The Trudeau administration has again demonstrated the elasticity of its commitment to the “international rules-based order” extends too to domestic jurisprudence. This time, the federal Liberals are turning a blind eye to the blatant recruitment of Canadians to fight in Ukraine. This flies in the face of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which clearly specifies those engaging in such activities are breaking the law, but as of this writing no arrests have been made or charges filed.
Ken Stone is a long-time antiwar activist whose served as an executive member of both the Syria Solidarity Movement and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. Ken and the Coalition have released the statement on the government’s latest failure to uphold the law, ‘Illegal Recruitment of Canadians for War in Ukraine’.
And; as British Columbia’s helicopter-assisted wolf culling season picks up, questions again are being raised about both the efficacy of the program and veracity of its claim to be necessary for saving the endangered Northern Caribou.
Eddie Petrashyn is an East Kootenay conservationist with Wildsight, an organization working to quote, “protect biodiversity and encourage sustainable communities in Canada’s Columbia and Rocky Mountain regions“. Eddie’s investigation into BC government-approved forestry practices in the Wood River basin, north of Revelstoke challenge the logic behind the BC NDP’s conservation practices.
But first, Ken Stone and Canada’s would-be foreign legionnaires.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio broadcast on CFUV.ca. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 2nd, 2022
Mid-March marks the anniversary of what’s been called the World’s greatest humanitarian crisis. While that somber appellative may be moot, the war against Yemen continues into its eighth year with exactly the same horror and heartbreak you’ve seen amply depicted coming from Ukraine these past weeks – and rightly so – the difference though being the dearth of media coverage of Yemeni suffering. Pictures of schools and hospitals bombed, or the stories of parents and children maimed, killed, and rendered homeless there still find little purchase in Canadian media.
But just because Canada’s business, government, and media elite ignore the suffering of those in that benighted place does not mean Canadians don’t care. Last week, members of the Victoria Peace Coalition took part in the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network event, Canada Stop Arming Saudi Arabia. It’s an effort to end Canada’s role in “fueling the war in Yemen”, as the United Nations has repeatedly charged.
Colin Stuart is with the Victoria Peace Coalition, and is a supporter too of the Canadian Friends Service Committee, and a serving board member of World Beyond War.
Colin Stuart in the first half.
And; the wars in Yemen and Ukraine are not the only ways Canada’s new self-understanding as a ‘warrior nation’ manifest. Right here at home the militarization of the nation is moving forward on the double. Last week, the Trudeau government, newly reinforced by the party formerly known as the New Democratic Party, announced it would go ahead with its plan to spend billions on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 attack jet. The purchase guarantees monies needed for the health and well-being of Canadians will instead be devoted to enriching one of the World’s biggest purveyors of death and misery – for generations to come. And, it couldn’t come at a worse time.
Glenn Michalchuk is chair of Peace Alliance Winnipeg. He’s been active in the peace movement going all the way back to the era of Ronald Reagan’s Dirty Wars in Latin America.
Glenn Michalchuk and Canada becoming a force against the people internationally in the second half.
But first, Colin Stuart and Canada’s part in Yemen’s “forgotten war”.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
Yves Engler is a Montréal-based activist, and author of 12 books, mostly on Canadian foreign policy, including his latest, ‘Stand on Guard For Whom? A People’s History of the Canadian Military’. He’s also a prolific essayist whose many articles appear at numerous sites online, including at his website, YvesEngler.com, where his recent articles have focused on Canada’s growing involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, including ‘Ukraine No-Fly Zone “Could Lead to End of Human Civilization“.’
Yves Engler in the first half.
And; a too brief ray of light shone down on journalist and publisher, Julian Assange last week. The world’s preeminent political prisoner wed behind the walls of London’s Belmarsh Prison, where he’s been held contrary to all norms of British and international justice for nearly three years. The saga of Assange’s struggle for freedom is well known to listeners of my second guest’s Pre-News News Program, Slow News Day, available at Rokfin. It’s where you go to get informed BEFORE the s*it hits the fan!
Steve Poikonen is an activist, documentary filmmaker, contributor to the Union of the Unwanted and MCSC Networks, and host of Slow News Day. He’s also been an organizer with Action4Assange, co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil, and has participated in and helped organize multiple actions for Assange’s release in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S.
Steve Poikonen and justice denied again for Julian Assange in the second half.
But first, Yves Engler and the dreadful inertia dragging Canada further into the mire of war.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
Two years along and the Covid-19 epidemic is deemed done, by omission. Though the sickness goes on, Big Media has dropped the topic like a hot, rotten potato. But, before moving on, there’s still a few questions of interest yet to be answered about the Sars-CoV-2 outbreak and its provenance; questions demanding more than an empty declaration of victory and tantalizing suggestions of a brand-spanking new war to follow, “after these brief messages from our sponsor“.
