Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. The show is archived at: www.gorilla-radio.com. The GR blog is at: gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com, and you can find and support the program at GRadio.Substack.com. Financial support is also possible through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PacificFreePress, or via e-transfer to: lex@gorilla-radio.com. Tweets found at @paciffreepress. Some past guests include: Jennifer Abbott, M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Ramzy Baroud, Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Christopher Black, Kristina Borjesson, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Paul Cienfuegos, Radhika Desai, Joe Emersberger, Yves Engler, Laura Flanders, William S. Geimer, Denis Halliday, John Helmer, Sam Husseini, Kim Ives, Dahr Jamail, Robert Jensen, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Dan Kovalik, Dimitri Lascaris, Jonathan Latham, Ingmar Lee, Dave Lindorff, Tarek Loubani, Stefania Maurizi, Nils Melzer, Glenn Michalchuk, Sharmine Narwani, Stavroula Pabst, Michael Parenti, John Pilger, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Andy Lee Roth, Richard Sanders, Pitasanna Shanmugathas, Vandana Shiva, John Stauber, Ken Stone, David Swanson, Andre Vltchek, Andy Worthington, Alfred de Zayas, Howard Zinn and many others.
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Joined again some 250-300 Victorians at The Legislative Buildings, seat of provincial power in B.C., to express our shock, outrage, and dismay at Canada’s disgraceful abrogation of its duties under international law and on the most basic humanitarian level during this premeditated genocide in Gaza.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 17th and 21st, 2024
Despite his death in prison yesterday, Russian “democracy activist”, Alexei Navalny will continue to serve his Western masters in their effort to unseat Vladimir Putin’s government. Since the news broke, the Free Press has inundated the cybersphere, airwaves, and teevees of Europe and America with extollations of the man’s courage and journalistic integrity with testimonials coming from them in high places; those same silent on the bitter fate of Julian Assange, long dying but not dead yet in a British dungeon.
Would it be too soon unkind to remind, Navalny cosseted neo-fascists, was a performative if not demonstrable racist, and an asset of the CIA and MI6? Yes, the only thing worse than living in prison perhaps is dying there, and few deserve that, so rest in peace Alexei, if you can find it.
John Helmer is a journalist and author who’s spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. Principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears, Helmer has too been a professor of political science, sociology, and journalism, and has 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 Lie That Shot Down MH-17’, ‘SOVCOMPLOT: How Pirates Tried to Capture the Treasure of the Russian Seas, and Were Caught Out’, and his lately released autobiography, ‘Dunce Upon a Time: A Life of Mistakes’. Helmer has also written voluminously on Navalny; his activities, methods, goals and sponsors.
John Helmer in the first half.
And; Canadians largely still believe, despite clear and present evidence of complicity in coups, occupations, and conspiracies to profit from the misery foisted upon anonymous others in foreign lands, that “we” constitute a force for good in the world.
This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in Palestine, where successive Canadian governments maintain vociferous and bipartisan support of the state of Israel, even while paying lip service to the unmet humanitarian needs of the captive populations of Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank.
Mazin Al Nahawi is a Palestinian refugee from Safad, occupied Palestine. He’s a graduate of the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts – Criticism Department, Damascus, Syria where he too studied Arab Linguistics, Mazin now lives here in Victoria, land that is the traditional territory of the Lkwungen, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.
Mazin Al Nahawi and the fight for Palestine on two home fronts in the second half.
But first, John Helmer and the use of Alexei Navalny in life, and afterwords.
Song: Once the Last Palestinian’s Killed
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: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 17th, 2024
Despite his death in prison yesterday, Russian “democracy activist”, Alexei Navalny will continue to serve his Western masters in their effort to unseat Vladimir Putin’s government. Since the news broke, the Free Press has inundated the cybersphere, airwaves, and teevees of Europe and America with extollations of the man’s courage and journalistic integrity with testimonials coming from them in high places; those same silent on the bitter fate of Julian Assange, long dying but not dead yet in a British dungeon.
Would it be too soon unkind to remind, Navalny cosseted neo-fascists; was a performative if not demonstrable racist, and an asset of the CIA and MI6? Yes, the only thing worse than living in prison perhaps is dying there, and few deserve that, so rest in peace Alexei, if you can find it.
