Gorilla Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dave Lindorff, Michael Parenti, Janine Bandcroft Oct. 15, 2012

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Counting down, the US election 2012 pageant is near completion. With three weeks to go, undecided American voters have two more presidential debates to determine which of incumbent Democrat, Barack Obama, or Republican challenger, Mitt Romney they would feel most comfortable seeing steer the ship of state.

If past elections are any indicator, millions will forgo the privilege of voting, while millions more will have their franchise disallowed through a variety of restrictive ID requirements, new rules governing eligibility, and good old fashioned voter suppression.

There will be controversy, and probably blood too, but one thing is certain; the election will provide the nation a chance to evaluate its values, and the potency of American democracy in the increasingly troubled days of the early 21st Century.

Dave Lindorff is an award-winning muck raking journalist, founder of the news website, This Can’t Be Happening.net, and author of the books: ‘This Can’t Be Happening: Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy,’ ‘Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For Profit Hospital Chains,’ and ‘Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.’ He is also co-author, with Barbara Olshansky of, ‘The Case for Impeachment: Legal Arguments for Removing President George W. Bush from Office.’ Dave is also recipient of a 2011 Project Censored award for his expose, ‘Toxic Intervention,’ uncovering the use of Depleted Uranium by NATO forces during the “liberation” of Libya.

Dave Lindorff in the first segment.

And; since September 2001, America has ramped up its militarization at home and abroad. But, it didn’t take that day of infamy to create America’s modern military empire, that was a project well underway long before the PNAC crowd took over Washington, D.C. Today, ten years into what might be termed the “perpetual warfare era,” the U.S treasury is sinking under the weight of war debt, as its subject citizens flounder in a rising tide of unemployment, under-employment, and an increasing scarcity of jobs necessary to lead “decent,” let alone financially transcendent lives.

Michael Parenti is an American educator, lecturer, social justice activist, and author of 23 books, including: ‘The Assassination of Julius Caesar,’ ‘Superpatriotism,’ The Culture Struggle,’ ‘Democracy for the Few,’ ‘ God and His Demons,’ and his latest, ‘The Face of Imperialism.’ Parenti is also recipient of awards from Project Censored, the Caucus for a New Political Science, the Social Science Research Council and many others organizations, including being awarded the Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. He now serves various advisory boards and sits as a judge for Project Censored.

The crimes of empire, it’s often said, come home to roost, and The Face of Imperialism notes the homecoming of the “litany of injustices visited upon victims of U.S. imperialism: expropriation of their communal wealth and natural resources, complete privatization and deregulation of their economies, loss of local markets, deterioration of their living standards, a growing debt burden, and the bloodstained suppression of their democratic movements.”

Michael Parenti from the archive 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, Dave Lindorff and America going to the polls.

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.

Ape Goes to Eco Warrior Screening

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Went down to the University of Victoria to check out Jennifer Pickford’s film Eco Warriors the Documentary, featuring local eco heroes Ingmar Lee, Zoe Blunt, and others.

Here’s a bit of the blurb from the filmmaker’s website: www.pickfordproductions.com

This documentary depicts the increasingly harsh treatment of people who protest against what they see as crimes to the environment. Today, protesters who were once described as environmental activists are being called ‘terrorists’, and environmental activism is being labeled ‘eco-terrorism’.

Environmental activists being labeled as terrorists is an increasingly real threat since United States Federal Bureau of Investigation now includes a category for ‘eco-terrorism’ under its Domestic Terrorism Section. Many see the use of the term ‘eco-terrorist’ as a propaganda term devised by law-enforcement to criminalize or marginalize their protests.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Zoe Blunt, CLASSE, Janine Bandcroft Oct. 8, 2012

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It’s a simple question: “When did activism become “terrorism”?” and it’s posed by the new documentary film, ‘Eco Warriors.’ This Thursday, the Red Octopus Collective production will hold its Victoria premier screening of Eco Warriors, right here at the University of Victoria’s David Lam Auditorium. The presentation will include a Q and A with the film’s executive producer, Jennifer Pickford and eco warrior, Zoe Blunt.

Zoe Blunt is a long-time environmental defender and activist/organizer, based on the South Island. Zoe’s past campaigns include an attempt to forestall the so-called Bear Mountain development, (a failed effort that culminated spectacularly in a massive SWAT team assault on three tree-sitters at the site of the now derelict Spencer road overpass) and the successful turn-around of mega-developer at large, Ender Ilkay’s Marine Trail Resort.

