Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dahr Jamail, Nader Hasan April 22, 2015

This Week on GR

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

Happy Earth Day! Hard to believe, but it's been five Earth Days since the Deepwater Horizon exploded, rupturing the pipeline to millions of gallons of sub-seabed oil. The subsequent fouling of the Gulf of Mexico killed unknowable numbers of creatures across the biome, and virtually destroyed a way of life for those in the region making their living from the sea.

Even today, years after the fact, the region still bears the scars of the "spill", as do the thousands who worked cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon's aftermath.

Listen. Hear.

Dahr Jamail is an Olympic peninsula-based freelance journalist and author, whose book titles include: 'The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan,' 'Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Iraq,' and the contributed chapter, "Killing the Intellectual Class" for the anthology, 'Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered.'

Jamail is also a Truthout staff reporter, and his latest book, 'The Mass Destruction of Iraq: Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible' is co-written with Truthout founding editor, William Rivers Pitt.

Among Dahr’s many journalism awards are: the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Award for Journalism, The Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship, the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage, and four Project Censored awards. His work has appeared at Truthout, The Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, Le Monde, and the Inter Press Service, among many others, and at his website, DahrJamail.net.

In 2010, Dahr applied the same rigorous determination to reveal the truth of the Iraq War to the global environmental crisis, focusing on anthropogenic climate disruption, including the emblematic Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Dahr Jamail in the first half.

And; from the Gulf of Mexico to the eastern Pacific, to the Beaufort Sea, and Hibernia, North America is ringed from coast to coast to coast with offshore oil interests determined to have their way come Hell or cold water. The latest target of Big Oil's interest is Baffin Bay's Davis Strait, where the Norwegian company, Petroleum Geo-Services Inc.has received the blessing of Canada's National Energy Board, or NEB, to begin seismic testing for oil and gas believed to lay beneath the ocean bottom there. But there is a small problem; the Inuit community of Clyde River is opposed to Petroleum Geo-Services' plan to deploy high-decibel sound blasting equipment in their fishing grounds. They believe the testing will harm the wildlife they depend on for their livelihood, and they've taken the NEB to Canada's courts to prove it. For its part, the NEB says it initiated, quote: "[A] lengthy, detailed, open process that was well designed to share and gather information to hear and take into account the concerns put forward by the applicants." Hearings began Monday in Toronto.

Nader Hasan is lead attorney for the plaintiffs of Clyde River. Hasan specializes in constitutional and human rights cases brought against government and police and has acted for victims of police abuse, the wrongfully convicted and asylum seekers. A partner with the prestigious Toronto law firm, Ruby Shiller Chan Hasan, Nader also maintains an active appellate practice. He's also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the U. of Toronto's Faculty of Law, where he teaches on crime and punishment, and lectures on civil liberties issues. An associate editor of the Canadian Rights Reporter, Nader Hasan is also co-author, with Clayton Ruby and Gerald Chan of the book 'Sentencing,' and co-authored with Chan a forthcoming book on privacy rights and digital technology.

Nader Hasan and the village of Clyde River taking a stand against the petro-giants in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus Janine Bandcroft has been called away on a vital mission, so won't be joining us at the bottom of the hour. So first up, Dahr Jamail on Earth Days past, and those to come.

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.