Johnny Vedmore is an Investigative Journalist, Musician, Activist, Presenter of the Fungi Monkey Podcast, Video Creator, and Writer for UnlimitedHangout.com. His investigations and films can be found at his website FungiMonkey, and JohnnyVedmore.com, where I discovered his recent article, ‘The Wellcome Five – The Proximal Origin of Covid Control‘.
Johnny Vedmore in the first half.
And; Britain’s Supreme Court last week refused to hear Julian Assange’s appeal of a High Court ruling allowing afterall his extradition to the United States. Assange has been imprisoned without trial in London’s Belmarsh Prison since his unprecedented expulsion from asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy April 11th, 2019. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer visited Assange during his first month at Belmarsh and described conditions of his incarceration in blistering terms in a statement released to the media. By all accounts, things have not improved for the prisoner.
UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer in place of Steve Poikonen in an interview we recorded in September of 2019 on Julian Assange’s long punishment by process in the second half.
But first, Johnny Vedmore and Wellcome Trust, the “uncontrollable behemoth” in our midst.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
And Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate Ireland’s great, green saint. Today I’m leaving the usual show format for my contribution to this year’s Funding Drive. If you’ve listened over the last week you know, today is the penultimate day for our annual outreach. I’ll talk a little more about that as we progress, and about stories of the year past, the strange two years done, and Gorilla Radio after 23 years. And play some music too.
If you can help the station, go online to supportcfuv.ca, or phone us up – operators are standing by at: 250-721-8700 locally, 1-250-721-8700 from elsewhere on the island, in the nation, or across the World.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
March 11, 2022
Though not said in so many words, Canada is at war. Years of Canadian military support for the coup government and its successors in Ukraine has bolstered efforts to bring to heel the breakaway Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Up until a couple of weeks ago, that one-sided backing of Kiev in its civil war was officially limited to “non-lethal” aid and providing military “training”, but that all changed on St. Valentine’s Day. Then, as the Trudeau government’s unprecedented enactment of the Emergencies Act was declared, a small announcement outlining the lethal change of policy, allowing machine guns, pistols, carbines and ammunition be shipped by Canadian companies into Ukraine was slipped past the Ottawa press gallery.
Ken Stone is a long-time antiwar activist whose served as an executive member of both the Syria Solidarity Movement and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. Ken and the Coalition have released the statement on the situation, ‘Ukraine: The US & NATO Created This Mess’.
Ken Stone in the first half.
And; the last two years has proven a challenge to all of us. As individuals, the degree of that challenge has varied, for all the usual reasons life is more difficult for some than others – and for some new reasons too. But, more importantly, the pandemic, piled on top of the already present stressors of poverty, pollution, war, and ecological collapse, has made evident the fragility of our societies, and even that of human civilization.
In these early years of the 21st Century, the failure to maintain public trust has cascaded from all corners; from corporations and the government, to the church and even philanthropic institutions, all have lost favour in the public mind. None of these however are as mistrusted as Media. From “All the News That’s Fit to Print” to “fake news” unfit for human consumption, there is a crisis of communication that today threatens as surely as any war or impending natural catastrophe.
Andy Lee Roth is the Associate Director of Project Censored and coordinates the Project’s Campus Affiliates Program. His writings and research are published across the internet and in a variety of print publications. Andy’s co-edited a dozen editions of Project Censored yearbooks, including the 2022 version, ‘State of the Free Press 2022’. It’s now out and available from 7 Stories Press.
Andy Lee Roth in the second half.
But first, Ken Stone and Canada marching into another war of empire.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
‘The American population was bombarded the way the Iraqi population was bombarded. It was a war against us, a war of lies and disinformation and omission of history. That kind of war, overwhelming and devastating, waged here in the US while the Gulf War was waged over there.’ (Howard Zinn, ‘Power, History and Warfare’, Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, No. 8, 1991, p.12)
As Canada stands on the precipice perhaps of war, what more timely moment could there be to examine Canadian foreign policy past and present, with an eye cast to a hoped for future?
The fire this time is burning in Ukraine, a country in which Canadian objectives – at least those of the political class – has played an instrumental role in the tumult there since 2014, leading to the crescendo of violence and uncertainty being seen today. The intrigues of Canada and its larger allies has ensnared Russia, as intended, and could lead next to similar conflict with China. But is this what Canadians want; following along in an endless parade of NATO-enforced wars and police actions in support of a failing U.S. empire?
John Price is professor emeritus at the University of Victoria, and member of the Advisory Board of the newly formed Canada-China Focus, a project of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and UVic’s Centre for Global Studies. He is too author of the book, ‘Orienting Canada,’ and his essays appear at Canadian Dimension.com, where I found his eight-part series “investigating the crisis in Canada-China relations.”
John Price in the first half.
And; John Helmer and I spoke on the eve of what Russia is now calling its “military-technical” operation in Ukraine. Events, as John subsequently said, seem to have overtaken our conversation. Even so, the context he provides is invaluable, especially given the media landscape in this country, Canada where official sources do little more than parrot militarists in Ottawa and Washington – and, truth be told, they have been doing just that for some time longer.