John Helmer is a journalist and author who’s spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. Principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears, Helmer has too been a professor of political science, sociology, and journalism, and has 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 Lie That Shot Down MH-17’, ‘SOVCOMPLOT: How Pirates Tried to Capture the Treasure of the Russian Seas, and Were Caught Out’, and his lately released autobiography, ‘Dunce Upon a Time: A Life of Mistakes’. Helmer has also written voluminously on Navalny; his activities, methods, goals and sponsors.
Song: Once the Last Palestinian’s Killed
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: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
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Joined about 300 Victorians demonstrating support for Gaza and Palestine in the face of ongoing Israeli atrocity.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 14th, 2024
And Happy St. Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there. Well nearly as synonymous as hearts, chocolates, and flowers this date is too remembered for the massacre of the North Side Gang 95 years ago. Further north in Canada, we remember February 14th as the day the hit was put on the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But whereas Al Capone was never fingered for knocking off seven of Bugs Moran’s goons in Chicago in 1929, we know exactly who iced democracy in Ottawa in 2022.
Ray McGinnis is a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. His forthcoming book is Unjustified: The Emergencies Act and the Inquiry That Got It Wrong. It’s a chronicle of the government’s abuse of its near unlimited power over the citizenry, ostensibly in reaction to the Trucker’s Freedom Convoy. Ray’s articles appear at Propaganda in Focus and Troy Media, among other places, where I found his recent piece, ‘Court Ruling Justly Slams Trudeau’s Use of Emergency Act’, and his late breaking, ‘Two of the Coutts Four Released in a Shocking Twist in the Case’.
Ray McGinnis in the first half.
And; Tuesday, February 20th Julian Assange is scheduled to be in court. Approaching the fifth anniversary of Assange’s detention in London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison, lawyers for the World’s most famous political prisoner are preparing for the journalist and publisher’s final appeal of the High Court’s favourable ruling on the U.S. extradition petition.
Steve Poikonen co-hosts Slow News Day on Rokfin, and “The Best Damn Morning Show on the Interwebs” AM WakeUp on Rumble. He’s been in the trenches and gone to the streets for Assange’s release in the USA, trying to spark his fellow Americans to action in the defense of justice.
Steve Poikonen and Assange’s last stand for British justice in the second half.
But first, Ray McGinnis and the Trudeau claque taking the “Emergency” axe to Canadian rights and freedoms.
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/
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Joined about 350 Victorians expressing their outrage for the continuing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
Canadians trying to reconcile the country’s performance on the World stage these last months and years may be suffering cognizant dissonance; aren’t we afterall the good guys? You wouldn’t know it watching our Parliamentarians salute Ukrainian proto-Nazis, or the government aiding and abetting their Banderite successors. Yes, this Great White North is definitely not your Great-Grandfather’s; but, when it comes to refusing to condemn the purveyors of ethnic cleansing and openly supporting a colonial, racist genocide, today’s Canada is starting to look a lot more like his Great-Great-Grandfather’s!
Nick Gottlieb is a climate writer based in northern BC, and author of the Sacred Headwaters newsletter. Nick’s also a community organizer and graduate student at Simon Fraser University whose studies focus on the politics of climate change, colonialism, and imperialism. His articles appear too at CanadianDimension.com, where I found his latest piece, ‘Canada has gone from complicity through silence to active participation in genocide‘.
Nick Gottlieb in the first half.
And; citizens of towns and cities around the World have gathered weekly in solidarity with the people currently being butchered wholesale by the Israeli war machine in Gaza, and harassed by organized thuggery in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the bombs, bullets, and bandages necessary for Israel to continue the carnage are being supplied by the factories of countries like Canada and Germany, the Netherlands and UK. In the United States, prime supporter and supplier of the current horror, one determined group decided to take its protest from the courthouse steps to the gates of the local munitions factory, putting their bodies in the path of the Satanic Mill they call ‘The Slaughterhouse’.
Nick Mottern is a journalist, author, and co-coordinator with Kathy Kelly of BanKillerDrones.org, an organization founded to “inform the American public about the illegality, immorality and dreadful human consequences of U.S. drone attacks…” . His articles appear across the internet, and at CovertActionMagazine.com, where I found his recent piece, co-authored with Veterans for Peace activist, Jack Gilroy, ‘Welcome to the Slaughterhouse‘.
Nick Mottern and reading the government the Leahy Act in the second half.
But first, Nick Gottlieb and Canada’s transformation from silent partner to vociferous participant in genocide.
