Tag: NDP

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Sleydo Molly Wickham, Jackie Larkin November 25, 2021

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio Sunday, November 21, 2021

Outside the busyness of the modern world is pressing against the window panes as if nothing has happened.

The plagues and pestilence, conflagrations of forests and atmospheric torrents are all present, all a part of this waking dream, yet we stumble for the reason behind the rising waters, and sliding mud and rock; that remains peripheral, an unaddressed root of our unraveling. Instead, the blinkered death march progresses unabated, desperate for the abyss.

Canada’s paramilitary police attacked again land defenders of the northern interior in colonial British Columbia at the Morice River last week. The RCMP raid meant to terrorize and demoralize the people resisting TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline took hostages, arresting at least 15, including journalists. Sleydo’ Molly Wickham was among those seized. She’s described by independent news outlet, The Narwhal as “a wing chief in Cas Yikh house of the Gidimt’en clan.”

Wickham says, after warning Coastal Gaslink a 2020 eviction order would be enforced, the road to a 500-strong work camp was dug up. Police say their “enforcement operation” was necessary to protect the “health and wellness” of the isolated workers.

Similarly, Fairy Creek on southern Vancouver Island is the focus of RCMP enforcement efforts to dislodge those standing in the way of the business of rampant environmental defilement. There the public has ponied up nearly 4 million loonies to protect the private profits of the Teal Jones lumber company. In both instances, broadly defined court orders have been used by the federal police to set up “exclusion zones”, where those deemed in contravention are arrested under “contempt of court” charges.

More than a thousand arrests have been made at and around Fairy Creek in over the last year. Again, context is lacking in the reportage permitted from the zones of contention due to a combination of restricted access for alternative media, and the inherent reluctance of corporate and state news producers to challenge the status quo.

On today’s show, a look back at two instances of persistent resistance to the colonial occupation of “British Columbia”.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing 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, Selam Gebremeskel/Meron Dejene, Bill Johnston June 3, 2021

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, May 31st and June 1st, 2021

Last November, the federal government of Ethiopia, in concert with the dictatorship of neighbouring Eritrea, launched a military invasion of Tigray. Since, millions have been displaced and millions more are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in what the Biden administration said last week is shaping up to become the greatest manufactured disaster since the Ethiopian famine of the 1980’s.

Last week, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council, president Abiy’s troops and its allies have, as well as committing “mass rapes and murder“, “attacked, obstructed or delayed [deliveries of] life-saving assistance… and killed at least 8 aid workers since November“.

Selamawit Gebremeskel is an Ethiopian emigre who has lived in Canada for nearly thirty years. Selam, now a health care professional in Victoria, has relatives in Tigray caught up in a war the government there is waging against its civilians.

Selam Gebremeskel and Meron Dejene in the first half.

And; Day 295 of Direct Action against timber company Teal Jones’ clear-cutting of the Fairy Creek watershed was marked by more than 2,000 blockaders joining the nine months-long campaign in defiance of a BC court injunction and the massive presence of Canada’s paramilitary federal police, the RCMP. Despite scores of protesters arrested to date, or perhaps because of it, the size of the blockade has continued to grow. And the stakes are high. According to the Rainforest Flying Squad in the face of biodiversity and climate crises the logging of old growth forests must stop. It’s just as British Columbia’s own Old Growth Strategic Review Panel recommended last year, but the cutting continues.

Bill Johnston is a retired officer of the Canadian Foreign Services and active Green Party member. He and partner Jan have been traveling up island to participate directly in the blockade. They were up there Saturday, just two of the more than two thousand that showed up to slow up the clear-cuts.

Bill Johnston and the fight to save Fairy Creek in the second half.

But first, Selam Gebremeskel, Meron Dejene and Ethiopia’s engineered catastrophe in Tigray.

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, Norm Farrell, Dimitri Lascaris October 22, 2020

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s home edition, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio, but emanating live-to-tape on this date, October 16th, 2020.

While defending his government’s continuation of Site-C in last week’s leadership debate, Premier John Horgan claimed the megadam was a way to move B.C.’s “green clean energy” into the future.

But what are the ecological costs of this project; and just how green is hydro power generally? The North American Megadam Resistance Alliance says, “These megadams destroy rivers and forests and are a climate and social justice disaster.”

Norm Farrell is a writer and publisher of In-Sights.ca, a journal “covering Canadian public affairs with a focus on British Columbia…” [and] “...exploring political and economic issues.” Norm attended the NAMRA sponsored, ‘Canada’s Sinking Site C Megadam Webinar’ Wednesday.

Norm Farrell in the first half.

And; the recent Green Party of Canada leadership race was worthy of a Rocky picture, seeing a feisty outsider taking on seemingly insurmountable odds to challenge an establishment champion. And true to the billing it was an epic contest; the campaign’s eligibility opposed from the start, and when finally mounted, run against the backdrop of a global pandemic.

Lawyer, activist, and journalist, Dimitri Lascaris was our Rocky Balboa in this tilt, entering the ring promising to, “Defy the powerful. Confront injustice. [and] Unite progressives.”

Dimitri Lascaris on fighting from the ropes for a Green future in the second half.

But first, Norm Farrell and the politics, impacts, and BIG money behind Site C.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Steve Poikonen, Garth Mullins, Janine Bandcroft October 1st, 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, September 22, 2020.

Wikileaks has allowed us to see raw, naked power before it puts on a suit and tie, slicks back its hair and conceals the knife. – Jonathan Cook

The travesty masquerading as an extradition hearing for WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange continues at London’s Old Bailey.

Steve Poikonen is a columnist, broadcaster, and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast available on Patreon.com. Steve’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, and co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil. He and a retinue of activist have returned to Washington, D.C. to make again as public as possible in the Capitol the miscarriage of justice being perpetrated in England at the bequest of the U.S. government.

Steve Poikonen in the first half.

And; the provincial NDP government announced a snap-election Monday, three years into their minority mandate. Premier Horgan said one of the reasons for the early call was his party’s failure to get the BC Greens to go along with Bill 22, or the Mental Health Amendment Act, 2020.

The Act provides for the involuntary detention of youth presenting to hospital emergency rooms for toxic poisoning, something BC Greens MLA Adam Olsen says might benefit some, but he believes, “the unintended consequences of the bill also pose significant risk to young people, Indigenous youth in particular.”

Garth Mullins is a Vancouver-based activist, writer, broadcaster. Mullins is too a trade unionist, community organizer, recipient of the Carole Geller Human Rights Award, and guitarist and singer with the bands, Legally Blind, Work to Rule, and the Lumpin Proletariat. He’s also the principal behind the mic of CRACKDOWN, the podcast that is, “The Drug War, Covered by Drug Users as War Correspondents.”

Garth Mullins on CRACKDOWN, Covid, and life in a time of craven electioneering 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 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/