Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Kevin Love, Ken Boon May 6, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded May 3rd, 2021.

On March 29th CLAS kicked off what will be “a year-long celebration of 50 years of fighting for social justice. When the Community Legal Assistance Society began it was the first law office of its kind in B.C. All these years later, founding member, Mike Harcourt says of CLAS, “Probably hundreds of thousands of low-income tenants, people facing burdensome debt, people living with mental illness and other disabilities, those living with addiction, and other individuals battling bureaucracies or facing discrimination have benefited from our unique service.

Well the need is still there, and is now perhaps greater than ever.

Kevin Love is a lawyer in CLAS’ Community Law Program, working primarily in the areas of mental health, and workers’ rights. Kevin represents CLAS on a number of committees, including the Worksafe BC’s policy and practice consultative committee as well as serving as chair to the Workers’ Compensation Advocacy Group.

Kevin Love in the first half.

And; more reports about the Site C mega-dam project have come out since I last talked to today’s second guest. In fact, since I started talking to him more than six years ago, millions have been spent on reports and studies and surveys and province-wide dog and pony shows, and no matter what the results of any of these are the Great White Elephant thunders on. It seems not even bare-faced reality stands a chance of getting in the way of a monumentally bad idea, as long as the people behind it are determined to abide in dream land.

Ken Boon is a Peace Valley farmer and president of the Peace Valley Landowners Association. Ken and his family have laboured to make real the tommyrot at the heart of the Site C project from the very beginning, and now some of their worst fears are becoming apparent even to the dullest minds of a generation down at the Legislature. And yet, the project goes on.

Ken Boon and politician saying the damnedest things about the Site-C project to nowhere in the second half.

But first, Kevin Love and celebrating 50 years with CLAS.

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

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, Ken Boon September 29, 2020

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, September 29th, 2020.

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 disaster 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.

But back in 2017, John Horgan took office and changed course, supporting  the project he had opposed before the people and before the polls. Now, as another election approaches, the elephant is circling a watery gyre, spiraling tax dollars down its funnel, and looking not so much a modern, Green energy marvel as magnificent, old-time crapper.

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 the Site C dam project from the beginning, and have remained long enough to see some of their worst fears realized.

Today, Ken Boon and John Horgan’s bottomless Site C money binny.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Radhika Desai, Ken Boon, Janine Bandcroft July 9, 2020

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, June 30th, 2020.

As day by day the duration of this Covid disaster grows longer it becomes increasingly clear there will be no normal, new or otherwise, to return to; especially no economic one. What we’re witnessing, my first guest argues, is more cyclone than cyclical downturn; an effective overturning of the entire neo-liberal financial order. Not only are we not in Kansas anymore, but Kansas has done gone too!

Radhika Desai is a scholar, educator, author, editor. She is too director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group and professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba, and author of the books, ‘Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire’, ‘Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics’, and ‘Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party’. She also serves as co-editor with Alan Freeman of the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press. Radhika’s many essays, primarily on the topics of political economy, culture and nationalism can be found at among other places, CanadianDimensions.com where her seven part, multi-week series, WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A MANIFESTO FOR POLITICS AMID THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND features.

Radhika Desai in the first half.

And; the people of Old Fort don’t know what to expect next. The small town in British Columbia’s Peace River Valley has been under an evacuation alert since June 19th when a landslide destroyed their only road access. It’s the second time the road has been wiped out in the last two years. Locals want to know what’s going on beneath them, but the provincial government has yet to shed light on the geological cause of the slides. Requests for information made through channels have been refused “pursuant to section 15” of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Section 15 regards disclosure of requested information as quote, “harmful to law enforcement”. Further explanation of how that may be has not been offered, but the geological and political fragility surrounding the contentious Site C dam has long been an issue for Peace Valley opponents of the project.

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 the Site C dam project from the beginning.

Ken Boon and does the Old Fort slide mean things going sideways for Site C too? in the second half.

And; long-time Gorilla Radio contributor and ‘Green Vegan Grandma’ YouTuber, 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 Victoria in the coming week. But first, Radhika Desai and just what is to be done in a World undone?

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/