This Week on GRadio
by C.L. Cook - GRadio.Substack.com
The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, or CPPIB, decides how much of your pension money will be invested. The plan, initiated by Paul Martin in 1997, proclaims itself, “unencumbered by political agendas and insulated from political interference” and is mandated to first “maximize long-term investment returns without undue risk”. What that corporate ethos means materially, nearly thirty years on, is Canadians paying into or receiving a public pension - and their dependents - are invested in war, genocide, and environmental holocaust all in the service of the fund’s maximized returns.
Every couple years, the CPPIB is compelled by law to present itself and its record to the Canadian public - ostensibly to hear how the citizenry would have their future financed - and this is one of those years. The Board will be visiting cities from coast to coast throughout October, and a variety of public interest groups will be in attendance.
Steve Stewart is a former Social Studies and Spanish teacher with Retired Teachers Divest BC, a grassroots collective pressing to have teachers’ pension funds divested from corporations contributing to ecocide and genocide. And Kristen Taleen is a member of Canadian Nurses for Justice in Palestine, a network of labour activists organizing for the human rights of Palestinians and other oppressed peoples worldwide.
Steve Stewart and Kristen Taleen in the first half.
And; before 2023, October 7th was just another day beneath the grinding boot of brutal occupation for Palestinians. Now we know that infamous date as bellwether of both the beginning of the long-planned expulsion or extermination of the Gaza population, and the surrender of civilization to barbarism by the “international community”.
Andy Worthington is an English journalist, activist, author, photo-historian, filmmaker, musician, song-writer and principle of The Four Fathers band. He’s also co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign, and his book titles include: ‘The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’, ‘Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion’, and ‘The Battle of the Beanfield. Andy’s articles appear at AndyWorthington.co.uk, and at his eponymous Substack site, where I found his recent piece, ‘Three Years of Gaza as a Ghetto of Genocidal Extermination’.
Andy Worthington and the genocide the World ignores - three years later in the second half.But first, Steve Stewart and Kristen Taleen and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board presenting the bill to the nation.
Music: David Rovics/Ai Tsuno
Songs: ‘Sleepwalking into Armageddon’
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at:
https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
@GRadio at UpScrolled, and on Telegram at: https://t.me/gorillaradio2024, and on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/@GRadioRadio