Song: Airdrop
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: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
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Joined about 300 Victorians on a blustery day at the seat of power, the British Columbia Legislature Buildings to voice support for Palestine and outrage at the actions of government at all levels in Canada to support the Israeli genocide.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded February 4th, 2024
NDP Post-Secondary Education Minister, Selina Robinson’s remarks on a B’nai B’rith Canada-sponsored webinar last week has erupted into a full-blown shit-storm, blowing crap back on British Columbia’s ruling party. During the two-hour discussion Robinson invoked terra nullius rhetoric to describe the creation of Israel on Palestinian land, and lamented the youth of today for having no appreciation for “history” saying,
“They don’t understand that it [Palestine] was a crappy piece of land with nothing on it. You know, there were several hundred thousand people but other than that, it didn’t produce an economy. It couldn’t grow things it didn’t have anything on it…”
All common tropes Zionist atrocity apologists refusing the existence and very history of the Palestinian people employ.
BC Premier, David Eby responded to questions about Robinson’s comments during an unrelated press conference observing, while her remarks had “crossed a line” and were divisive, and alienated “… people of Palestinian descent and people who are concerned about the death and the destruction in Palestine…” he signaled she would not be removed from cabinet as she had, “…apologized unequivocally, as she should. And she’s got some more work to do.”
That may have been the end of the story, but for Selina Robinson’s use of her office to attack Langara College professor, Dr. Natalie Knight and pressure the secondary institution to remove her. Now, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association has joined the rounding howl for Robinson’s resignation, releasing a statement saying,
“The BCCLA joins the FPSE (Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC) in calling for the immediate resignation of Selina Robinson.”
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 spent a life-time making enemies of “greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks” – and I would add government-employed factotums abusing their authority for personal gain, and all those – “working in the service of rapine corporations and their captured legislators”.
Today, Ingmar Lee and the far-away Palestine slaughter coming closer to home, here in Brutish Columbia.
Song: ‘Lines Are Drawn’
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: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded January 31st, 2024
Friday last judges at the International Court of Justice agreed South Africa’s charge that Israel’s actions in Gaza commencing the 7th of October, 2023 constituted a violation of the United Nations’ Genocide Convention was plausible. The court ordered Israel must adhere to Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and to follow prescribed measures to guarantee the safety of those trapped in Gaza.
Israel has not complied. Instead, since that time it has, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, “…maintained its rate of killing civilians [and] … ramped up its efforts to starve them as well as forcibly displace them from their homes in the Strip.”
Canada’s response has been to join a group of nations cutting aid monies to UNRWA, the most important life-line remaining for Gaza’s increasingly desperate refugees.
Dimitri Lascaris is a Montreal-based activist, journalist, and lawyer. His interviews for TRNN are at TheRealNews.com, and his articles appear at his website, DimitriLascaris.org, where recent interviews he’s given detailing the legal dimensions of the ICJ ruling and more can be found.
Dimitri Lascaris in the first half.
And; New Zealand’s ending of its funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees – deserting the people under fire there at their most dire hour – makes thirteen the number of nations enacting that infamy. The Kiwis enjoin Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, and of course leader of the damned, the United States of America. But more than standing on the global stage and spitting in the face of justice and humanity some of these same are waging a war against Yemen; the one country fulfilling its obligation under international law to do its utmost to stop a genocide.
John Helmer is a journalist and author who’s spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. 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’, ‘SOVCOMPLOT: How Pirates Tried to Capture the Treasure of the Russian Seas, and Were Caught Out’, and his lately released autobiography, ‘Dunce Upon a Time: A Life of Mistakes’.
John’s recent article at Dances with Bears, ‘RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY TIES RED SEA BLOCKADE TO GAZA BLOCKADE, BACKS HOUTHIS IN MOSCOW MEETING‘ explores Russia’s delicate balancing act in the region.
John Helmer in the second half.
But first, Dimitri Lascaris and Israel’s “crushing defeat” at the International Court of Justice and Canada et al.’s despicable targeting of UNRWA in retaliation.
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/
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Between 300 and 400 Victorians came out to express solidarity for Palestine and disgust and dismay at the Canadian government’s acquiescence to the Israeli and American strategy of attacking the UNRWA and aid to the Gaza Strip in the wake of the International Court of Justice ruling against the genocide.
