Gorilla Radio X-Mas Show with Chris Cook and Janine Bandcroft Dec. 26, 2011

Welcome to the annual Gorilla Radio X-Mas Special, wherein we leave the show format’s rutted path to bloviate, bellow and blatherskite on the state of the world in the year past, and sound a knell warning of what 2012 holds in store should we stay the disastrous course charted by the maniacs on the bridge.

There’ll be music and such, and Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster will join in the gas-baggery too at the bottom of the hour.

But first, before beginning the wind, an annual tradition with Ini Kimoze, and all he really wanted for Christmas.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Vladivostok Mutiny Dec 21 2010.ff

On the morning of December 21st, 1918,
French-Canadian conscripts in the 259th Battalion
of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (Siberia)
mutinied at the corner of Fort and Quadra Street
in downtown Victoria. They refused to embark for
service in a new theatre of war – the Russian
port of Vladivostok and Siberia, to aid the White
Russian forces fighting the Bolsheviks in the
Russian Civil War. The war on the Western Front
had ended six weeks earlier, prompting sharp
debates within Canadian society and the military
force itself.

But at the point of the bayonet, the mutinous men
were forced to embark for Russia, exceeding the
powers granted under Canada’s conscription law,
the Military Service Act 1917. The ringleaders
were shackled together in the bottom of the ship,
the SS Teesta, and received sentences of between
30 days and 3 years imprisonment with hard labour
for “Joining in a mutiny while on active service
in his majesty’s armed forces.”

This year, on the 93rd anniversary of the mutiny,
we are gathering to remember this forgotten
moment in the history of Victoria, French and
English Canada and the world. The event will
feature the story of the conscripts and mutiny
itself, a moment of silence for the fallen
soldiers of the Siberian Expedition, a musical
interlude, and a public call for a formal apology
for the families and a full pardon from the
federal government for the French-Canadian
soldiers wrongfully convicted of mutiny at
Victoria.

Learn more:

On <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RxfzI7633Jk>Youtube
En <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUKpNjKUBL0&feature=related>Française

Visit <http://www.siberianexpedition.ca/>Canada’s
Siberian Expedition Virtual Exhibition & Digital
Archive

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ingmar Lee, Janine Bandcroft Dec. 19, 2011

This week: The public and professional input period, or evidentiary hearings of the Cohen Commission ends today. The Commission had already wound down, when evidence of a deadly virus present here in the Pacific Northeast was made too public to ignore. It all paints another picture of corporate-government cooperation to obfuscate truth at the expense of the environment and public safety.

Ingmar Lee is a long-time environment defender at the front lines of staying the destructive hand of industry and enlightening the ignorant to the great dangers facing his cherished Pacific Northwest ecosystem.

Ingmar Lee in the first half.

And; I cheered, “Hooray” last week when I heard of the death of Christopher Hitchens, exactly as I cheer the departure of all who support the endless wars waged against the, mainly, women and children of the world. Hitchens, for all his accomplished writing, brilliance as public orator, and punishing effectiveness as a pugilistic debater was in the end, if not just, then merely another war monger. A few thoughts on the legacy of Hitch in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from the city’s streets and beyond.

But first, Ingmar Lee and B.C.’s War of the Waters.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Briony Penn, Janine Bandcroft Dec. 12, 2011

This week: Worse though than those that would risk the living world out of ignorance, or for personal enrichment is a political process, our political process, displaying a single-minded determination to wreck the environment and all that dwell within it. Just such a case was revealed recently by naturalist, geographer, journalist, and author Briony Penn.

Listen. Hear.

In an article appearing in Victoria’s Focus Magazine, Penn exposes Department of Fisheries and Oceans, (those same that brought you Canada’s East coast cod collapse not so many years ago) mismanagement of West coast herring quotas.

Briony Penn and putting a net around the Honourable James Ashfield, the minister supposedly responsible before it’s too late in the first half.

And; Officially known as the ‘Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness Action Plan’ it’s the final fruition of the long sought continentalist vision of “Fortress North America.” It is what Canadian nationalists like David Orchard describe as the greatest existential threat Canada. It is an act of finishing through treachery what force of arms could not accomplish; conquest by deception.

