This week: Canadian mining companies are making a killing in Latin America; at least that is the concern of indigenous activists in Mexico, El Salvador, and seemingly everywhere else the Maple leaf flagged mining corporations show up. I recently spoke here with Canadian freelance journalist Dawn Paley about her friend, Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, a Zapotec community activist in San José Progreso, Oaxaca, Mexico, gunned down with his cousin, Rosalinda Dionicio Sánchez, and brother Andres Vásquez Sánchez.
Bernardo was fighting the Canadian concern, Fortuna Silver over its plans in San José. As it happens, Victoria-based activist Terry Wolfwood was scheduled to meet with Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, but arrived too late.
Wolfwood is Director, and a founding member, of the Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation. The BBCF.ca site says it, quote; "[O]rganizes, works for and supports action, education and creativity for peace, social justice, human rights, and women’s rights."
Terry Wolfwood in the first half.
And; Last week I spoke with Tom Woodley of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. CJPME sponsored a Canada-wide tour by renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappé that ended here in Victoria Saturday. Dr. Pappé, is a history and political science professor at the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (UK), and is too currently Director of Europe’s first Centre for Palestine Studies, housed within the Institute. He is author of, among many others, the book, 'The Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinians.' The theme of his tour was, “The False Paradigm of Peace: Revisiting the Palestine Question.”
Ilan Pappé 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 streetz and beyond. But first, Terry Wolfwood and mining justice for communities effected by the Canadian mining industry.
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
Went down to the Golden Corporate Piggies Awards, a celebration and recognition of some of the things the corporate Swinocracy have done for the people over the past year. Sadly, technical glitches cut it short, but it's all in good fun.
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
I went down to the demonstration of Victoria's People's Assembly, an expression of both solidarity with the 'Occupation' movements across the U.S. and throughout the Arab world, and a determined effort by Canadians in cities across the country to communicate their dissatisfaction with the direction the governments in this country are going regarding rights, justice, environmental protection, war, and a plethora of social issues left off the agenda.
About two thousand citizens of Victoria turned out for a truly inspirational event.
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in corporate and state media. Gorilla Radio airs live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 102FM, 104.3 cable, and on t