Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Mike Roy, Bailey Lamon, Jon Elmer, Janine Bandcroft Aug 19, 2013

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

It was sweltering in London, Ontario the day of their arrest. The city had issued a humidex advisory warning for the vulnerable; people very young, very old, and those with medical conditions told to stay indoors.

Mike Roy, Bailey Lamon, and Bailey's boyfriend Dan were cooling it at home when the knock came. Opening the door, they were met by police, who presented a search warrant for someone's alleged involvement in the painting of a single brick in a wall in an alleyway with the graffiti message:

"I'm not just another brick in the wall."

The subsequent search turned up a bit of pot and the three were charged with possession and hustled downtown.

Listen. Hear.

It would seem an extraordinary bit of policing; but, the fact Mike and Bailey were known to police already - known to them as activists and citizen journalists and the authors of the alt. news website, Indignants.org - makes this case more ominous than curious.

And, the court issued conditions demanded for their release, and what followed their arrest seems to confirm: the takedown of Mike Roy and Bailey Lamon was more about the growing movement to block the proposed eastern routing of Tar Sands-sourced diluted bitumen, or dilbit, from Alberta through Ontario and Quebec than a message scrawled on a brick in an alleyway in London.

Mike Roy and Bailey Lamon in the first half.

And; last week Egypt's military government moved in with force to break up sit-ins that had paralyzed parts of Cairo for weeks. The blockades at strategic points in the city were initiated by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, those that had until very recently formed the first freely elected post-revolution government. The MB, as it's popularly referred, had demonstrated outrage since the removal and arrest of its president, Mohammed Morsi by the military in June, a scant year after his electoral triumph. Last Friday, the MB put out the call for a national 'Day of Rage' to force the military to release Morsi and other party leaders still held incommunicado. A blood-bath ensued, immediately followed by allegations and blame coming from all quarters. Now, the many actors involved with Egyptian intrigues are attempting to forward their positions as the country seems teetering towards protracted civil conflict.

Jon Elmer is a Canadian writer and photojournalist specializing in the Middle East and Canadian foreign and military policy. He has lived in and reported from Occupied Palestine for the better part of the last decade, based primarily in Jenin, Bethlehem, and Gaza City. Jon's also reported from more than a dozen countries, from the middle east and Nepal, to Western Sahara, the Basque country, and right here in Canada. His articles and photographs are featured in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Le Monde diplomatique, The Progressive, and Al Jazeera English among others. He is also a contributor, with Anthony Fenton, to the book, 'Empire's Ally: Canada in Afghanistan.'

Jon Elmer and following Egypt's divergent lines in the sand in the second half.

And, Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster Janine Bandcroft will join us 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. But first, Mike Roy and Bailey Lamon out of stir and more indignant than ever.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm 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.

Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, M. Shahid Alam, Gilad Atzmon, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, Ramzy Baroud, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, William Bowles, Mordecai Briemberg, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Paul Cienfuegos, David Cromwell, Ezili Danto, Jon Elmer, Yves Engler, Laura Flanders, Amy Goodman, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Julia Butterfly Hill, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Diana Johnstone, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Frances Moore Lappe, Ingmar Lee, Dave Lindorff, Alexandra Morton, Loretta Napoleoni, Andrew Nikiforuk, Ken O'Keefe, Greg Palast, Michael Parenti, Robert Parry, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, Paul Craig Roberts, David Rovics, Danny Schechter, David Schindler, Vandana Shiva, Tim Shorrock, Norman Solomon, Jean Saint-Vil, Harvey Wasserman, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Andy Worthington, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.