Zoe conducts activist workshops, took part recently in the Caravan to Wet-suwet-‘en, an annual manifestation at the planned site of the pipeline confluence for the controversial Pacific Trail Pipeline project, and she was instrumental in convincing VanCity’s ethical investments arm to disinvest of Enbridge related vehicles. Zoe has appeared on this show many times over the years, and joins us again in the first segment.

And; last week, the University of Victoria Student Society and UVic’s Social Justice Studies played host to the ‘Maple Tour’, a cross-country educational forum conducted by two members of CLASSE, the Quebec student union that practically paralyzed Montreal and transfixed the world press with the largest civil demonstrations that province and this country, Canada has ever seen. Former CLASSE spokesperson, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and executive and key organizer, Cloé Zawadzki-Turcotte were accompanied by Quebec journalist, and former student organizer, Ethan Cox to share their stories of “The longest student strike in Canadian history” and how it ended up, “[I]nspiring people across the country to stand up to “austerity.”” Showing CLASSE with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Cloé Zawadzki-Turcotte, and Ethan Cox in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here to bring us newz from our city’s streets and beyond at the bottom of the hour. But first, Zoe Blunt and “When did activism become terrorism?” – drawing red lines in Canada.

G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

Ape Goes to the #Maple Tour at UVic Oct. 4, 2012

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Quebec student leaders speak in Victoria Thursday
The main public events take place:

Thursday, Oct. 4, 7:00pm University of Victoria.
Room A120, Social Sciences and Math Building.

Friday, Oct. 5, 7:00pm W2 Media Cafe,
111 W. Hastings, Vancouver.

The most high profile spokesperson to emerge from Quebec’s student movement arrives in British Columbia today.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the former spokesperson for the student union CLASSE will be a featured speaker at events in Victoria and Vancouver over the next two days.

“When people stand together for what they believe in, there is no limit to what they can accomplish,” said Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.

“We hope that the historic victory of the Quebec student movement will inspire people across Canada to resist neo-liberal governments and fight for a society which puts people first.”

The following speakers are available for interviews Thursday and Friday:

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, former spokesperson for CLASSE

Cloé Zawadzki-Turcotte, a former member of CLASSE’s executive and a key organizer behind the strike

Ethan Cox, Quebec-based journalist and a former student organizer

“The longest student strike in Canadian history ended with the resignation of two education ministers, the defeat of a sitting Premier and his government, and the repeal of both the tuition hikes and Law 12, which many have argued violated basic civil liberties,” said Ethan Cox.

“This tour is about telling the story of what happened in Quebec this year, and inspiring people across the country to stand up to austerity.”

BC is the final stop on a week of public forums known as the ‘Maple Tour,’ a reference to Quebec’s ‘Maple Spring’ protest movement.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Byron Christopher, Janine Bandcroft Oct. 1, 2012

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We are indeed, on October 1st, 2012, living in “interesting times.” Even as wars and rumours of war nightly compete for space on the news with super typhoons, earthquakes, drought, floods, famine, and environmental degradation, the pitiful beast that is ‘the modern world’ daily labours still to enlarge its crapulence.

The purportedly ancient Chinese “May you live in” aphorism is the first in a series of curses that include: “May you come to the attention of Authority” and, “May your wishes be granted.” Famed Canadian “eco-warrior” Wiebo Ludwig lived through the first two curses, and got the last laugh on the third when he died in April, content with his life, and at peace with his wish to die in God’s grace.

But, death was not the end of Wiebo’s fight with the authorities that plagued him in Life – he had one more interesting battle to win.

Byron Christopher is an award-winning, Edmonton, Alberta-based print and radio journalist who has spent the better part of his career chronicling the hard-boiled crime beat. Before settling in Western Canada, Christopher filed stories from four continents, working for the CBC, and CHED 630 among others here. His investigations into the criminal activities of Calgary-based Talisman Energy led to that company’s ignominious retreat from Sudan.

He freelances now, his reports available at, ByronChristopher.org – No News Release Journalism, and at The Dominion paper.ca among other places online. Byron was the last reporter to talk to Wiebo Ludwig before he succumbed to esophogeal cancer last Spring, and the first one contacted by Ludwig’s closest friend, Richard Boonstra when the RCMP decided it wanted one more fight with the patriarch of the Christian community “living off the land” in Alberta’s remote Peace River country.

