Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. The show is archived at: www.gorilla-radio.com. The GR blog is at: gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com, and you can find and support the program at GRadio.Substack.com. Financial support is also possible through the Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/PacificFreePress. He’s too the past contributing editor to the web news site, www.pacificfreepress.com, (now defunct) and tweets at @paciffreepress. G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media. Some past guests include: M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, Ramzy Baroud, David Barsamian, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Paul Cienfuegos, Yves Engler, Laura Flanders, Denis Halliday, Julia Butterfly Hill, Sam Husseini, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Chalmers Johnson, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Ingmar Lee, Dave Lindorff, Andrew Gavin Marshall, Stefania Maurizi, Greg Palast, Michael Parenti, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, Ted Rall, Paul Craig Roberts, John Ross, David Rovics, Joan Russow, Danny Schechter, Vandana Shiva, Norman Solomon, David Swanson, Andy Worthington, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded December 4th, 2021.
That an impression of immutability, properly mediated, can be used to serve the interests of the status quo was not lost on prime minister and noted “Iron Lady”, Margaret Thatcher. She famously wielded the slogan,”There is no alternative” – acronymized ‘TINA’ – to batter opponents of her withering economic austerity program in long ago Britain. Looking around at the political stasis afflicting Western democracy today, it may seem our path to economic and environmental disaster is too fixed, inevitable as the movement of the planets.
Similarly, according to my first guest, Alberta, Canada’s reputation as an unassailable sinecure of conservatism past, present, and future is less real than engineered, but unlike Thatcher’s variety the provenance of the prairie province’s TINA is more intriguing than the utterance of a deranged demagogue.
Larry Hannant is a writer, historian, educator, social justice advocate, activist, and author. His book titles include, the Robert S. Kenny Prize-winning book, ‘The Politics of Passion: Norman Bethune’s Writing and Art’, ‘The Infernal Machine: Investigating the Loyalty of Canada’s Citizens’, ‘All My Politics Are Poetry’, and the newly released, ‘Bucking Conservatism: Alternative Stories of Alberta in the 1960s and 1970s’.
Larry Hannant in the first half.
And; Kim Goldberg is a Nanaimo-based poet, journalist, and author. She’s written 8 books of poetry and nonfiction, including her most recent collection ‘DEVOLUTION: poems and fables of eco-pocalypse‘. She covered BC current affairs for Canadian Dimension Magazine for many years, most recently writing about the Fairy Creek blockade.
Kim Goldberg on Devolution, a poetic discourse on ecosystem and societal collapse in the second half.
But first, Larry Hannant and Bucking Conservatism, Alberta-style.
War. What is it good for? With apologies to Edwin Starr, way beyond absolutely nothing for some fortunate few war is worth billions. Whether declared against countries, or concepts, poverty or ebola war and preparation for war is so lucrative it has become a supporting pillar of the global economy.
Nowhere perhaps is war’s profit potential more apparent than in the perpetual War on Drugs. Well into its second generation, the iteration of the drug wars, coined “The War on Drugs” by Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon has earned uncounted billions for gangs and grow ops, while making billions more for the endless retinue making up the Judicial-Enforcement-Prison Complex.
And, like it’s namesakes, this war is also responsible for the ruination of unknowable numbers of lives.
Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist and author who has spent more than a decade reporting from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Northeast Mexico. Her articles have appeared in the Nation, the Guardian, Vancouver Sun , Globe and Mail, Ms. Magazine, the Tyee, Georgia Straight, and NACLA, among other places. Her work in Latin America has focused on the business practices of the extractive industries, and the interconnectedness of high finance, politics, and organized crime.
Dawn’s first book, ‘Drug War Capitalism’ is fresh out from AK Press, who describe it as going; “…beyond the usual horror stories, beyond journalistic rubbernecking and hand-wringing, to follow the thread of the Drug War story throughout the entire region of Latin America and all the way back to US boardrooms and political offices.”
Dawn Paley in the first half.
