Mamas Rising: British Columbia Signs Off on Destruction of Fairy Creek

ARISE for the Ancient Forests | Save Fairy Creek

by MAMAS Movement

April 1, 2021

Dear Community, Our film is released today, alongside an injunction granted from the BC court to Teal Jones to enable the destruction of Fairy Creek's Ancient Forest.

 

Balancing Myanmar's Geopolitical Implications

RUSSIA AND MYANMAR – BALANCING ON A KNIFE’S EDGE

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears 

  @bears_with

 

April 1, 2021 

 

“The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere”. It’s a well-known Chinese maxim, especially in Myanmar (Burma), China’s backdoor to the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Indian Navy’s forward defence line.   

 

 

Russia’s policy towards Myanmar since the military takeover on February 1 is a case of proving the maxim mistaken. Although experts and officials in Moscow won’t say so aloud, it’s possible for Russia to pursue one strategy with two tactics; three more like.

 

The Lula Also Rises: Brazil's REAL Political Macho Man Returns

Will Lula Make a Comeback? Global Imperialists and Resource Extractors Shudder at the Prospect

by Alan Macleod - MintPress News

April 1, 2021

With the potential comeback of Lula da Silva, Brazil may once again be on a path away from fascism and one that puts economic justice and anti-imperialism first.

Will the world’s sixth most populous country move away from fascism and towards a social democracy putting economic justice and anti-imperialism first once more? That is the question on Brazilian minds right now, as earlier this month the Supreme Court dismissed all charges against former President Luis Inácio “Lula” da Silva.

 

This Is Your Arms Race on Drugs

Accidental Apocalypse and Nuclear War on Drugs

by John Laforge - CounterPunch.org

 

March 28, 2021 

With existential national security threats from floods, droughts, wildfires, water pollution, sea-level rise, and peak oil,^[1] the US Air Force, the Air National Guard and nuclear weapons manufacturers could do crucial defense work in the US heartland by building, installing, managing and expanding renewable (wind and solar) electric power systems — instead of polishing their 400 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, and preparing to welcome an astronomically expensive replacement missile dubbed Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent. 

Image by Christopher Farrugia. 

Call such a switch a “Climate Defense Initiative” since it would constitute deterrence against actual threats.

 

Constant Aid to Empire: The Myth of Canada as Peaceable Kingdom

Exclusive Series on Canadian Ties to U.S. Empire: Lester Pearson and the Myth of Canada as Peaceable Kingdom (Part 1)

by Richard Sanders - CovertAction Magazine

 

March 30, 2021

Lester B. Pearson, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is a symbol of Canada’s supposed humanitarianism; In reality, however, he was a war hawk and the Godfather of Canada’s Cold War.

Lester Pearson surrounded by patriotic Canadians during the late 1950s. 

[Source: mcleans.ca]

 

Part I in an exclusive CAM series on the United States’ northern neighbor and its support for the U.S. empire.

 

Vancouver Island: Last Stand for Ancient Trees—Coast to Coast Coverage

 XRTV Season 1 Episode 5: The Last Stand for Ancient Trees—Coast to Coast Coverage

by XRTV Victoria  

 

March 30, 2021 

From blockaders at Fairy Creek trying to save ancient trees to XR activists in Nova Scotia trying to save an old growth forest for endangered moose. Plus, Ken Wu talks about why Fairy Creek is so frickin’ important, and the intersection of the climate crisis and the pandemic—a wilderness emergency physician weighs in. And Bruce Cockburn teams up with Rainforest Flying Squad videographers for an unforgettable vision of If a Tree Falls, starring Indigenous and settler forest defenders. 

 

 

 

Hosted by four-time Emmy Award winning journalist Mark Nykanen. In these turbulent and challenging times, advocacy journalism for the planet is urgently needed. Please subscribe to our XRTV Victoria channel and share widely.