Byron Christopher in the first half.

And; from “interesting” to times of Biblical proportions: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a turn through the United States last week. The ostensible reason for the trip was the annual United Nations confab, but Netanyahu’s ulterior purpose was to bang the drum again for an American intervention in Iran.

Israel has had its Hasbara, or propaganda program, on high heat beneath the Islamic Republic for more than a half-dozen years, and had hoped to use the upcoming U.S. election as a pressure point to spur Obama to further action. It now seems, Netanyahu and his far-right Likud Party colleagues miscalculated both the president and Jewish-American sentiment.

Dave Lindorff is an award-winning muck raking journalist, founder of the news website, This Can’t Be Happening.org, and author of the books: ‘This Can’t Be Happening: Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy,’ ‘Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For Profit Hospital Chains,’ and ‘Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.’ He is also co-author, with Barbara Olshansky of, ‘The Case for Impeachment: Legal Arguments for Removing President George W. Bush from Office.’ Dave is too recipient of a 2011 Project Censored award for his expose, ‘Toxic Intervention,’ an uncovering of the use of Depleted Uranium by NATO forces during the “liberation” of Libya.

Dave Lindorff and the decline of the Jewish Lobby’s influence in Washington in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz 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, Byron Christopher and Wiebo Ludwig’s posthumous battle with the RCMP.

RB via BLC re: WL

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Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Arnie Gundersen, Greg Palast, Janine Bandcroft Sept. 24, 2012

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Following the Soviet fall, triumphalist American economists declared an end to history, as though human progression through time had reached a just and stable equilibrium. Capitalism was Number One, and it was here to stay.

But, and it was indeed a very big “but”, those optimistic prognosticators hadn’t figured on the rise of George W. Bush, or more properly, “Bush’s Brain” in the form of Karl Rove.

Though not alone, Rove ushered in a new age of Crony Capitalism through his relentless assault on both American Justice, and the laws governing the political process. So successful has Karl and his cohorts been, they have effectively hijacked every major election in America since the year 2000, and stand ready to do the same in 2012.
Greg Palast is a multi-award winning reporting investigator and the serial best-seller author of ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,’ ‘Armed Madhouse,’ Vulture’s Picnic,’ and his most recent, ‘Billionaires & bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps’.

Working both sides of the pond, Palast’s reports for the BBC’s flagship news program, Newsnight have rocked corporate crooks and struck terror into the hearts of political bagmen in Britain and America. The too few outlets brave enough to carry his investigative journalism in the United States include: Harper’s, The Nation, and Rolling Stone magazine, while Democracy Now! is virtually alone in covering Greg’s television work, rebroadcasting portions of his BBC exposes.

Greg Palast in the first half.

And; more than eighteen months after the destruction of Fukushima’s Daiichi Nuclear facility radiation continues to spew from the plant. Four of the six reactors housed there were destroyed in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and still neither the plant’s operators, TEPCO nor the Japanese government has any idea how to contain the meltdown.

Arnie Gundersen is a former nuclear power engineer and recipient of the Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship for his Master Degree in nuclear engineering. He is a former licensed reactor operator, nuclear industry senior vice-president, and nuclear safety patent holder.

Over the course of his 40-plus year career, Gundersen managed and coordinated projects at 70 nuclear power plants within the United States. Arnie Gundersen has filed reports on the unfolding situation at Daiichi, and the current conditions of many of America’s nuclear facilities, through his energy consulting company, Fairewinds Associates.

Arnie Gundersen charting the course of the nuclear power industry 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 newz from our city’s streets and beyond. But first, Greg Palast and taking the next election the easy way.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dana Siegelman, Kiff Archer, Jason Moody, Janine Bandcroft Sept. 17, 2012

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September 11th is a date that lives in infamy, but unlike FDR’s incantation of the infamous December 7th, 1941 attack at Pearl Harbour, 9/11/2001 marks the successful stealth assault meant to destroy American democracy. So, it is fitting, in a perverse way, that one of America’s most egregiously convicted political prisoners should be sent again to prison on September 11th 2012 in a case stitched up by the very authors responsible for undoing the Constitution and bringing Justice to ruin in the United States.