And; more than just in America, November is election month here too. The municipal polls are set to go in a little more than a week’s time, on the 15th of this month. Joan Russow is the former leader of the Green Party of Canada who, since stepping down from the Greens, has spent her time working as a reporter and filmmaker; recording the climate change conferences in Copenhagen and Cancun, working on the film, ‘Cooperatives: Counterpoint to Capitalism,’ and traveling down to Venezuela to chronicle the groundbreaking progress cooperatives have made there since the Bolivarian Revolution. She also serves as an editor to the web news site, PEJNews.com. Now, Joan has thrown her beret into the Oak Bay councillor’s race ring.
Joan Russow and democracy behind the tweed curtain in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with what’s good going on and otherwise around our town and beyond here too. But first, Dawn Paley following the tangled Drug War threads.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. And now heard at Simon Fraser University’s http://www.cjsf.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/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
November is right around the corner, and befitting the monotonous return of a least loved season, this year it means too another turn of the civic election cycle. It’s also time for our neighbours south to head to the polls for mid-term elections; and, as with all things it seems, America’s November contest has outshone us again, with the big time fraud and election-fixing Stephen Harper and his insipid robo-callers can only envy.
Reporting investigator, Greg Palast is just returned to New York after a trip into the heart of Republican America, where he and his crack team of researchers recently wrapped a year-long investigation for Al Jazeera America; obtaining among other things the first-ever copies of the lists of targeted voters, that is; voters subject to being “scrubbed” from voter rolls. And surprise surprise, the list lurches heavily towards Blacks, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans. Who could be behind such skullduggery? Stay tuned…
Greg Palast has been on the trail of ballot bandits for a long time now; breaking the story on George W. Bush’s 2000 election win assist by orange juice heiress Katherine Harris’ mass purgative of Florida’s voter rolls.
Then, as an elections official, Harris disallowed thousands of Black “felons” access to the voter’s booth. Small problem: they were innocent. Palast is also the author of several books, including New York Times bestsellers: ‘Billionaires & Ballot Bandits,’ ‘Armed Madhouse,’ and ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.’ His latest is ‘Vultures’ Picnic,’ named by the BBC’s Newsnight Review as “Book of the Year for 2012.”
In addition to appearing in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, (who regard him as “the most important investigative journalist of our time…”) and on the BBC flagship news program Newsnight, Greg’s reports are featured stateside by The Nation Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, and online at Truthout.org and at GregPalast.com. Palast film exposés include: ‘Billionaires and Ballot Bandits – The Movie,’ ‘Vultures and Vote Rustlers.’ ‘Why We Occupy – Palast Live!,’ ‘Big Easy to Big Empty,’ ‘Bush Family Fortunes, ‘ ‘The Assassination of Hugo Chavez,’ ‘Palast Investigates,’ ‘The Election File,’ and with Jeremy Scahill ‘Big Noise: From Black Water to White Powder.’
Greg Palast in the first half.
And; though mere pikers compared to America’s anti-democrats, Canadian politicians are learning how to spike the process here too. Federally, Stephen Harper’s New Government of Canada has stifled federal employees of all stripes, barring especially scientists from talking un-minded to the press, and has allowed tax agency intimidation tactics against non-profit organisations with inconvenient politics to continue. Right here in BC meanwhile, the Chirsty Clark government recently proposed changes to the Society Act – something promising to effect, according to the West Coast Environmental Law Association, “community development organizations, church groups, secular groups, community organizations, and hunting groups” among many others. Particularly contentious is the seemingly innocuous provision, s.99.
Zaria Stoffman is an articling student with the Environmental Law Centre Society, or ELC right here at UVic. That society’s mission is to “provide research and advocacy on public interest environmental issues” and provide for an social environment where “local communities, environmental groups, and First Nations have the legal tools and resources to advocate effectively for the restoration, conservation, and protection of this province’s unique and diverse environment.”
Zaria Stoffman and BC Liberals’ Society Act engineering in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city’s streets and beyond there too. But first, Greg Palast and the purge this time.
Resistance takes many forms, and in the fight against the criminality and impunity enjoyed by Canadian-flagged mining corporations around the world a diversity of tactics is required. With that in mind, the Victoria’s Mining Justice Action Committee or MJAC is hosting Communities in Resistance and the Art of Solidarity Project, a visual arts exhibition and spoken word performance event presented this Friday at the Fernwood Community Association Theatre.
