Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dan Kovalik, Kim Goldberg May 17th, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

May 17, 2023

 

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded May 17th, 2023

 

 Listen. Hear.

The status of Crimea is becoming the main issue forbidding peace between Russia and the NATO-backed government in Kyiv. Canada’s official position – one shared by its NATO partners – treats the peninsula as “occupied” territory, referring to the 2014 referendum on joining Russia as “unconstitutional” and therefore invalid.

For his part, Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week, “The world should know: Respect and order will only return to international relations when the Ukrainian flag returns to Crimea.”
Needless to say, Russia sees things differently.

Dan Kovalik is a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy defender, journalist, author, and filmmaker. He’s just returned from an extended research mission in Russia, including travels throughout Crimea.

Dan’s observed elections in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia – where he witnessed the 2016 peace plebiscite promising an end to the generational war there. His book titles include: ‘Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture,’ the ‘Plot to…’ series on American efforts to undermine the governments and economies of Iran, Venezuela, and Russia, ‘No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interest,’ and his recently released, ‘Nicaragua: A History of US Intervention & Resistance‘.

Dan Kovalik in the first half.

And; the epochal events roiling our World may seem to us to be all of the moment, but they are merely more of the same found under the Sun. History waxes and wanes, just as Fortune, ever capricious, turns the magnificent to meanness in a twinkle. It is all illusion, a bubble blown and popped and done. What endures are words of wisdom; verse uttered on a stage, prose printed on the page. It’s a great and humbling realization to know our times will seem someday to some others as so many tempests in a char’s pail.

And if that sounds to you like so much philosophy, and all too poet-y, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet!

Kim Goldberg is a Nanaimo-based poet, journalist, and author. She’s written 8 books of poetry and nonfiction, including her most recent collection ‘DEVOLUTION: poems and fables of eco-pocalypse‘. Kim is playing host this Saturday, May 20th in Nanaimo to ‘Poetry of Resilience’, a gathering of lettered presenters at the Harbourfront library branch. It will feature fifteen local poets and musicians sharing their vision of resilience through word and song.

Kim Goldberg with the constant poets in the second half.

But first, Dan Kovalik and Crimea as crucible of the Russia/Ukraine war.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ashley Gjøvik, Andy Worthington May 10th, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

May 10, 2023

Welcome to GR, recorded May 10th, 2023.

 Listen. Hear.

 Anyone paying attention knows We the People are up against an all-out assault on the rights and freedoms so hard won over the last century and a half. Corporations and their captured governments, combined with the media, are busy eroding laws meant to protect us, while rendering regulatory bodies built for that purpose worse than useless. So, what’s left for a good citizen to do when faced with the de facto impunity of corporate and government malfeasance?

Ashley Gjøvik is a lawyer, founder of the D&G Center for Megacorporation Reform, and serves as the Whistleblower Officer at the International Bar Association’s Anti-Corruption Compliance subcommittee. She’s also a former Senior Engineering Program Manager at Apple who, after asking questions about why an announced environmental health and safety team’s “large-scale project” environmental tests were taking place in her office discovered just how toxic the Apple work environment could get.

Ashley Gjøvik in the first half.

And; Charles is King, but what – if a mere colonial dare ask – for Britain now that the party is over?

Europe is in turmoil, the Ukraine war compounding the strain more than twenty years of NATO wars has wrought on EU and NATO member-country economies. It’s a cold reality neither the English Channel, nor Brexit can cushion. And if escalating weapons transfers and ever more belligerent public pronouncements are an indicator, the situation can only worsen for Britons and Europeans alike.

Andy Worthington is an English journalist, activist, author, photo-historian, filmmaker, musician, song-writer and principle of The Four Fathers band. He is too co-founder of both the ongoing Close Guantánamo campaign and successfully completed We Stand With Shaker campaign.
Worthington’s 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 his website, AndyWorthington.co.uk, where he’s inviting participants to enjoin ongoing Close Guantanamo efforts.

