It's an all too common story, one besmirching the good name and reputation of Canada every time it's told; international mining corporations, using this country as a flag of convenience to rape and pillage the earth and peoples of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and right here at home.
BUT, worse perhaps than these bad actors hiding behind our nation's lax legal restraints to conduct their dirty business is when actual Canadian outfits shirk responsibility.
Just such is the charge leveled against Exellon Resources Inc., whose critics claim it, through subsidiary, Minera Excellon de México has endangered the environment, and ripped off the people and Ejido La Sierrita in Durango, Mexico.
Alejandra Ancheita is a Mexican human rights advocate and attorney, and founder and Executive Director of the Project for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, or ProDESC. She was litigation specialist at the renowned Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center and served at the Center for Labor Support and Reflection, and for more than a decade has fought for under-represented workers and communities throughout Mexico.
Alejandra holds a graduate degree in International Law and Global Justice from Fordham University Law School, and while a visiting scholar at its Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, developed the research initiative, 'Towards a Genuine Transnational Collaboration: Constructing Transnational Justice for Migrant Workers.' She was also honoured this year as a Wasserstein Fellow by Harvard Law School.
Alejandra Ancheita will be in Victoria this Friday, April 19th presenting, in conjunction with the Mining Justice Action Committee, 'Mexico and Canada: The Human Rights and Environment Connection.' Alejandra Ancheita in the first half.
And; the current government of British Columbia recently green-lighted a scheme to make of a rock quarry at Shawnigan Lake a receptacle for Victoria's toxic waste. The locals, when they became aware of the plan, had misgivings, and lots of questions. In the interim, those concerns have not abated, and their anxiety has grown as the dead-line for final approval arrives. It's the subject of filmmaker, Paul Manly's latest effort, 'Troubled Water.'
Manly is a Vancouver Island-based filmmaker, sound-designer and musician, who credits his multi-cultural extended family with informing his interest in social justice, racism, and cultural struggle. Some of his documentary credits include: 'A Gathering of Nations,' and 'The Awakening of Elizabeth Shaw,' and 'Bringing Truth to Light,' the latter both collaborations with director of photography and editor, Eva Manly, and 'Sombrio,' a chronicle of the families "squatting" on that beach for generations and their eviction.
Paul has also worked as media production teacher at the Video In Studios artist-run centre in Vancouver, served with the Chiapas Media Project in Mexico, and initiated a technical internship program, and coordinated the Collectives Mini-Grants program here. His Manly Media production company also released 'You, Me, and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule,' part of which contains the widely controversial uncovering of police agents provocateur at the anti-globalization manifestation at Montebello, Quebec.
Paul Manly and Troubled Water for Shawnigan in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city's streets and beyond. But first, Alejandra Ancheita and Canada's corporadoes, living up to a low reputation.
Clearly we are living in an age of mass dementia. Over the weekend, scofflaw Israel rained bombs and missiles upon the heads of civilian homes, civil infrastructure, media studios, hospitals, and shot up anything that moved through the streets of Gaza City.
While there is nothing particular new about that, after all, Israel has treated the Gaza Strip and its benighted citizens like so many concentration camp inmates for years, picking them off with high-powered rifles and automated machine-gun turrets for no apparent reason beyond to terrorize them, and perhaps break up the monotony of a long shift in the watchtowers.
No, what punctuates the surreal insanity of this festering injustice is the reality defying gymnastics Western government spokespersons perform to somersault the truth of the matter, and how eagerly, in turn, their media collaborators parrot rather than challenge them.
Yes, Gaza is under full scale attack by Israel again, and as during the Christmas carnage of 2008-9, the demented few in power in Ottawa and London and Washington and Brussels will again provide cover for this egregious and obvious crime against humanity.
Jon Elmer is a Canadian freelance photo-journalist and author of the website JonElmer.ca. Jon has reported from and about Israel's occupation of Palestine for more than a decade, his dispatches appearing at Al Jazeera English, the Inter Press Service, and Le Monde Diplomatique among others. Jon also completed an honours degree in political science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia; his thesis - "Pulling from the roots" - being a study of Israel's policy of assassination during the al-Aqsa intifada.
While New York City, and the rest of America's eastern seaboard digs out from Hurricane Sandy, and electricity is returned to the "city that never sleeps," little media coverage is being devoted to the primary victims of the "Super Storm" in Haiti.