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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded January 24th, 2024
Monday Canada’s military aided in the bombing of Yemen. The Department of National Defence says Canada and a coalition of like-minded nations “support” the Anglo-American bombing of the country the CIA World Factbook says suffers, “massive poverty, food insecurity, unemployment [and] high inflation“. Yemen is also one of the poorest places on the planet, and has been victim to a long-running regime-change campaign sponsored by the same Anglo-American Axis powers now bombing it. All factors making it a sterling candidate for Canadian political – and military – meddling.
According to my first guest, Canada has contributed to the undermining and overthrowing of more than twenty separate national governments since the middle of the last century; all of them in countries that dared declare political and economic sovereignty.
Yves Engler is a Montreal-based political activist and the author of twelve books, mostly detailing the dark dealings of Canada’s foreign policy elite. Make that thirteen titles as of next week, when Baraka Books releases Yves latest, co-authored with Owen Schalk, ‘Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy‘. Yves is also a prolific essayist, whose writing appears across the internet and at his website, YvesEngler.com where his most recent piece, ‘When ‘leftists’ use ‘antisemitism’ smears to weaken Palestinian solidarity’ is featured.
Yves Engler in the first half.
And; on January 7th, Ecuadorian gang boss, Adolfo Macías escaped from prison, embarrassing the recently elected “tough on crime” president, Daniel Noboa. Since then, para-military raids and assassinations of public figures – one notably killed on live television – have ping-ponged, marking an escalation of violence that at first paralyzed, and continues to terrorize the South American nation.
Joe Emersberger is a Canadian-Ecuadorian engineer, journalist, and co-author with Justin Podur of the book, ‘Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela‘. Joe’s many articles focusing on Western media coverage of the Americas can be found at FAIR.org, CounterPunch, and Telesur English among other places.
Joe Emersberger and the chaotic descent of Latin America’s once “most peaceful” nation in the second half.
But first, Yves Engler and Canada’s regime-change cowboys high in the saddle over Yemen.
Song: Once the Last Palestinian’s Killed
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: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
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Joined the 300-odd Victorians standing in solidarity with Palestine, and Gaza especially, today.
January 11th marks the first anniversary of the arrest of the “Santa Marta 5” in El Salvador. Known as “The Water Defenders”, the five were instrumental in bringing about a 2017 national ban on mining in the country. But now political winds have shifted, with current office-holders eager to reverse the ban. Part of that determination apparently includes using the courts to neutralize inconvenient impediments.
Over the past week transnational environmental and social justice organizations mobilized in defense of the five men, manifesting demonstrations in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Washington, DC. Press conferences were called, letter campaigns launched, and “State of Deception“, an exhaustive report on the findings of an international delegation investigating the charges was released.
Pedro Cabezas took part in the virtual press conference, along with John Cavanagh and others. Pedro is coordinator of the Central American Alliance on Mining, ACAFREMIN; while John, as well as being a past UN economist, is currently a Senior Advisor at the DC-based Institute of Policy Studies. Both are co-authors of The Water Defenders report, ‘State of Deception: A fact-finding report on El Salvador’s detained water defenders, the potential return of environmentally destructive mining, and the state of human rights under the Bukele administration’.
John Cavanagh and Pedro Cabezas in the first half.
And; for the last 100 and more days and nights Israel has visited Hell upon the heads of the people of Gaza. That what it is doing is an outrage against humanity is beyond question, and indefensible; and yet the bombing continues. Millions around the World have taken to the streets and public places in their towns and cities – especially those in Western capitals – in efforts to shake support by their respective governments of Israel – if only by omission of censure – for the killing. So far to no avail.
David Rovics is a confessed “Singer/songwriter, writer, anarchist, dad, and lover of life,” (not necessarily in that order). He’s been expressing his outrage in song, as he has done on so many issues for so long. The result is a collection of twenty songs, compiled in the album, ‘Notes from a Holocaust’. He says, “I wrote them to bear witness to the genocide of the Palestinian people that continues by the hour as I publish this album.”
David Rovics and killing war with music in the second half.
But first, John Cavanagh and Pedro Cabezas defending The Santa Marta 5, El Salvador’s Water Defenders.
Songs: ‘If a Song Could Raise an Army’
‘Once the Last Palestinian’s Killed’
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: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
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Went down to the BC Legislature Buildings in Victoria to stand in solidarity with 500 and more Victorians expressing their collective outrage at the murderous bombing campaign Israel is conducting in Gaza, and the horrors its settler extremists are visiting upon Palestinians in the West Bank and the Canadian government’s complicity in what is by any metric a genocide.