Andy Worthington and the state of Britain as the reign of Charles III begins in the second half.

But first, Ashley Gjøvik and biting the poison Apple.

Song: I want My Country Back

Artist: The Four Fathers

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Rosa Addario, Kathy Kelly May 3rd, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

May 4, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded May 3rd, 2023

 

Listen. Hear.

A generation in to the communications revolution begun by the internet, governments around the World are busy devising ways to limit, throttle, or eradicate entirely the ability of the citizenry to freely share their opinions, or express political dissent. And, Canada is no exception.

Last week, Bill C-11 received ratification from the Senate, despite the government rejecting crucial amendment proposals put forward by that body.

Rosa Addario is a Canadian telecommunications technology researcher. She’s currently Communications Manager at OpenMedia, a quote, “community-driven organization [working] to keep the Internet open, affordable, and surveillance-free“.

Rosa Addario in the first half.

And; the current conflict in Ukraine is proving to be the engine of a technological acceleration in both the methods and means of prosecuting war. Fortunately, those working for peace are too engaging new strategies and technologies to help bring the insanity of this, and the next, war to a halt.

Kathy Kelly is a long-time peace and justice activist, essayist, author, and recipient of numerous awards for her peace service, including multiple nominations for the Nobel Peace prize. These days she’s serving as Board President at World BEYOND War, where among other things, she’s busy co-coordinating the November 2023 Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal.

Kathy’s many articles appear at sites across the web, including WorldBEYONDWar.org, where I found her recent piece, ‘To End All Wars, Close All Bases‘.

Kathy Kelly and World BEYOND War’s latest tech. tools in the struggle to end the madness in the second half.

But first, Rosa Addario and what Bill C-11 portends for Canadians’ freedom to read, write, and speak online.

 

Song: Work for Peace

Artist: Gil Scott-Heron

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Canada's State/Corporate Press Machine Smears Pacifists

Military pays propagandists to call dissenters ‘Russian propagandists’

 by Yves Engler

 

April 18, 2023

Opposing military spending, NORAD and NATO is not an endorsement of Russian violence in Ukraine. But, in the current climate, many are seeking to frame it as such.

 

 

On the 74^th anniversary of NATO’s formation Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix (MQP) organized a protest in front of CBC/Radio Canada’s offices in Montréal. One self-described progressive labeled the April 4 rally against the alliance “a pro-Russian demonstration of 30 people.” But three years before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine MQP organized its first march to mark the 70^th anniversary of NATO.

Ending Wars Means Closing Bases

To End All Wars, Close All Bases

by Kathy Kelly - World Beyond War

April 30, 2023

A Gazan Ph.D. candidate studying in India, Mohammad Abunahel steadily refines and updates a map on the World BEYOND War website, dedicating a portion of every day to continue researching the extent and impact of USA foreign bases. 

 

 

What is Mohammad Abunahel learning, and how can we support him?

 

Ape talks to War of the Worlds

BREAKING NEWS FROM THE DONBASS FRONT, THE TEIXEIRA CASE, AND THEN FROM CANADA — WHAT HAPPENS TO THE OTTAWA REGIME WHEN THE KIEV REGIME IS DEFEATED

 

April 29, 2023

Listen. Hear. Entire Episode Here.

[Was pleased to chat with War of the World Warriors John Helmer and George Eliason on their TNT Radio program the other night. Here’s the short version linked below the show’s text. – Ape]

In the second and third segments of the broadcast, Chris Cook discusses the history of his Gorilla Radio, the leading truth radio in Canada. Originating in Victoria , capital of the province of British Columbia, listen to Gorilla Radio’s latest programmes here  and follow the blog.

Since October, Gorilla Radio has been banned from broadcasting by Radio CFUV 101.9 FM at the University of  Victoria; Simon Fraser University in neighbouring Vancouver continues to broadcast every Monday morning at Radio CJSF 90.1 FM.    The Gorilla Radio transcripts are published on the blog.

For Chris Cook’s broadcast archive, click to open.