Nedjo Rogers is a playwright and performer, coordinator for the BC-Peru partnership project, (focused on the environmental impacts of Canadian mining) and member of MJAC. His mock epic verse play, The Trois-Rivières Tales featured in this year’s Fringe Festival.
Nedjo Rogers in the first half.
And; the recent Hollywood release ‘Kill the Messenger’ has rekindled interest in investigative reporter, Gary Webb. Nearly twenty years ago, Webb’s expose on CIA involvement in creating the 1980’s crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles threatened a political firestorm. Instead, the story was effectively extinguished by major media outlets who rather than expand on Webb’s Dark Alliance series, chose to intimidate the publishers and challenge the reporter’s credibility.
Robert Parry is an investigative reporter, author, editor, and co-founder of Consortium News.com, the internet’s first news magazine website. Parry broke many stories from Latin America during the Dirty War years for Newsweek and the Associated Press, and followed those with revelations of the Iran-Contra scandal that contributed greatly to George H.W. Bush’s single term presidency. Parry, along with Brian Barger, first exposed the Contra-cocaine scandal for the Associated Press in 1985, and recently wrote a piece about the Washington Post’s attempts, in light no doubt of its unflattering portrayal in ‘Kill the Messenger,’ to smear again the late Gary Webb. The Post says Webb’s story made “extraordinary claims [and] require extraordinary proof” not provided.
Robert Parry’s book titles include: ‘Secrecy and Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq,’ ‘Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush,’ and his latest ‘America’s Stolen Narrative: From Washington and Madison, to Nixon, Reagan and the Bushes, to Barack Obama’.
Robert Parry and the press sliming again Gary Webb in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news of good things and otherwise going on on our streets, and beyond there too, in the coming week.
But first, Nedjo Rogers and the Arts of Resistance.
If you feel there’s a disconnect between the kind of values we in the West espouse and the actions our agents in government take to protect and project those values it’s important you know a couple of things: First; you are not suffering cultural dissonance, and secondly; the government you see is neither yours, nor what you think it is.
Lurking below the waterline, more ominous than any iceberg, lay the real power running this country, that country, and perhaps every country.
Averse to the light, and invisible at night, it’s the Shadow Government that rules you, and it doesn’t share any of the values its daytime doppelganger maintains.
Tom Engelhardt is an educator, journalist, news and book editor, co-founder of the American Empire Project, creator of the Nation Institute’s news website, TomDispatch.com, (where his too numerous to iterate articles appear) and author whose book titles include: ‘The American Way of War,’ ‘The United States of Fear,’ ‘The End of Victory Culture,’ ‘Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050,’ with Nick Turse, the novel, ‘The Last Days of Publishing,’ and his latest, ‘Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.’
Tom Engelhardt in the first half.
And; local elections are looming with contests for municipalities, city councils, mayoral and CRD board positions just a month away. Though not on anyone’s official radar screen, amalgamation so far seems to be one of the key talking points on the stump.
In Victoria, incumbents will have to face the electorate and answer for massive infrastructure project cost overruns – any buyers out there for a nearly designed blue bridge? – while the CRD and myriad municipalities try to explain why the lower island can’t get its shit together on a sewage treatment solution stagnating for years now.
Richard Atwell knows all about that debate, he’s director of STAG, or the Sewage Treatment Action Group, a collection of citizens promoting the R-I-T-E solution for our daily pollution; one that is: Respectful of communities; uses Innovative technologies; is Taxpayer friendly; and, Environmentally sound., and campaign organizer for StopABadPlan.ca, the group most responsible for the CRD’s about face last year on its plan to locate a biosolids plant in a Vic West neighbourhood. Now the software engineer and Saanich resident has entered the race to unseat Saanich’s near perennial mayor, Frank Leonard.
Richard Atwell changing gears to change the old guard in Saanich in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news of some of the good things going on on the streets of our city and beyond there too. But first, Tom Engelhardt and lighting the corners where the Shadow Government lives.
