Tag: Truth to the Powerless

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Pitasanna Shanmugathas March 29th/April 2nd, 2023

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 29th and April 2nd, 2023.

And welcome to the Spring of discontent! While leaders In the capitals of Europe and America promise to carry on the Ukraine proxy war no matter the price, the People are already in the streets protesting the real and rising costs of that belligerence. For Canadians, whose government is already full-throatedly behind: the bellicose stance against Russia, prospects of an expanded war against China and Iran, battles by sanction in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and elsewhere, there is too Haiti.

Last week, the Trudeau Liberals blithely announced another $100 million dollars to be delivered to the tiny island nation’s military and police effort to keep the restive population under heel. This on top of millions already delivered. It’s almost as if Ottawa believes the fatted tax goose’s golden eggs will never flag.

Yves Engler is an independent, Montreal-based journalist and author. He’s written twelve books on Canadian foreign policy, including ‘Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority’, co-authored with Anthony Fenton. His recent article, ‘Canadian government prioritizes war over climate crisis‘ is a troubling portrait of a country few here in our home and native land would recognize.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; just what is Canada’s place in the world? Generations of us have been taught we are global agents of good; fair-minded, and justice-seeking. You know, “Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, we’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy“, etc., etc.

It’d be a great story, if only it were true.

Pitasanna Shanmugathas completed an advanced degree at one of Canada’s world-class Universities but found, beyond Canada’s “two solitudes” another bifurcation – one not in the curriculum – separating the real from an imagined nation. And so, he says, he set out on an epic three year journey of discovery, from coast to coast to coast, and across the tractless prairies. He documented his Canadian quest in the film series, ‘Truth to the Powerless: An Investigation into Canada’s Foreign Policy‘.

Pitasanna Shanmugathas and the hunt for Canada’s elusive identity in the second half.

But first, Yves Engler and Trudeau of the Tropics, taking Haiti.

Song: The Panic Is On

Artist: David Rovics

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, Pitasanna Shanmugathas, Ingmar Lee November 5, 2022

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded November 5th, 2022.

Gorilla Radio is heard around the World, and as such I’d like to think it’s universal. But whether acknowledged or not, everyone is sourced in space and in time; rooted physically, intellectually, and spiritually. I am Canadian; born in that place in the middle of the last century. My educational indoctrination taught me many things about my home country, its history, place in the World, and guiding principles. Most of these I discovered later to be false.

After completing an advanced degree in Canada’s post-secondary education system, Pitasanna Shanmugathas felt the cognitive dissonance too. His reaction was to set out across our famously vast country on an epic three year journey of discovery – the result of which is his six part documentary film series, ‘Truth to the Powerless: An Investigation into Canada’s Foreign Policy‘.

Pitasanna Shanmugathas in the first half.

And; it’s not just Canada’s federal political infrastructure claiming allegiance first and last to democratic values and fair play. Here in British Columbia, the provincial NDP party recently held a leadership contest bearing less resemblance to those principles than to what passes as “democracy” in Banana Republic client states of the Empire.

Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender who describes himself as a “rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger.”

Besides these sterling qualities, Lee has spent a life-time investigating truth, questioning accepted wisdom, and making enemies of “greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks” of the state/corporate media and yellow press. He has in turn been called by those same an “environmental zealot”, “eco-terrorist”, and one committing the deeds of “a raving nutcase”. Just the sort for GR!

Ingmar Lee and the NDP’s uninvited in the second half.

But first, Pitasanna Shanmugathas and documenting a Canadian political odyssey.

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/