During the discussion the sharp contrast was drawn in the history of Canada’s relations with Russia between the classical pianist Glenn Gould (1932-82) and the likes of Ukrainian-Canadian Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister. Between 1956 and 1957 Canadian officials had reservations about allowing Gould to make the first Canadian cultural tour of the Soviet Union with piano performances in Moscow and Leningrad.  This film documentary records anxiety in Ottawa that the US government was opposed. Lester Pearson was Canada’s Minister for External Affairs at the time when the US was imposing sanctions following the Soviet Army intervention in Hungary.

Watch this film, Gould’s Moscow and Leningrad performances, and the recollections of Canadians and Russians looking back.

“The impression [in Moscow] was that he was from Mars. An
Alien” – Min 15:28. “Now forty-four years later [from the Leningrad
concert] I absolutely believe he was an alien. Glenn Gould was a visitor
on this earth. People cannot play the piano like that, I can assure
you” – Min 30. Source: https://www.youtube.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jeremy Kuzmarov April 26th, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

April 26, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 26th, 2023.

 Listen. Hear.

Long before CIA whistle-blowers Jeffrey Sterling, John Kiriakou, or Philip Agee revealed the crimes of “The Agency” and warned of the dangers it posed to democracy – and decency – everywhere, there was David W. Conde. The first self-described “CIA Watcher” is the subject of an extensive article just out at CovertAction Magazine.

Jeremy Kuzmarov is a journalist and author who also serves as Managing Editor at CAM. His book titles include, ‘Obama’s Unending Wars’, and ‘The Russians Are Coming, Again’, written with John Marciano. Jeremy’s recent piece at CovertAction – one of a raft of great articles he’s put up this month -‘Meet a Forgotten CIA Critic Who Presciently Characterized The Agency as a Cancer in 1970 Book‘ is a fascinating profile of David Conde and his career spent exposing the criminal enterprise that is America’s most famous intelligence organization.

Also, CovertActionMagazine’s Spring fund drive is on. It’s the chance you have to support the kind of fearless journalism everyone says they want to support, if only they knew how!

Today, Jeremy Kuzmarov on David W. Conde’s 

'CIA – Core of the Cancer', and more.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Philpot, Pablo Ouziel April 19th, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

April 19th, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 19th, 2023.

 

Listen. Hear.

Last week, Russia placed sanctions on more than 300 Canadians, barring the mostly government apparatchiks and media personalities access to the country. It was, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, in hopes of "...encourag[ing] those on the black list to change their behaviour".

Wide-ranging sanction policies – including those Canada aims at Russia and Eastern Ukraine – are now so common, (Canada alone sanctioning a couple dozen countries and thousands of individuals and entities) they threaten the World’s economic system. Or so argues the recently published book, 'Sanctions: A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy'.

John Philpot is a Montreal-based defense attorney in International Criminal Law. Long active in Palestinian and African support organizations, and campaigns to free political prisoners, Meng Wanzhou and Alex Saab, Philpot is too an executive board member of Just Peace Advocates and the Sanctions Kill Coalition. John will be one of three speakers touring the Canadian book release, starting tonight in Hamilton.

(For Montreal event Webinar livestream link here.)

John Philpot in the first half.

And last week, France’s Constitutional Court allowed some of President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, notably the most contentious one; an age eligibility rise. Organized Labour there – who’ve rallied tens of thousands into the streets against the move over the last month – vows now to bring in a General Strike on the Workers’ holiday, May Day.

Meanwhile, Macron’s address Monday was delivered to a cacophony of pots and pans – a regular cacerolada banging outside the walls of power – where the workers chanted, “If Macron won’t listen to us, we won’t listen to him!”
Dr. Pablo Ouziel is a PostDoc at the Université du Québec à Montréal whose area of study is The European Union: Political, Legal and Economic Integration from Above and Below, and Settler Colonialism and Canadian Society.

Pablo’s book, ‘Democracy Here and Now: The Exemplary Case of Spain‘ chronicles the birth of the M15 movement against draconian government “austerity” measures, and the rise of authoritarianism there and across the western world. Pablo divides his time between Montreal and his native Catalonia.