Stephen Harper’s New Government announced it will render a decision on the fate of the Peace River Valley on October 22. The crux of the matter involves the long-proposed and ever contentious scheme to dam again the Peace. Site-C would be the third hydro dam on the river, and if placed where planned would reduce already dwindling wildlife habitat, submerging First Nations hopes of maintaining traditional livelihood opportunities in the region, while flooding too some of the province’s best farmland. Naturally, there’s more than a few local detractors, and many more from down south are opposed; so, just who supports Site C? Andrea Morison is spokesperson for the PVEA, Peace Valley Environmental Association. She holds a Masters of Natural Resource Management degree and has worked in that field in both Ontario and BC for more than 25 years; the last three years of which has been devoted to the PVEA’s involvement with the environmental assessment process for Site C. Her prior experience is in forestry, and the oil and gas sectors. Andrea Morison in the first half. And; way down south, Argentina way, President Cristina Kirchner’s government has done the unthinkable and defied foreign “adventure” capitalists’ attempts to cash in on Argentine debt they bought for centavos on the peso when the country was on its financial knees. A US court has upheld the so-called vulture’s claims, but Kirchner has so far refused to budge. It’s meant massive pressure being brought to bear on the country, still digging itself out of a financial hole largely dug by the fascist regimes of the 1980’s. Reporting investigator, Greg Palast trained at Chicago’s infamous School of Economics under Milton Friedman, Godfather of Trickle Down Economics and inspiration to the Gordon Gekko mantra of the era, “Greed is Good.” He transitioned into journalism because the reporters he was feeding stories of malfeasance in high places routinely screwed them up, or allowed their editors bleed them white. But, as a trailblazing DIY investigator, he soon discovered; having a great story to tell doesn’t mean the media will tell it. Palast ventured across the Atlantic, finding a home with London’s Guardian newspaper, and later presenting his investigations on the BBC flagship television news program, Newsnight. Greg Palast is the author of several books, including New York Times bestsellers, ‘Billionaires & Ballot Bandits,’ ‘Armed Madhouse,’ and ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.’ His latest is ‘Vultures’ Picnic,’ named by the BBC’s Newsnight Review as “Book of the Year for 2012.” In addition to Britain’s Guardian, (who regards him as “the most important investigative journalist of our time…”) and the BBC, Greg’s reports are featured Stateside by The Nation Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, and online at Truthout.org. Greg Palast film exposés include: ‘Billionaires and Ballot Bandits – The Movie,’ ‘Vultures and Vote Rustlers.’ ‘Why We Occupy – Palast Live!,’ ‘Big Easy to Big Empty,’ ‘Bush Family Fortunes, ‘ ‘The Assassination of Hugo Chavez,’ ‘Palast Investigates,’ ‘The Election File,’ and with Jeremy Scahill ‘Big Noise: From Black Water to White Powder.’ Greg Palast and Argentina’s circling vultures in the second half. And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city’s streets and beyond there too. But first, Andrea Morison and seperating Site C promises from reality. Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. And now heard at Simon Fraser University’s http://www.cjsf.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/ G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Yesterday, the World Wildlife Fund’s biennial Living Planet Report reported: “World populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles fell overall by 52 percent between 1970 and 2010.” Imagine; within most of our lifetimes, half of the world’s non-human inhabitants are no more, primarily due to anthropogenic activities. And yet, human desires are demanding ever more from the natural world even as our designs on nature diminish it.
Nowhere perhaps is that incongruity more palpable than right here in British Columbia where the majestic Pacific ocean’s coming to shore is met by deforestation, industrialization, over-population, and the introduction of foreign species into an ecosystem unprepared to cope.
Scott Renyard is a filmmaking scientist whose screen credits include more than a 100 film and television projects; projects that have seen him wear many hats, including: writer, director, and producer; as he did for the award-winning documentary, ‘Who Killed Miracle?’ Long-time Victoria residents may remember the controversial death of the orphaned Orca “adopted” by the now defunct Sealand of the Pacific aquarium in Oak Bay. Renyard’s latest film, ‘The Pristine Coast’ debuted last week at Vancouver’s International Film Festival. In it, Scott chronicles marine biologist, Alexandra Morton’s epic undertaking to document the effects of Atlantic Salmon fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago and her efforts to protect the migration routes of wild Pacific Salmon all over the province.