Whither Canada under the ‘Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness Action Plan’ in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from the city’s streets and beyond. But first, the DFO caving to industry at the peril of our wild West coast ecosystem.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Walter M. Brasch, Franklin Lopez, Janine Bandcroft Dec. 5, 2011

This week: Walter M. Brasch is an award-winning syndicated social issues columnist, former newspaper and magazine reporter and editor, multi-media writer and producer, retired professor of mass communications and journalism, and the author of eighteen books. His latest is ‘Before the First Snow: Stories from the Revolution’, the tale of “greed, corruption, and intrigue, set against the backdrop of social protest…”

Walter M. Brasch and the “compelling story of history and contemporary American culture and values” in the first half.

And; Franklin López is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, media activist, and founding member of subMedia, whose latest project is to, quote: “document resistance movements that are working towards stopping the flows of hydro carbons, mineral extraction, natural resources and capital, through grassroots and underground organizing.”

Franklin’s films include: ‘Join the Resistance! Fall in Love, the 2005 post-Katrina video remix ‘George Bush Don’t Like Black People,’ and his latest is, ‘END:CIV,’ inspired by the writings of Derrick Jensen. López also created the on-line TV news series, ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine.’

Franklin López and Stopping the Flows in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher, and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz from the city’s streets and beyond. But first, Walter M. Brasch and remembering an American Spring, before the first snow.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Paul Cienfuegos, Alex Roslin, Janine Bandcroft Nov. 28, 2011

This week: Paul Cienfuegos is an intrepid activist citizen, who had been in the trenches, fighting numerous single-issue battles for the environment, and indigenous peoples’ rights, and for sane alternatives to disastrous war and energy policies for decades when he says he realized, quote; “[A]lmost every issue I had ever worked on was a mere symptom of corporate rule.”

Since that epiphany, Paul Cienfuegos has worked to rally individuals and communities that they, while continuing to pull the babes from the water, venture upstream and arrest at the headwaters the source of social and environmental outrage.

Paul Cienfuegos in the first half.

And; where the name Chernobyl still resonates today, the nearer and many times more dire nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility is hardly acknowledged not nine months after a calamitous earthquake and tsunami sent three of the reactors there into meltdown.

Alex Roslin is a freelance journalist, television news producer, and the current president of the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting. He’s a three time winner of the Canadian Association of Journalists awards for reporting, and has received numerous more nominations for both CAJ and National Magazine Awards. He recently published, ‘What Are Officials Hiding About Fukushima?’ an expose into that disaster’s silent aftermath.

Alex Roslin and perhaps the greatest nuclear disaster you never heard about in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher, and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city’s streets and beyond. But first, Paul Cienfuegos and separating the baby from the (industrially contaminated) corporate bathwater.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Maude Barlow, Michael Riordon, Janine Bandcroft Nov. 21, 2011

This week: Maude Barlow was here at UVic in October, speaking out against another brick in the corporate-rule agenda wall, CETA, or the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. It was the first leg of a cross-Canada tour still underway.

Maude Barlow and Canada’s Communities Are Not for Sale in the first half.

And; to watch the nightly news, you’d be forgiven for believing the only way to settle disputes is through violence or threats of violence. From the not so deftly veiled promises of president Obama that “no options will be taken off the table” of this or that international dispute, to the police riot squaders spraying peaceful men and women, old and young, with tear gas and rubber-encased steel bullets, it seems might makes right in this world.

But, beyond the glare of television lights, past the bleeding leading stories of the day, millions work diligently, without pause, for peaceful solutions to apparently intractable conflict.

Michael Riordon is one of those. Author, documentary film maker, playwright, and lecturer, Riordon has written five books, the latest of which is, ‘Our Way to Fight: Peace Work Under Siege in Israel-Palestine.’

Michael is at the University of Victoria tonight, in the David Strong Building, presenting, ‘Let My People Speak: Hear the repressed voices of peace workers in Palestine and Israel’ Of his work, Riordon says, “A primary goal is to recover voices and stories of people who are silenced and relegated to the margins and written out of the ‘official’ version of events.”

Michael Riordon in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from an eventful week past on Victoria’s streets for the People’s Assembly, and beyond our borders too. But first, Maude Barlow, standing on guard for Canada where the government will not.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ingmar Lee, Terry Glavin, Janine Bandcroft Nov. 14, 2011

This week: Marking Armistice Day in Victoria, I went down to the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion memorial, tucked quietly in the bushes beside the fountains, between the Legislature Buildings and the Grand Pacific Hotel, there to stand with the stalwart, white-poppy adorned peace proponents who speechify and personalize what which war and peace mean to them.