Pablo Ouziel and “Oui Emmanuel, Paris IS burning” in the second half.

But first, John Philpot and Sanctions: the Hegemon’s desperate bid to hold back the tides of change.

 

Song: Juan Carlos El Bobon

Artist: Pablo Hasel – Youtube

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Picturing Vancouver Island's Voracious Industrial Logging: How Google Maps Hides the Rape of Klaskish and Klaskino Inlet

Voracious industrial logging between Klaskish and Klaskino Inlet

by Ingmar Lee

 

April 15, 2023 

Around 20 years ago, Michael Mascall and I spent 2 days hiking into the headwaters of East Creek, which at the time was the 79th of 81 primary Vancouver Island watersheds to face the axe. 

 Brooks Peninsula - Google Maps' Version of Reality

At the time East Creek, the 1st watershed north of the Brooks Peninsula, was entirely primaeval; intact. It was a terrible, difficult 2 day thrash to climb up to the height of land between the Klaskish and East Creek watersheds, and alas, we were following the flagging for the slated-to-be, new East Creek Mainline, -probably the steepest main I've seen after 21 years of treeplanting around the BC Coast. 

Listen to Ingmar discuss this with Gorilla Radio here.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Diana Johnstone, Ingmar Lee April 15, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

April 15, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 15th, 2023.

 

Listen. Hear.

The World is changing – fast! And, nowhere is that more evident perhaps than in Europe, where the political class has decided to ditch liberal democracy in favour of an authoritarianism not seen there in almost a century. Germany and France are leading the regression, with policies and actions that have brought the citizenry into the streets demanding the restoration of rights and freedoms – so far to no avail.

Diana Johnstone is an author and journalist. Her book titles include ‘ From MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning,’ ‘Circle in the Darkness: Memoirs of a World Watcher,’ and ‘Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusion.’ Diana’s articles can be found at ConsortiumNews.com, where her recent piece, ‘Germans Down & Russians Out: Anti-War Views Criminalized in Germany‘ appears.

Diana Johnstone in the first half.

And; regardless of which level of government or party affiliation, the political process in Canada is incapable of preventing the rampaging destruction of what remains of the natural ecology here. Though the people say they want to protect and preserve the environment, what they’re offered from on high is silence, or worse yet, dismissive lip service. On Vancouver Island, this means the destruction of trees and ecosystems more ancient than human history.

Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender who describes himself as a “rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger.” He’s has spent a life-time making enemies of the “greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks” working in the service of rapine corporations and their captured legislators.

Ingmar’s latest article, ‘Voracious Industrial Logging Between Klaskish & Klaskino Inlet’ recalls just what’s being sacrificed and on whose altar.

Ingmar Lee and the destruction of the final forest frontiers in the second half.

But first, Diana Johnstone and a resounding echo of Europe’s political past ringing ominously in the streets of Berlin and Paris today.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ingmar Lee (Stand-Alone) April 15, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

April 15, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 15th, 2023.

 

Listen. Hear.

Regardless of which level of government or party affiliation, the political process in Canada is incapable of preventing the rampaging destruction of what remains of the natural ecology here. Though the people say they want to protect and preserve the environment, what they’re offered from on high is silence, or worse yet, dismissive lip service. On Vancouver Island, this means the destruction of trees and ecosystems more ancient than human history.

 

Brooks Peninsula Cut Block Map

Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender who describes himself as a “rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger.” He’s has spent a life-time making enemies of the “greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks” working in the service of rapine corporations and their captured legislators. Ingmar’s latest article, ‘Voracious Industrial Logging Between Klaskish & Klaskino Inlet’ recalls just what’s being sacrificed and on whose altar.

Brooks Peninsula as Google Maps Sees It

Today, Ingmar Lee and the destruction of the final forest frontiers.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone, John Helmer April 12th, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

April 12, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 12th, 2023.