Scott Renyard in the first half.
And; Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations’ General Assembly this week. Just weeks after causing the deaths of more than 2100 Palestinian civilians, and destroying much of the Gaza Strip, an unrepentant Netanyahu lectured the Assembly on the need to further isolate and sanction Iran, a nation that has attacked no-one; ever. As the news circus moves on to other hotspots, the fate of captured Gaza and the Occupied West Bank is again overshadowed and forgotten.
Jon Elmer is a Canadian freelance photographer and journalist who has lived in and filed reports from Occupied Palestine on and off for the better part of the last dozen years. He has too reported on indigenous movements in the Basque country, Western Sahara, and right here in Canada. Jon’s work has appeared at myriad sites on the internet, including; Inter Press News Service, Le Monde Diplomatique, The Progressive, and Al Jazeera English, and at his web site JonElmer.ca.
Jon Elmer and staying with the Palestinian story in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz from the streets of the city and beyond. But first, Scott Renyard and defending British Columbia’s pristine coast.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. And now heard at Simon Fraser University’s http://www.cjsf.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/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Media-memory being short, the name Michael Brown Jr. may elicit no more from most than a blank look; but, last month reaction to his untimely death threatened to burn down the town of Ferguson, Missouri.
At least that’s the way the story was framed in the corporate media, (and repeated by state-sponsored correlative, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Brown was of course the black teenager shot dead in a hail of bullets fired by a police officer for the “crime” of jay walking; sparking the famously for a time community protests.
David Rovics is an inveterate American activist-singer-songwriter in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. David has played at demos too numerous to count for myriad issues both universal and circumstantial. From his start busking Boston’s subway to travelling across America and the broader world, he’s earned his sobriquet as “professional flat-picking rabble-rouser” honestly.
Rovics was in Ferguson last month, checking out the neighbourhood where Michael was killed and attending his funeral. He reported on the great societal divide his visit revealed in an essay titled, ‘Ferguson Reflections,’ published at his website, DavidRovics.com, (where you can also find his catalogue of more than 200 tunes available for download).
David Rovics in the first half.
And; seven weeks after the Mount Polley disaster and the BC government is no closer to finding out why the mine tailings dam burst. But one thing certain, according to the minister responsible, Mary Polack: It’s not the government’s fault. Despite the BC Liberals’ continuous cutting of public service personnel needed to make inspections and ensure corporate compliance, Polack says, quote; “To date there is no evidence that cutbacks have impacted on inspections and monitoring at Mount Polley.” “Having said that,” she continues, “it is one of the questions we want answered.”
It’s a question the residents of Clayoquot Sound would like answered too. Catface mountain looms high above the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve there, and that’s where Imperial Metals, the producer of the estimated 24 million cubic meters of poisoned mining detritus dumped into Quesnel Lake and the Cariboo’s ecosystem, want to open a gold and copper mine.
Emery Hartley is a natural-born and raised Vancouver Islander whose fascination and enthusiasm for nature led him to a University degree in Environmental Science and an ongoing activist career with the Friends of Clayoquot Sound. The Friends first formed in 1979 with a mandate to “protect and conserve the priceless ecosystems of the Sound and its surroundings.”
Emery Hartley and friends fighting for Clayoquot Sound in the second half.
And Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news of some of what’s good to do in and around the city in the coming week. But first, David Rovics and reflections from Ferguson.
Went down to the Puppets for Peace March, held in conjunction with the annual UN nod to World peace. The event was held at Government House, home of the Queen’s representative, British Columbia Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon, and conspicuously attended by members of the Canadian Forces and local Police force higher ups, replete in military dress uniforms. The staged festivity was bag-piped in – all missing in this portion of the day was a 21 gun salute and Canadian Royal Air Force flyover. That part of the program isn’t represented here. – Ape
Media-memory being short, the name Michael Brown Jr. may elicit no more from most than a blank look; but, last month reaction to his untimely death threatened to burn the town of Ferguson, Missouri to the ground.