Nearly three years past the massive earthquake that destroyed much of the capital, Haitians struggling to get back on their feet have had to cope with serial tropical storms and hurricanes, wide-spread governmental corruption and mismanagement, an imported cholera epidemic, drought, and now Sandy.
Early reports put Sandy's death toll at 52 souls, but what is really worrying is the reemergence of cholera among the hundreds of thousands still living in crowded, poorly serviced, unsanitary, and exposed tent cities.
Roger Annis is a Vancouver-based trade unionist and social activist; a member of Vancouver's Stopwar.ca coalition, Roger has also been involved with the Canada Haiti Action Network and runs the website, A Socialist in Canada.
Roger Annis in the first half.
And; long-serving Victoria MP, Denise Savioe stepped down in August, surrendering her seat for health reasons. Savioe held the seat through six years and three election campaigns, following her community service in Victoria as a city councillor. The Victoria seat had, until Denise's first victory in 2006 had virtually belonged to Liberals through the aegis of former cabinet minister, David Anderson.
Now, by-elections have been called for three ridings, including Victoria for November 26th. Victoria's Liberal hopeful is Dr. Paul Summerville, currently an adjunct professor here at UVic in the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business. Summerville worked previously for Deutsche Bank, Jardine Fleming, and Lehman Brothers. I spoke with Paul in March on energy policy in Canada.
Paul Summerville and our energy future in the second half.
And; Victoria Street News publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz from our city's streets and beyond.
But first, Roger Annis and Haiti, island in the heart of the storm.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 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.ca/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Over the weekend, the Finnish-flagged M/S Estelle attempted to ferry aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, and like previous attempts was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters, its crew and passengers taken into port at Ashdod and imprisoned.
As of Sunday October 21st, there is little word of the conditions of captivity for former Canadian MP Jim Manley, though a release from organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms: Some of the Estelle's crew has been deported to Greece and Italy.
Reports from Israeli activists on the ship claim passengers were "tasered" by the Israeli boarding party. For its part, Israeli authorities lied about the cargo on board the Estelle, maintaining the ship contained "no humanitarian aid."
The Estelle's attempt to break the years-old blockade of Gaza comes on the heels of last week's publication of Israeli documents confirming that state's practice of a calorie counting regimen restricting the amount of food allowed into the Gaza enclave based on an estimated minimal caloric intake per person necessary to avoid wide-spread starvation. Also known as the "Gaza Diet," the revelation is not news to Palestinians, or most Israelis, but does present an international embarrassment to the government, which has always denied such a policy existed.
Jon Elmer is a Canadian photo-journalist who has reported from the Occupied Territories for more than a decade. Jon's work has taken him to some of the region's, and the world's, most troubled areas, filing reports for the Inter Press Service, Al Jazeera English, The Progressive, and Le Monde Diplomatique among others. His work can also be found at his website, JonElmer.ca. Jon Elmer in the first half.
And; the long-awaited October 22 manifestation is happening even now in downtown Victoria. The event, in part organized by the newly formed, Defend Our Coast coalition, and supported by a variety of international Environmental Non-Government Organizations hoped to rally British Columbians and others concerned about the Enbridge Gateway project, a massive pipeline proposal to sluice Tar Sands condensate-soaked bitumen to the port of Kitimat on its way to a trans-pacific voyage to the Asian market.
The format and nature of this demonstration is unique in my experience, and it has sparked some heated debate within the environmental community. I went down there this morning to record my impressions and those of the participants. Defending Our Coast in the second segment.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us her take on Defend Our Coast and other manifestations in and around our city. But first, Jon Elmer on blockades and other doings in and around Occupied Palestine.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 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.ca/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Went down to the demo. to chill with several thousand fellow citizens concerned about oil tanker traffic off the coast of BC. Defend Our Coast, prominent organizers, message follows: The CBC is reporting 3,000 people are here today on this cold, just starting to get rainy October Monday. Our team thinks it’s closer to 5,000.
But remember: this is not just a protest rally. Hundreds of people have been trained (mainly over the past weekend) and intend to put their bodies on the line to get arrested. If we wanted sheer numbers, we would have held this on a weekend. The design of this action was for people who care passionately about protecting our coast to take direct action to show how strongly citizens across BC feel about this issue.
And as you can see from some of the earlier quotes from our First Nations allies, this direct resistance is just starting. And won’t stop until we win.
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
2013-04-16
Categories 
Posted by admin
This audio file has been downloaded 58 times
loveuseeme
