Tag: UVic

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Tyan Cherepuschak, Tyson Strandlund February 11th, 2023

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 11th, 2023.

This past week, Canadian Forces redeployed a CP-140 Aurora surveillance plane from its dedicated mission assisting U.S.-led drugs smuggling interdiction efforts in the Caribbean to spend two days flying reconnaissance over Haiti. Foreign Affairs Minister, Melanie Joly characterized the escalation of Canada’s military involvement in the country as a “demonstration of Canada’s commitment to Haiti”. Last month, Canada demonstrated that commitment in the form of an unspecified number and type of armored vehicles being sold to a government that has already called for foreign military intervention to quell wide-spread public discontent with its corrupt and entirely unelected leadership.

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, ‘Ottawa’s support for repressive Haitian police grows as democracy fades’ appears at his website, YvesEngler.com, and puts to the lie – again – Canada’s “concern for the people” of that benighted island.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; the University of Victoria’s Student Union has become another front in the Ukraine/Russia war. Last month, UVic’s Ukrainiain Students’ Society alleged harassment of its members and intimidation in the form of “hate crime” graffiti scrawled on one of its posters. They’ve also made allegations of “ongoing hate and harassment demonstrated by the YCL [Young Communist League]…” UVic’s USS is, with similar student societies on campuses across the country, associated with the politically influential Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

Tyan Cherepuschak is an undergraduate student at the University of Victoria, and is a Ukrainian-Canadian who until recently served as Vice-President to the UVic chapter of the Ukrainian Canadian Students Union (SUSK).

And; Tyson Strandlund is a member of both the UVic chapter of the Young Communist League and the Vancouver Island Peace Council, a local chapter of the Canadian Peace Congress. He too is a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, who has studied in and visited Ukraine both before and after the 2014 Maidan coup.

Tyan Cherepuschak & Tyson Strandlund on bringing the Ukraine conflict to Canadian campuses in the second half.

But first, Yves Engler and Canada’s caring military gestures to Haiti.

 

Song: Watch the Buildings Crumble

Album: May Day

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: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Price, John Helmer February 26, 2022

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 23rd and 26th, 2022

As Canada stands on the precipice perhaps of war, what more timely moment could there be to examine Canadian foreign policy past and present, with an eye cast to a hoped for future?

The fire this time is burning in Ukraine, a country in which Canadian objectives – at least those of the political class – has played an instrumental role in the tumult there since 2014, leading to the crescendo of violence and uncertainty being seen today. The intrigues of Canada and its larger allies has ensnared Russia, as intended, and could lead next to similar conflict with China. But is this what Canadians want; following along in an endless parade of NATO-enforced wars and police actions in support of a failing U.S. empire?

John Price is professor emeritus at the University of Victoria, and member of the Advisory Board of the newly formed Canada-China Focus, a project of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and UVic’s Centre for Global Studies. He is too author of the book, ‘Orienting Canada,’ and his essays appear at Canadian Dimension.com, where I found his eight-part series “investigating the crisis in Canada-China relations.”

John Price in the first half.

And; John Helmer and I spoke on the eve of what Russia is now calling its “military-technical” operation in Ukraine. Events, as John subsequently said, seem to have overtaken our conversation. Even so, the context he provides is invaluable, especially given the media landscape in this country, Canada where official sources do little more than parrot militarists in Ottawa and Washington – and, truth be told, they have been just that for some time longer.

John Helmer is a journalist, author, and principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears. He’s a past scholar, and advisor to government at the highest level, and spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. His many book titles include: ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17, ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ and his latest, ‘The Jackals’ Wedding: American Power, Arab Revolt‘ is newly out. His recent article, ‘The Body Language of the Speech – Putin has Repudiated Lenin, Stalin, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, & Mobilized Russia’s Defence Against U.S. Attack As Never Before‘ he compares to the great rallying speeches of Lincoln, Churchill, and even Shakespeare’s Henry the fifth. It is he says, “the most extraordinary [speech] in Russian history”

John Helmer and our most dangerous days ahead in the second half.

But first, John Price and decolonizing Canadian foreign policy in the face of a new global war.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/