 

Listen. Hear.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s office announced “more support for Ukraine”. Goodhearted Canadians concerned about the well-being of that country and its citizens will be disappointed however to discover just what “support” in the parlance of Ottawa’s current rulers translates as. In bullet points, it means:

⦁ Tens of thousands of weapons
⦁ Millions of rounds of ammunition
⦁ And the unaccountable “dispersal” of more billions of Canadian dollars to the Kyiv regime

In simpler terms, the Liberal government is guaranteeing more war and more destruction in Ukraine for the months – and perhaps years – to come even as it wages a sanctions war against the only party that can stop the war; Russia. Some “support”.

Ken Stone is an executive member of both the Syria Support Movement International and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. Ken and the Coalition are pleased, they say, to participate this month in kicking off the Canadian tour of “Sanctions: A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy.”

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; if the Ottawa weather vane Globe & Mail is any indication, its chief political scribe, Steven Chase’s recent article headed, ‘Pro-Kremlin Twitter Accounts ‘Weaponizing’ Fringe Users to Erode Canadians’ Support for Ukraine, study finds’ signals a new Canadian understanding of citizenship with an unmistakable McCarthyite overtone.

John Helmer is a journalist and author who’s spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. The principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears, Helmer has too been a professor of political science, sociology and journalism, and served as advisor to governments at the highest levels. Among his many book titles are: ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ ‘The Jackals’ Wedding: American Power, Arab Revolt’, ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17’ and his latest, ‘Australian Fascism: How It Destroyed the Courts,’.

John Helmer and fighting the Canadian think tanks and troll armies in the war for truth-telling in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and fighting Canada’s Sanction Warriors.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Helen Caldicott, Nils Melzer (redux) April 2nd/5th, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

April 7, 2023 

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 2nd and 5th, 2023.

 

Listen. Hear.

Just thirty years since the fall of the USSR and end of the Cold War, the atomic Mexican stand-off between East and West is hotter than its ever been. At this moment, nervous fingers hover above buttons and toggles that once triggered mean the end of everything we know. Worse, with the advent of AI, human agency is no longer required; its messy, indecisive moral acid removed from the Earth-ending equation.

Dr. Helen Caldicott is a physician, author, and lecturer who has for more than forty years studied, written, and campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their derivatives, delivering impassioned speeches and making imprecations to both the politicians and power-brokers overseeing the precarious atomic tinderbox, and more importantly, imploring the people step up to stop the madness.

Helen Caldicott’s book titles include: ‘If You Love This Planet,’ ‘Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer,’The New Nuclear Danger,’ ‘Depleted Uranium: Metal of Dishonour,’ ‘If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth,’ and her most recent, ‘Sleepwalking to Armageddon’ in which she assembles contributions from the world’s leading nuclear scientists and thought leaders to “assess the political and scientific dimensions of the threat of nuclear war today.”

Helen Caldicott in the first half.

And; Reporters Without Borders was to pay a visit to Julian Assange, the journalist wasting in Belmarsh Prison, London this week but in yet another example of arbitrary cruelty at the last moment authorities refused the RSF visit, barring too for good measure Assange’s wife, Stella.

April 11th marks the four year anniversary of Julian’s incarceration, under the harshest measures the British penal system can mete out. He’s held not for any crime committed in Britain, or against Britain, but because an American warrant seeking his extradition is “in process”.

June 6, 2019, I recorded an interview with Nils Melzer, then the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Melzer visited Assange in May of that year and subsequently issued a public call for Assange’s immediate release, along with a searing rebuke of both his current jailors in Britain and those in America who would be if their extradition petition is executed.

Nils Melzer and the continued call for Julian Assange’s release in the second half.

 

Song: Behind These Prison Walls

Artist: David Rovics

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Pitasanna Shanmugathas March 29th/April 2nd, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

April 3, 2023

 

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 29th/April 2nd, 2023.

 

 

Listen. Hear.