Former Governor of Alabama and democrat, Don Siegelman, political foe of friends of political fixer, Karl Rove made the long journey back to the Oakdale prison last week to serve out a five-plus year sentence for bribery, though the court acknowledges, Don Siegelman never received a single cent, or any tangential advantage in the matter at hand.

The re-sentencing marks the end of a six year fight by Siegelman to overturn his prior conviction, a conviction no fewer than 130 former Attorneys General have decried, but it’s not an end to the era of “Bush League Justice.”

Dana Siegelman is Don’s daughter and the organizer behind a Presidential pardon campaign, petitioning Barack Obama to overturn the suspect court findings. Dana Siegelman in the first half.

And; it’s huntin’ season in British Columbia again, or so says the provincial government. The difference this year though is, ten First Nations bands within the Great Bear Rainforest have declared a ban on hunting both Black and Grizzly bears. These animals are annually preyed upon by trophy hunters, many of whom pay thousands of dollars to guide-outfitters for the curious privilege of destroying a wild animal. The Heiltsuk Nation is one of the Coastal First Nations Coalition behind the ban of which band councillor, Jessie Housty says,

“It’s not a part of our culture to kill an animal for sport and hang them on a wall.”

Kiff Archer is founder of the Central Coast Grizzly Patrol and BC-Coastal Bear & Wolf Patrol, an organization of volunteers working to protect bears and wolves in the Great Bear Rainforest from both local and fly-in hunters. Kiff lives in Bella Coola, and was adopted by Great Chief Qwatsinas and given the name Pakwani for the mountain overlooking the traditionally most highly populated bear area in the region – known by the killers of bears as “Bear Central.”

Kiff Archer, standing tall for the bears of the Great Bear Rainforest in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be hear at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the things going on on the streets of our city, and beyond. But first, Dana Siegelman and appealing to common sense and justice in the Don Siegelman case.

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 Jeb Sprague and Roger Annis on Haiti at UVic Sept. 15, 2012

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Went down to see journalist and author, Jeb Sprague on his book, Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti’ at the University of Victoria Saturday.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Sandy Smith-Nonini, Jeb Sprague, Janine Bandcroft, Sept. 10, 2012

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This week: It’s been said, “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.” but Balzac never knew Mitt Romney, the mega-rich Republican candidate who would be president, for if he had he may have said, “Behind every fortune there are a great number of crimes.”

Mitt has yet to answer for that great number of crimes he’s complicit in committing; yet to be brought to book for the bloody profits he and Bain Capital reaped to the cost of thousands of lives.

Few of the flag-wavers at the recent Republican National Convention in Florida recall, or care to remember, Reagan’s Dirty Wars in Central America in the 1980’s and ’90’s, but the most fervent in their willful forgetting must be Romney’s camp followers, the ones with the most to lose should the truth of their leader’s character become more broadly known.

Sandy Smith-Nonini is adjunct assistant professor in the Departments of Anthropology and the Curriculum in Global Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In those terrible days of Reagans reign of terror in Latin America, Sandy worked as a freelance news reporter for the New York Times, and served as a field contributor to the American Medical News. Sandy Smith-Nonini is also author of the book ‘Healing the Body Politic: El Salvador’s Popular Struggle for Health Rights from Civil War to Neoliberal Peace,’ and recently contributed the article, ‘Romney’s Blood Money’ to the web news site, Counterpunch.

Sandy Smith-Nonini in the first half.

And; in 1994, Haitian democracy was the envy of the world. The populist president of the country, former priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide enjoyed a 92% approval rating, and was beginning to reform the profound corruption at all levels of government left in the wake of the despotic father and son Duvalier regimes. After two centuries of social turmoil, things were finally looking up for Haiti. And then things changed.

Jeb Sprague is a journalist, and PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Jeb is the recipient of a Project Censored Award for a 2008 article, co-authored with Haitian journalist Wadner Pierre and he’s written for the Inter Press Service, TeleSUR, Al Jazeera, Z Magazine, NACLA, Haiti Liberté, Haiti Progrès, among numerous journals. His first book, ‘Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti’ is now out. Jeb Sprague will be appearing here at the University of Victoria this Saturday at 4pm in the David Strong building to talk about his book and the situation in Haiti. Jeb Sprague and the paramilitarists assault on Haiti’s democracy.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the newz unfolding on our city’s streets and beyond. But first, Sandy Smith-Nonini and following Romney’s Blood Money.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Kevin Pina, Steven Starr, Janine Bandcroft Sept. 3, 2012

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As we ready to welcome Fall and the 2012 school year here at UVic, the Occupy movement is readying itself for a second year of mobilization against the gross disparities of the economic system. From ground zero at Wall Street in New York, and financial districts around the United States, (and in Canada too) last year’s explosion of dissent and demonstration leaves behind hundreds of stories. Many of these stories went viral on the internet as they happened, as they revealed police state styled repression and brutality most Americans haven’t seen since the Vietnam War protests of the 1960’s.