John Helmer is a journalist, author, and principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears. He’s a past scholar, and advisor to government at the highest level, and spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. His many book titles include: ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17, ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ and his latest, ‘The Jackals’ Wedding: American Power, Arab Revolt‘ is newly out.In Helmer's recent article, ‘The Body Language of the Speech – Putin has Repudiated Lenin, Stalin, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, & Mobilized Russia’s Defence Against U.S. Attack As Never Before‘ he compares to the great rallying speeches of Lincoln, Churchill, and even Shakespeare’s Henry the fifth. It is he says, “the most extraordinary [speech] in Russian history”
John Helmer and our most dangerous days ahead in the second half.
But first, John Price and decolonizing Canadian foreign policy in the face of a new global war.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
February 24, 2022
The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club discovered last week the cost the province’s Community Safety Unit sees fitting for it to pay for the crime of providing British Columbians with medicines they cannot find elsewhere. Following raids led by the CSU in 2019 and 2020, the Buyers Club now faces fines approaching $6.5 million. It’s a price too far they say.
Ted Smith is a long-time justice activist and co-founder of the Victoria Cannabis Buyer’s Club, which for more than twenty-five years has provided cannabis-based products to people with terminal cancer and other incurable medical conditions. He says, though they were waiting for the CSU shoe to drop, the Club was still unprepared for the ridiculous amount announced. Nor were they ready for what followed: GoFundMe® disallowing their legal defense fund, and now webhost, Go-Daddy going and removing the club’s website – reportedly at the request of the CSU.
Ted Smith in the first half.
And; there’s a crisis in Canada. It’s not the one you’ve likely been watching on the news nightly, but a greater crisis of confidence in the institutional foundations not only in this country, but across the western world. From the French Gilets Jaunes and Spain’s Indignados, to the January 6th insurrectionists and Ottawa Freedom Convoyistas, there is an unmistakable whiff of tiki torch in the air. And, perhaps it’s the promise of pitchforks to come that has Neoliberal, globalized leaders like Emmanuel Macron and Pedro Sánchez, and Justin Trudeau stabbing at the panic button? In Trudeau’s case, the Canadian prime minister’s minority government Februrary 14th declared a “public order emergency” and in an unprecedented step enacted the federal “Emergencies Act”. This in response to a “fringe” group of truckers blocking streets in the nation’s capital.
Dimitri Lascaris is a lawyer, journalist and activist, and former front-runner for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada. He calls the Trudeau government move “draconian & anti-democratic legislations” that he says “should not even exist“.
Dimitri Lascaris on the Liberal government’s St. Valentine’s Day massacre of Canadians’ civil rights, and the necessity to support dissent, even when you don’t agree with the dissenters in the second half.
But first, Ted Smith and the perils of practicing compassionate care for the sick and dying in Canada’s “legal marijuana” environment.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
Not content with the massive ecological damage created by land-based metals mining, industrial interests are now viewing the oceans of the world as the next frontier. Deep-Sea Mining, known too as Sea Bed Mining, is the next big thing – and we’re told it will be a part of the solution to humanity’s carbon pollution problem. Once again, technologists promise they’ll fix the environmental problems they and modern society has created with technology, with technology. But, not everyone is convinced.
Julia Barnes is an environmental champion and award-winning filmmaker of the documentaries Sea of Life and Bright Green Lies. Julia is aligned now with an array of ocean defenders, contributing her talents to the effort to kill Deep Sea Mining in the cradle.
Julia Barnes in the first half.
And; the Great Spotify Debate rages on, gathering adherents and
detractors by the moment. You’ve likely heard of the furore Canadian
rock legend, Neil Young began with his ultimatum to the online audio
content streaming behemoth, saying its platform wasn’t big enough for
both he and talk show giant, Joe Rogan.
Spotify replied to Mr. Young’s demands by removing what music of his it had – doing little, incidentally to cool his spleen – so good for Neil. But, what about the majority of musicians whose music appears on the platform for a pittance; what does Spotify mean to them?
Rabble-rousing, anarcho-socialist type, David Rovics, whose frequent essays on political issues and societal observation are featured at CounterPunch and Dissident Voice.org among other places describes himself as a broadcaster, musician, blogger, and author of the novel, ‘A Busker’s Adventures’. But, he’s more than just those things.
David is also a husband and parent, alt-media maven, resident of the famously restive Portland, Oregon, and man with a special talent for pissing people off. His weekly program, This Week with David Rovics can be found through his website, DavidRovics.com, where you can read his essays, listen to his hundreds of original songs, or catch some of his hundreds of interviews. David also has picked bones with Spotify Inc. for years, and assays into it again in his latest essay, ‘Neil Young, Joe Rogan, and a Swedish Billionaire‘ with a twist.
David Rovics and picking again at that pustule of the modern music reality, Spotify in the second half.
But first, Julia Barnes and smashing the Deep Sea Mining Pandora in its box.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