 And welcome to the Spring of discontent! While leaders In the capitals of Europe and America promise to carry on the Ukraine proxy war no matter the price, the People are already in the streets protesting the real and rising costs of that belligerence. For Canadians, whose government is already full-throatedly behind: the bellicose stance against Russia, prospects of an expanded war against China and Iran, battles by sanction in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and elsewhere, there is too Haiti.

Last week, the Trudeau Liberals blithely announced another $100 million dollars to be delivered to the tiny island nation’s military and police effort to keep the restive population under heel. This on top of millions already delivered. It’s almost as if Ottawa believes the fatted tax goose’s golden eggs will never flag.

Yves Engler is an independent, Montreal-based journalist and author. He’s written twelve books on Canadian foreign policy, including ‘Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority’, co-authored with Anthony Fenton. His recent article, ‘Canadian government prioritizes war over climate crisis‘ is a troubling portrait of a country few here in our home and native land would recognize.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; just what is Canada’s place in the world? Generations of us have been taught we are global agents of good; fair-minded, and justice-seeking. You know, “Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, we’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy“, etc., etc.

It’d be a great story, if only it were true.

Pitasanna Shanmugathas completed an advanced degree at one of Canada’s world-class Universities but found, beyond Canada’s “two solitudes” another bifurcation – one not in the curriculum – separating the real from an imagined nation. And so, he says, he set out on an epic three year journey of discovery, from coast to coast to coast, and across the tractless prairies. He documented his Canadian quest in the film series, ‘Truth to the Powerless: An Investigation into Canada’s Foreign Policy‘.

Pitasanna Shanmugathas and the hunt for Canada’s elusive identity in the second half.

But first, Yves Engler and Trudeau of the Tropics, taking Haiti.

 

Song: The Panic Is On

Artist: David Rovics

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jillian Maguire, Paul Watson March 22nd, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

March 22, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 22, 2023

 

Listen. Hear.

This weekend past, the British Columbia Federation of Teachers held its Annual General Meeting. On the agenda: the election of a new president, and an opportunity the BCTF Divest Now campaign to platform its efforts to pursue a practical pathway to cease their pension plan’s investments in “fossil fuels, and other life-killing industries.”

Jillian Maguire was a presidential candidate in the poll, held March 21st. Maguire’s a longtime teacher who over a 27+ year career estimates she’s launched more than 5,000 students into the World. She says she was shocked to discover the teachers’ pension plan was heavily invested in some of the most ecologically destructive businesses, and so co-founded BCTF Divest Now.

Jillian Maguire in the first half.

And; we often forget, everything beginning on the land ends in the sea. As desperate the situation of terrestrial pollution is, in the ocean the effects are amplified, concentrated, and brought back to us as inevitably as the tides.

Paul Watson has spent a lifetime on and in the service of the ocean. A founding member of Greenpeace, he left that iconic organization at the height of its effectiveness to found the Sea Shepherd Society. Renowned for its direct action against whaling, most spectacularly intercepting the massive factory fleets of Japan, Norway, and Russia, Sea Shepherd has also exposed and shut down hundreds of other ecologically destructive commercial ventures and activities.

Now Watson is helming another venture, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, whose mission to save life in the sea is simply stated: “If the Ocean Dies, We Die!”

Paul Watson and finding a way to protect and defend life in the sea in the second half.

But first, Jillian Maguire and British Columbia’s teachers instructing their union to listen and learn to divest.

Song: Captain

Artist: Tiny Milkshake

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dimitri Lascaris, Brad Wolf March 15th, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

March 15, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 15th, 2023.

Listen. Here.

Last week, Canada’s Ministry of National Defence announced a “review of our Defence Policy”. Though only five years into the Liberals’ 20-year Defence Policy Update, or “(DPU”, DoD insists a new DPU is necessary if Canada is to, “be ready, resilient, and relevant to meet any threat in this changed global security environment”.