At least that’s the way the story was told by the corporate media, (and repeated by its state-sponsored Canadian correlative, the CBC). Brown was of course the black teenager shot dead in a hail of bullets fired by a policeman for the “crime” of jay walking, sparking angry community protests.
David Rovics is an inveterate American activist singer-songwriter in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
David has played at demos too numerous to count for myriad issues both universal and circumstantial.
From his start busking Boston’s subway to travelling across America and the broader world, he’s earned his sobriquet as “professional flat-picking rabble-rouser” honestly. Rovics was in Ferguson last month, checking out the neighbourhood where Michael was killed and attending his funeral.
David reported on the great societal divide his visit revealed in an essay titled, ‘Ferguson Reflections,’ published at his website, DavidRovics.com, where you can also find his catalogue of more than 200 tunes available for download.
David Rovics in the first half.
And; the tenuous Ukraine ceasefire is holding. This week, the two sides continued negotiations for a longer-lasting peace accord, while civilians displaced by the fighting returned home to pick up the pieces and mourn the dead. Roger Annis is a Vancouver-based peace and social justice activist and editor of the Canada Haiti Action Network website, CanadaHaitiAction.ca. His writing can also be found at Rabble.ca, and at his site, A Socialist in Canada. Roger is recently returned from Crimea, from where he filed reports on deteriorating living conditions for the people beneath the bombs of the Kiev-based coup regime.
Roger Annis and ending the war against the civilians of Eastern Ukraine in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the good things going on in and around our city, and beyond there too.
But first, seeing ourselves reflected in Ferguson, Missouri.
Welcome back to a new year here at the University of Victoria; though many future UVic students will NOT be in class this week, post-secondary education will carry on in British Columbia. Also carrying on is Big Energy’s never-ending struggle to avoid environmental strictures designed to rein in the sector’s worst practices.
Case in point: the proposed Kinder Morgan Trans Pacific Pipeline project.
The Kinder Morgan Energy Partners Limited Partnership you’ll likely remember is that other controversial pipeline hoping to twin its current capacity to transfer Tar Sands bitumen across the rugged Rocky and Coastal Mountain ranges, delivering to Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet the stuff Alberta’s dreams are made of.
Getting approval for their scheme shouldn’t be too great a problem, at least where receiving the National Energy Board’s necessary imprimatur to forge on is concerned, as the federal regulator is already greasing the skids.
Robyn Allan is a researcher, author, and former corporate executive who has held many executive positions in the private and public sectors including President and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, Vice-President Finance for Parklane Ventures Ltd., and Senior Economist for B.C. Central Credit Union. She recently produced and released the report: ‘The National Energy Board Guaranteed Kinder Morgan a Fund to Push Pipeline Expansion Through Regulatory Review’ an examination of the National Energy Board of Canada’s relationship with Kinder Morgan and its decision to allow the company to pre-fund the “projected” future expansion of its Trans Mountain Pipeline ambitions.
Allan also served as the Economic and Financial Adviser to the Barrett Commission of Inquiry into the Quality of Condominium Construction in British Columbia and has taught Money and Banking, Public Finance and Micro and Macro Economics at the university level. She has too written numerous articles for newspapers and magazines including the Globe and Mail, Financial Post, Business in Vancouver and Enterprise Magazine. Robyn Allan is author of the book, ‘Quest for Prosperity: The Dance of Success’ and recently provided evidence on economic and insurance issues related to the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline Project currently before the National Energy Board.
Robyn Allan in the first half.
And; as toxic spills go, the Mount Polley tailings dam failure is unprecedented in Canadian history. In fact, it’s the single biggest environmental disaster of its kind anywhere. But according to British Columbia’s minister of mines, it’s all no different from damage caused by any one of the scores of landslides the province sees annually. Oh yeah, that and the more than 10 million cubic meters of toxic mining waste dumped into one of the B.C.’s most important environmental areas. But, in the days following disaster, Bill Bennett and the ruling BC Liberal party, the same that received huge campaign contributions from the operator of the mine responsible, Imperial Metals, deemed the water supplying residents of Quesnel Lake and environs safe to drink. Upon reflection, local health officials reinstated previously lifted drinking water ban, sending concerned residents mixed messages.
