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Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Denise Nadeau, John Philpot October 28, 2021

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded October 23rd, 2021

September 30th this year marked the first commemoration of National Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada. The date coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a popularly created remembrance of First Nations children kidnapped by the state and brutalized in the Residential Schools system. But the idea of Truth and Reconciliation is far broader than the schools, or any single aspect of the country’s colonial past; because whether you and your family arrived in Canada five, or five hundred and five years ago, you’re a part now of the continuing occupation of someone else’s home.

Denise Nadeau is an educator, scholar, and activist working at the intersection of somatic therapy, spiritual practice, decolonization, and racial justice. She is of mixed European heritage from Quebec and the author of the new book Unsettling Spirit: A Journey into Decolonization. She’s also an organizer with the Calls to Action Scavenger Hunt: In Search of Truth and Reconciliation event, to be held Saturday November 6th in James Bay.

Denise Nadeau in the first half.

And; Julian Assange is not the only prisoner of American extraterritorial lawfare. Alex Saab is a Colombian businessman, international “fixer”, and diplomat. A deal maker, Saab put his considerable talents towards aiding besieged Venezuela evade the illegal and deadly U.S. blockade to provide medicines and other much needed goods to the country. Though you wouldn’t know any of that watching the Western press who, as with WikiLeaks publisher Assange, has smeared him with politically motivated lies.

John Philpot is a Montreal-based defense attorney in International Criminal Law. Long active in Palestinian and African support organizations, the peace movement, and recent campaign to free political prisoner, Meng Wanzhou, Philpot too was a member of the Free Alex Saab delegation presenting to the annual African Bar Association meetings in Niger just days before Saab was extradited from Cape Verde last week.

John Philpot and America courting war in the second half.

But first, Denise Nadeau on the hunt for truth and reconciliation in our home on native land.

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, Ken Stone, Joe Emersberger September 2, 2021

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded August 28th and 29th, 2021

Faerie tales always begin with a great wrong done. The evil deed, invariably committed by some grand Potentate or schemer to the throne often entail endungeoning a hero or heroine seen as a potential threat to power. What make Faerie tales different and apart from the tedious litany of yarns about injustice meted by the mighty upon the heads of the meek is that, more than being merely about crimes against the innocent, these universal and enduring stories detail the greater – and unforgivable – crime against innocence itself. Today this country, Canada is the villain in just such a grim story; but it’s no faerie tale, it’s the true-life case of Meng Wanzhou, held captive in Vancouver a thousand and more days.

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 joined forces with online investigative journalism site, The Canada Files and rank and file Canadians upset with the country’s legal traditions traduced in this case to pursue the nation-wide FREE MENG WANZHOU campaign. They say,

“… it’s clear to Justice Holmes as well as Justin Trudeau, his entire cabinet, and indeed the whole world, Meng Wanzhou has committed no crime…”

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; if Meng Wanzhou is an entowered princess-prisoner of a petty tyrant eager to please a larger monster, Alex Saab is a knight errant, mired in that monster’s own web of intrigue and mass murder. Saab was in the service of besieged Venezuela, en route to Iran, another nation similarly blockaded by America, when he was intercepted by Cape Verde authorities and thrown into prison there. More than a year later, Alex Saab sits still in that prison awaiting the local judiciary’s decision on his appeal of its acquiescence to extradition requests by the United States.

Joe Emersberger is a Canada-based engineer, writer, activist, and co-author with Justin Podur of the newly released book, ‘Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela‘. Emersberger’s articles, focusing on the Western media’s coverage of the Americas, can be found at FAIR.org, CounterPunch.org, TheCanary.co, Telesur English, and ZComm.org, where his recent piece, ‘Alex Saab, Afghanistan, and the limits of US power‘ appears.

Joe Emersberger on Alex Saab and the increasing diplomatic acceptance of American atrocity in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and making an election issue of the odious Canadian case against Meng Wanzhou.

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, Randy Caravaggio (Long form) December 10, 2020

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The Trump administration’s hard line on Cuba undid the diplomatic and economic advances of the Obama years. There’s hope in the long-besieged Caribbean island nation the inauguration of the 44th president’s vice-president, Joe Biden will signal a return to political rapprochement and removal of trade restrictions imposed by the departing Republicans.

But, it’s no sure thing. Though the president-elect promised a return to Obama era policies while campaigning, specifics are uncertain, and media and Senate pressures are already being applied.