And;Terry Glavin is an award-winning journalist, editor at Transmontanus Books, a new columnist at the Ottawa Citizen, and he recently delivered the Harvey Southam Fellowship lecture in journalism, 'Orwell and Everything After' at the University of Victoria.

Terry Glavin is the author of six and co-author of four books, and his latest is 'Come from the Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan.' He is also co-founder of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee.

Terry Glavin and where next Afghanistan in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from Victoria's streets and beyond. But first, remembering all the fallen on Armistice Day in Victoria.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Ape Goes to the MacKenzie-Papineau Armistice Day Observance Nov. 11, 2011

Went down to the memorial to the Mac-Pap Battalion off the Legislature buildings in Victoria.

Ape Goes to Curtis Stone’s SPIN Lecture Nov. 10, 2011

Curtis Stone of Kelowna, B.C.’s Green City Acres Pedal Powered Urban Farmers takes us through the joys of SPIN, or Small Plot Intensive urban farming. www.greencityacres.com, www.spinfarming.com

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Michelle Shephard, Mike Ferner, Janine Bandcroft Nov. 7, 2011

This week: Michelle Shephard is a Canadian investigative journalist, currently serving as the Toronto Star newspaper’s national security correspondent, and author of the acclaimed book, ‘Guantanamo’s Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr.’ Her latest book, ‘Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism’s Grey Zone’ examines the beginnings of the Global War on Terror from the smouldering, ash-strewn streets of 9/11 New York City, to the furore currently roiling the streets of the Arab Spring.

Michelle Shephard in the first half.

Mike Ferner is Acting Director of Veterans for Peace and is their former national president. He’s a long-time peace activist who went to Iraq in the days leading to Operation Iraq Liberation with Voices in the Wilderness, and again to document the effects of the invasion on that country in 2004. He is author of the book, ‘Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq,’ and wrote ‘VFP Case for Impeachment and Prosecution.’

Mike Ferner and America’s increasingly restive Occupy Movement in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher, and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from Victoria’s People’s Assembly, (still camped at Centennial Square) and doings from further afield too.

But first, Michelle Shephard and a Decade of Fear.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Ape Goes to the Victoria Motorcycle Safety Rally Nov. 5, 2011

Last week, a motorcyclist was killed on the infamous Malahat highway, just north of Victoria. The fourth motorcyclist killed on the mountainous stretch of the Trans-Canada this year, the head-on crash moved motorcycle safety activists to organize a rally in an effort to get the attention of politicians, and have money spent to place highway dividers along more of the highway.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ben Wang, Janine Bandcroft, Maude Barlow Oct. 31, 2011

Ben Wang is an Oakland-based documentary filmmaker who co-directed and produced AOKI, the film chronicling the life of Black Panther Party founding member, Richard Aoki. Wang is also a co-chair of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee, and co-editor of their book, ‘Other: An API Prisoners’ Anthology.’ He’s currently in production of the film, ‘Breathin’ The Eddy Zheng Story.’

Ben Wang and Eddy Zheng, “one of the most visible Asian American leaders to emerge from the prison system” in the first half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher, and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from Victoria’s People’s Assembly, (still camped at Centennial Square) and doings from further afield too. But first, Ben Wang Breathin’ the Eddy Zheng story.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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

Occupy Oakland Sounds of an Attack

Audio from RT of police riot in Oakland October 24, 2011 at the Occupy Oakland camp 5am

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jon Elmer, Mike, Janine Bandcroft Oct. 24, 2011

Last week, Israeli prisoner of war, Gilad Shalit was released in exchange for more than a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Shalit was an army sergeant captured over five years ago in a night raid of a Gaza outpost.

Jon Elmer is a Canadian journalist/photographer living in and reporting from Occupied Palestine. Elmer has spent the better part of the last decade filing for the Inter Press Service, Al Jazeera English, and various online publications. He’s also the author of the website, JonElmer.ca.

Jon Elmer from Bethlehem in the first half.

And; the People’s Assembly convergence last week at Victoria’s Centennial Square has continued in the form of a tented encampment in the heart of the city. I went down there yesterday and spoke with Mike, a volunteer at the Media liaison tent to get a feel for what’s happening, and what the movement’s manifestation here means.

Mike and messages from Victoria’s frontline of the growing global movement for economic and social justice in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFVU broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to keep us current with some of the goings on going on on our city’s streets and beyond. But first, Jon Elmer and the prisoners released in the Middle East.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at:http://cfuv.uvic.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