 

Bringing Bellingcat to Court in the Sturgess Case

FIRST DAY SHOCK AT THE HER MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT INQUEST – BELLINGCAT TO BE CALLED TO TESTIFY, BUT NOT SERGEI OR YULIA SKRIPAL 

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

 

March 30, 2021

 

 @bears_with

 

The first session of the inquest into the death of Dawn Sturgess, held in London on Tuesday, was almost entirely predictable. The counsel for the coroner,  like the lawyers for the Sturgess family and for the Home Office, repeated without qualification the allegation that a Novichok poison weapon they say was produced in Russia and taken to the UK by Russian assassins, caused the unplanned  death of Sturgess. 

 

 

This followed twelve weeks after an attempt at assassinating Sergei Skripal with the same weapon on March 4, 2018. Sturgess was the unintended victim of leftover poison, they say. 

 

B.C. Coastal Alert: Potential Oil Spill Disaster Now Transiting Inside Passage!

The Near Coast Destroyer, Jake Shearer Returns

by Ingmar Lee - 10,000 Ton Tanker

 

March 31, 2021

 

Here comes the loaded-to-the-gunnels American ATB petroleum tanker "Jake Shearer" again, currently northbound in Johnstone Strait again. The "Jake Shearer" nearly destroyed the BC Central Coast several years ago after it broke in half with a 10,000 ton load of diesel and drifted out of control to within a cable length of the Goose Islands.

 

ATB Jake Shearer March 31, 2021

 

In 2017, this ship very nearly destroyed the British Columbia coastal ecosystem; the Canadian government did nothing then, and is doing the same now.

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Angela Bischoff, Robbie Leppzer April 1st, 2021

This Week on GR

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

 

April 1, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, March 29th and 30th, 2021

 

To some of us it may seem like just yesterday, but 42 years have passed since the “accident” at Three Mile Island made real the terrifying possibility of a nuclear meltdown; the very scenario featured in the film ‘The China Syndrome’, then newly released and playing in American theatres.

On March 28th, 1979 a routine maintenance procedure went wrong in reactor number 2 of the atomic power plant located in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania providing illustrative proof of the industry’s inherent danger to people, and its potential for catastrophic environmental damage.

The federal government was half way into its 14 year clean up at Three Mile Island when the Soviet reactor at Chernobyl went into meltdown, eclipsing the human and ecological cost of Three Mile Island. 

Listen. Hear.

And yet, neither of these industrial disasters stopped the proliferation of the atomic power industry in America, or in the USSR, or around the World.

Angela Bischoff is Director of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, a “small but mighty group aiming to move Ontario onto a 100% renewable path” She is too a long-time environmental defender whose career in the non-profit sector spans three decades, four Canadian cities, and includes issues ranging from transportation, climate, mental health, electoral reform, and the transformation of our current fossil fuel-driven urban paradigm toward the eco-cities necessary if we’re to have a future.

The Alliance recently released the alert, ‘Stunning Revelations about Pickering Nuclear Station’s Safety‘ that says, “There is no excuse for leaving this ticking time bomb operating for another four years.”

Angela Bischoff in the first half.

And; March marks too the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the disaster-still-in-progress at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. One might think, the stair-stepping of these three calamitous nuclear failures would make shutting down and removing a facility approaching its best before date easy. But one would have to think again!

In March 2011, just as Fukushima was imploding, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station’s operating license was renewed, given the blessing from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend operations 20 years, to March, 2032.

Robbie Leppzer is a New England-based documentary filmmaker whose 40+ year catalogue includes both short and long-form critically acclaimed documentaries. From the burgeoning environmental protest movement of the 1970’s to the social justice and growing global peace movements currently roiling World capitals, Leppzer has chronicled the people who he says, “…stick their necks out to take risks for grassroots social change and build bridges across cultures“. His 2019 release, broadcast on Free Speech TV, Link TV, and Vermont PBS, and produced in association with NHK-TVJapan is ‘Power Struggle‘.

Robbie Leppzer and turning the tide on Vermont Yankee in the second half.

But first, Angela Bischoff and the time bomb in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.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.com