Dimitri Lascaris is a Montreal-based activist, journalist, and lawyer. He served as Justice Critic in the Shadow Cabinet of the Green Party of Canada and likewise for the Green Party of Quebec (PVQ). In 2020, Dimitri very nearly became leader of the Green Party of Canada, finishing second in a tightly-contested race with the now-departed Annamie Paul. Dimitri’s interviews for TRNN are at TheRealNews.com, and his articles appear at his website, DimitriLascaris.org.

This Saturday, March 18th, Dimitri will host ‘The Art of Peace: Seeing the World Through the Eyes of Our ‘Enemies’. The Special Webinar is his way of engaging with Canadians before embarking on a mission of peace to Russia next month.

Dimitri Lascaris in the first half.

And; there was a time, not so long ago, war profiteers where held to be exemplars of humanity’s basest instincts: Antitheses of Virtue, the very worst of the worst of Evil Doers, they were rightly and roundly despised. Now though, CEO’s of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon and Boeing and Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics and all their lesser factotums are welcome and well-treated in the halls of power and major media teevee studios alike.

Today, the profiteers need never fear official opprobrium, or being called to account for the bitter harvest of their dark seeds – at least not in the courts of the land. But there’s another weighing of justice at hand.

The Merchant of Death War Crimes Tribunal is coming – soon – and it promises to hold accountable the manufacturers of the weapons that kill combatants and non-combatants alike through the testimony of witnesses to the destruction wreaked and the crimes committed against Humanity with them.

Brad Wolf is co-founder of the Peace Action Network of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, an affiliate of Peace Action and a partner of World BEYOND War. He’s a lawyer, former prosecutor, professor, community college dean, and full-time activist for peace and justice.

His writings are published at The Progressive, Common Dreams, CounterPunch, Antiwar.com, Consortium News, and Dappled Things among others. He recently authored a book on former priest, Philip Berrigan’s collected writings, ‘A Ministry of Risk’. He’s also a key organizer with the Tribunal.

Brad Wolf and attaching the human costs to the Merchants of Death in the second half.

But first, Dimitri Lascaris and seeing the World and ourselves through the eyes of our “enemies”.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone, Dan Kovalik March 8th, 2023

This Week on GR

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

 

March 8, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio recorded March 8th, 2023.

 Listen. Here.

March 20th marks the twentieth anniversary of America’s second invasion of Iraq. Despite the tens of millions of people across the globe coming into the streets to hold at bay the dogs of George Bush’s “generational war” Operation Iraqi Freedom’s “shock and awe” – called “blitzkrieg” in another era – was launched.

We all know what happened, and the failure of the People to stop the slaughter then and in Afghanistan in 2001 seemed to be the end of hope for the Peace Movement; but the flame for a World without War didn’t die, and has in fact recently been spotted flickering in the capitals of Europe, Canada, and even in Washington, D.C.

Ken Stone is an executive member of both the Syria Support Movement International and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War.

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; far from fulfilling its mandate to first be an agent opposing war in the World the United Nations’ repeated failures in that seminal mission are now manifest in its endeavoring the opposite, the promotion of economic sanctions and military intervention. At least the recently released ‘Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua’ report leaves little else to conclude.

Dan Kovalik is a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy defender, journalist, author, and filmmaker. His book titles include: ‘Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture,’ the “Plot to” series on American efforts to undermine the governments and economies of Iran, Venezuela, Russia, (and the World generally) and ‘No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interest.’

His latest is the recently released, ‘Nicaragua: A History of US Intervention & Resistance‘, which “explores the pernicious nature of US engagement with Nicaragua from the mid-19th century to the present in pursuit of control and domination rather than in defense of democracy“.

Dan Kovalik and the latest chapter in the hybrid war* against Nicaragua in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and the smouldering desire for peace.

Song: Work for Peace

Artist: Gil Scott-Heron

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Correction: The U.S. House APPROVED a resolution to MAINTAIN the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act (2019) by an “overwhelming” margin (414-2), and not DEFEAT a motion to LIFT sanctions as reported. See: https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/02/house-overwhelmingly-approves-resolution-to-maintain-syria-sanctions-after-earthquake/