Damien Gillis is co-founder, with Rafe Mair, of The Common Sense Canadian, a web news site helping to fill the Canadian news media void. He’s also a Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker focusing on environmental and social justice issues – especially relating to water, energy, and saving Canada’s wild salmon – and working with many environmental organizations in BC and around the world. His film credits include: ‘Fractured Land’, ‘Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada’s Pacific Coast,’ and numerous shorts featuring British Columbia’s beauty and the imminent threats industry pose to its unique environment. Gillis is too a board member of both the BC Environmental Network and the Haig-Brown Institute.
Damien Gillis and clearing the turbidity of the Mount Polley Mine tailings spill in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city’s streets, and beyond there too. But first, Robyn Allan, the Trans Mountain Pipeline project, and National Energy Board promises made to Kinder Morgan.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm 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/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Ape Goes to the End Gaza Blockade Demo August 30, 2014
Went down to the Victoria demo., the sixth in seven weeks, to give voice to the outrage felt against the bombing of Gaza’s imprisoned population. With an extended ceasefire declared, the issue of the cause of the troubles in Palestine are now refocused upon; this includes the privations the Israeli police, military, and settler population are visiting against those in the West Bank. I spoke first with Joan Russow, former leader of the Green Party of Canada, and picked up some audio from those taking the mic. – Ape
The political situation in Haiti is hotting up and could erupt at any moment. At the heart of the fire this time is President Martelly’s determination to again scapegoat Jean Bertrand Aristide, using charges of: “illicit drug trafficking, embezzlement of public funds, forfeiture and concussion, and money laundering.” to distract the public from his failures to address the many serious issues Haiti faces.
As it stands, an arrest warrant has been issued for Aristide’s failure to appear in court to answer charges on August 13th, and he is at home, surrounded by loyalists protecting the former president from the police.
Kevin Pina is an American filmmaker, journalist, educator, and broadcaster with Pacifica Radio’s public affairs program, Flashpoints.
Pina’s film credits include: ‘El Salvador: In the Name of Democracy,’ ‘Berkeley in the Sixties,’ ‘Amazonia: Voices from the Rainforest,’ ‘Haiti: Harvest of Hope,’ ‘Haiti: The UNtold Story,’ and ‘HAITI: We Must Kill the Bandits.’ Kevin has lived and reported from Haiti, and was arrested by the infamous Baby Doc Duvalier for reporting on the abuses of that regime.
Kevin Pina in the first half.
And; Israel’s bombardment of the captured population of the Gaza Strip continued this week with the Israel Defense Forces capping the seven weeks-long blitzkrieg by upping its game and targeting highrise apartment buildings. Predictably, the government of Canada remained mostly mute on the serial war crimes and crimes against humanity being conducted by its “good friend” Israel, throughout blaming Hamas, the governing body in Gaza, for Palestinians killed, maimed, and made homeless.
Late yesterday, (Aug. 26/’14) an “unlimited truce” was announced by Israel. Canada’s Foreign Affairs minister, John Baird welcomed the truce announcement, but cautioned; “Israel will be forced to continue defending itself as long as Hamas continues its rocket attacks against civilians, and Hamas will be solely to blame for any further loss of life.” Beyond raising questions about what sort of grip on reality minister Baird is capable of exerting, the Stephen Harper New Government’s behaviour begs investigation of the Canada/Israel relationship, and how that relationship abets the horrors repeatedly witnessed in Occupied Palestine.
Yves Engler is a Canadian activist, lecturer, journalist, and author. Some of Yves’ titles include; ‘The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy,’Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid,’ ‘Lester Pearson’s Peacekeeping The Truth May Hurt,’ and his latest, ‘The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy.’
Yves Engler and Canada’s tax-deductible aid to Israel’s genocide in Gaza in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around our city in the coming week, and beyond there too. But first, Kevin Pina and the ritual pre-election smearing of Haiti’s former president, Jean Bertrand Aristide.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm 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/
