised students, and those facing other in-person class barriers. Zain is a co-founder of and strategist for Save Old Growth. He’s been arrested multiple times for civil disobedience and was imprisoned earlier this year for blockading the path of the TransMountain pipeline.

Sophie Papp and Zain Haq in the first half.

And; Colombians voted in national elections last week. It’s seen as the first real chance to unseat finally the far right power structure that has brutalized social justice and environmental activists, the indigenous people, and union organizers there for more than three generations. The favourite going into the May 29th poll, leftist Gustavo Petro and running mate, Francia Marquez fell just short of the 50% needed for a first round victory, so will face another vote against second place finisher, Rodolfo Hernandez June 19th.

Dan Kovalik is a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy defender, journalist, author, and filmmaker. Dan has observed elections in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia – where he witnessed the 2016 peace plebiscite promising an end to the generational war there. Of Kovalik’s 2020 film, ‘Nicaragua: The April Crisis & Beyond‘ on 2018’s so-called uprising in Nicaragua, Oliver Stone said, “Kovalik helps cut through the Orwellian lies and dissembling which make so-called ‘humanitarian intervention possible.”

Kovalik’s book titles include: ‘No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interest,’ ‘Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture,’ and the “Plot to” series on American efforts to undermine the governments and economies of Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and to control the World entirely.

Dan Kovalik and Colombia’s second try at an electoral first in the second half.

But first, Sophie Papp and Zain Haq and stopping old growth logging.

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, Howard Breen, Tasha Diamant, Janine Bandcroft August 29th, 2019

Ten days ago, Catherine McKenna, Canada’s minister responsible for her government’s environmental policies, paid a visit to Victoria.

Unlike her Tory counterparts, Catherine is convinced of the reality of climate change, and says those who aren’t “should ask their kids & grandkids about how they feel about the fact that the Amazon is burning, the oceans are filled with plastics and pollution is choking our planet.

Here in British Columbia, where forests are clear-cut, marine habitat wantonly destroyed daily, and pollution of all sort “regularized” by Ms. McKenna’s department as the price of doing business, the “kids & grandkids” need to know how Catherine feels about that.

Howard Breen is long-time social and environmental activist. He calls our city home now, and when Minister McKenna came to visit he and his fellows from Extinction Rebellion Vancouver Island greeted her with a citizen’s arrest warrant for crimes against nature.

Howard Breen in the first half.

And; fragile as nature, we humans are born naked, wide-open-defenseless. And, from that quavering first moment society is quick to the rescue, swaddling us in layers of culture. But at which turn of cloth does shelter become prison, walling us from one another; ultimately leaving us confined in solitude?

Tasha Diamant is a Victoria-based performance artist, activist, and creator of the Human Body Project. Tasha has presented her exploration of radical vulnerability at Fringe Festivals around the World, and on the streets, using her naked body as medium to challenge conventions of personal narrative and public engagement. And, Tasha Diamant is part of the Victoria Fringe Festival, happening right now, with her show, ‘Atrocities Я Us‘.

Tasha Diamant and holding vigil for Vulnerability 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 in and around our town in the coming week.

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/