Randy Caravaggio is a social justice defender and organizer with the Victoria Goods for Cuba campaign, and co-ordinator with Victoria’s contribution to the Pastor’s for Peace Caravan to Cuba. He’s also been a constant champion of the revolutions in Venezuela and Bolivia, and long-time supporter of Palestinian sovereignty.

Today, Randy Caravaggio and cautiously watching the tides of change in Cuba and Latin America.

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, Diana Johnstone, Randy Caravaggio, Janine Bandcroft December 10, 2020

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s home edition, recorded on this date, December 7th, 2020.

A year into this pandemic and amazingly there are fundamental questions about the origins and nature of the SARS-CoV-2, or Covid-19 virus still unanswered. Uncertainty, mistrust, and disinformation abound, and every day that goes by provides new opportunities for scammers, mountebanks, and scoundrels to dream up ways to turn the chaos to their advantage. But, there’s much more than PPE price gouging and toilet paper riots going on here. Over at the World Economic Forum, founders Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret see the pandemic as accelerant for the World Order paradigm change they’ve promoted in recent years.

Diana Johnstone is an author whose books include: ‘Fool’s Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO, and Western Delusions’, ‘Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton’, and her latest, ‘Circle in the Darkness: Memoirs of a World Watcher’. Her essays feature online at Consortium News, where her latest piece, ‘The Great Pretext…for Dystopia’ appears.

Diana Johnstone in the first half.

And; the Trump administration’s hard line on Cuba undid the diplomatic and economic advances of the Obama years. There’s hope in the long-besieged Caribbean island nation the inauguration of the 44th president’s vice-president, Joe Biden will signal a return to political rapproachment and removal of trade restrictions imposed by the departing Republicans. But, it’s no sure thing. Though the president-elect promised a return to Obama era policies while campaigning, specifics are uncertain, and media and Senate pressures are already being applied.

Randy Caravaggio and cautiously watching the tides of change in Cuba and Latin America 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 to be gotten up to in and around our town, and virtually too, in the coming week.

But first, Diana Johnstone and Covid as pretext for a dystopic Great Reset.

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, Sara Birrell August 27th, 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 26th, 2020.

In Orwell’s classic dystopic Nineteen Eighty-four, The Party declares “War is peace…” and so the people are at peace, perpetually. Orwell didn’t consider his final book fiction; he would have titled it, it’s said, Nineteen Forty-eight, the year of its intended release, but the publishers felt it would work better to set the clocks forward some. Now, and since the end of the Great Good World War, we’ve known nothing but peace in the Orwellian sense; but our real World “peace” is maintained by a subtlety missed by the great author. ‘Humanitarian Sanctions’ are often the first shots fired in the modern way of war; and, it’s undeniably the case that “Truth” is their first victim.

Sara Birrell is a writer, student, and self-described “rank-and-file” union member. The socialist, Saskatchewan settler’s essays can be found at Briarpatch Magazine, Sask Dispatch, Passage, Media Co-op, and the Carillon among other places. Her recent article, ‘Canadian Sanctions Are Liberal Warfare‘ appears at The Canada Files website.

Today, Sara Birrell and Sanctions: Canada’s World war.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Alan MacLeod May 15, 2020

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Welcome 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, May 15th, 2020.

The latest attempt by lamentable Keystone coupster, Juan Guaido to crown himself King of Caracas cracked up on the rocks of a Venezuelan beach, where his army, a motley collection of hapless foreign mercenaries and disgruntled Venezuelan nationals was taken into custody by a combination of police and local fishermen. The entire latter day Bay of Pigs fiasco would have been laughable but for the eight men killed, and the potential mayhem those men had hoped to unleash on the already crisis-stricken country. All that was made clear when the contract Guaido had taken out on elected president, Nicolas Maduro was made public by his accomplices at Silvercorp USA, the outfit hired, disgruntled by Juan’s failure to make good on payment promised.

Dr. Alan MacLeod is an educator, essayist, and author whose research interests include media theory, propaganda, social media and South American politics. He’s a staff writer at Mintpress News, a contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and author of the book, ‘Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting’. His recent article at the Grayzone is, ‘Guaidó’s mercenary hit contract on Venezuela’s Maduro mirrors official US bounty, authorizes death squad killings‘.

Alan MacLeod and the latest chapter in the sorry life of Juan Guaido, the little coupster that couldn’t.