Tuesday, July 04, 2017

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Andrea Morison, Ronald Deibert, Christina Nikolic July 5, 2017

This Week on GR

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


July 5, 2017

Welcome British Columbia to a brand new day. Since last we met, the province has a new, and reputedly very different kind of, government.

For those outside the province, legendary for extreme political divisiveness, an update: Almost two months following a hotly contested election with razor thin margins of difference between the two major parties, both of whom claimed victory we have seen: A minority agreement pact between the long-time opposition party and an upstart Green Party; the pomp and ceremony of a swearing in of the incumbent government; weeks of a frozen legislature; a failed confidence vote; final recognition by the Lieutenant-Governor of the tenability of the minority coalition; and, tada! Houston: we have an operational government at last.

Just in time for the summer break!


Listen. Hear.

Meanwhile, there are big issues at stake that can't wait for Fall. None bigger perhaps than the Site C mega-project on the Peace River. The former premier, Christy Clark famously tried to take that contentious behemoth "past the point of no return" before her electoral reversal. It was an effort costing tax-payers more than 2 billion bucks, according to the determined Clark. Now it's up to John Horgan's NDP to decide if they cut their predecessor's losses, or dedicate 10 billion dollars more, burdening the generations to come. This week sees the 12th Annual Paddle for the Peace, where Site C and the new government is sure to be the talk of the event.

Andrea Morison is Executive Director for the PVEA, Peace Valley Environmental Association. She holds a Masters of Natural Resource Management degree and has worked in the field in both Ontario and BC for more than 25 years, the last of these being devoted to the PVEA's involvement with the environmental assessment process for Site C. Andrea's prior experience is in the forestry, and oil and gas sectors.

Andrea Morison in the first half.

And; what does a commercial software company in Israel have to do with social activists and journalists being targeted and murdered in Mexico? Everything, according to a recent report released by Citizen Lab, an organization, "sounding alarms about the abuse of commercial spyware [and producing] extensive evidence showing how surveillance technology, allegedly restricted to government agencies for criminal, terrorism, and national security investigations, ends up being deployed against civil society."

Ron Deibert was a co-founder and principal investigator of the OpenNet Initiative, and Information Warfare Monitor projects, and the U. of T. professor of Political Science is now Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs. He's published extensively on technology, media, and world politics, and is a contributing author to the landmark, 'Tracking Ghostnet and the Shadows in the Cloud' reports identifying two separate global cyber-espionage networks, and the Great Cannon report, which outed a hitherto unknown "cyber weapon" within China's so-called, "Great Firewall". Deibert is also author of the books, 'Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia: Communications in World Order Transformation,' and 'Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace'.

Ron Deibert in the second half.

And; horticultural guru and intrepid green entrepreneur, Christina Nikolic will join us at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events update, bringing us up to speed with some of the good things planned in and around our town for the coming week. But first Andrea Morison and paddling to preserve the Peace.

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.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: https://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.

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