Arguably, the worst of that repression was witnessed at Occupy Oakland.

Kevin Pina is an American journalist and filmmaker who has reported from Haiti on and off for more than twenty years, and who lived in the capital for more than seven years. From his early days as a KPFA radio reporter documenting the human rights abuses in Port au Prince’s poorest neighbourhoods, to covering the initial 1991 coup d’état against populist president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide to his own imprisonment there in 2005, Pina has borne witness in a way few foreign correspondents can equal. His film titles include: ‘El Salvador: In the Name of Democracy,’ ‘Amazonia: Voices from the Rainforest,’ ‘Haiti: Harvest of Hope,’ ‘Haiti: The UNtold Story,’ and ‘HAITI: We Must Kill the Bandits.’

Kevin’s latest effort produced the documentary, ‘Occupy the Bay.’ Directed by Jonathan Riley, Occupy the Bay chronicles the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kevin Pina in the first half.

And; nearly eighteen months have passed since the earthquake and tsunami disaster that killed tens of thousands in Japan, and rendered Fukushima’s Daiichi nuclear facility a smoldering wreckage. Though you would be hard-pressed to find the story in your local paper, or covered on the nightly newscasts; a year and a half later, the smashed plant spews radiation still into the sea and atmosphere with no near end to it in sight. Worse yet, there is tonnes of spent nuclear rods in cooling pools at Daiichi, pools that could fail catastrophically in another earthquake.

Steven Starr is a senior scientist at Physicians for Social Responsibility and an associate member of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He is the Director of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at the University of Missouri, and a medical technologist who has spent years detailing the real and possible effects of the nuclear weapons issue from his site, www.NuclearDarkness.org. Appearing at the UN and other fora to give expert testimony on the environmental consquences of waging, and readying for, nuclear war, Starr has, since the Fukushima calamity, collaborated with renowned Japanese diplomat Akio Matsumura, founder and Secretary General of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, who famously warned recently of the precarious situation at Daiichi’s reactor #4.

Steven Starr and Fukushima’s present and continuing danger 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 newz from the city’s streets and beyond. But first, Kevin Pina, welcoming the Fall and rise of Occupy the Bay.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Tom Swanky, Zoe Blunt, Janine Bandcroft Aug. 27, 2012

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The late American writer, Kurt Vonnegut set the record straight in his great novel, Breakfast of Champions, where he wrote of the “discovery” of America by Columbus:

“1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.”

1862 is the date Victoria City would have us all remember with pride and joy, for that was the year “people” began living here. But actually, 1862 is the year pirates whose names grace our streets and byways yet executed a plan that rightly belongs atop the annals of world infamy; a plan that destroyed not only the lives of more than 100,000 individuals, but one meant to destroy entirely the peoples of the Pacific coast of what we now call British Columbia.

Genocide is a term loosely used today, but there is none better to describe the beginnings of European settlement at this place, and after 150 years, no better time to finally face the truth of it.

Tom Swanky is perhaps an unlikely historian. The retired businessman took on the research end of his son Shawn’s film project on the Tslihqot’in War, and the hanging by the colonials of their Chiefs in 1864. It was during the research for that project, Tom noted the great gulf separating the victors’ narrative from that of the vanquished, and discovered a paper trail leading to revelations he could hardly believe. Over ten years of research culminated in his book, ‘The True Story of Canada’s ‘War’ of Extermination on the Pacific’. Tom will be presenting some of his research at the Seventh Annual Anarchist Bookfair, beginning September 8th.

Tom Swanky in the first half.

And; it’s been said, “History doesn’t repeat, but it does echo.” and the echoes of the original colonial sins are ringing throughout the interior of British Columbia now. Though their suits may have changed in 150 years, the cut of the cloth has not; at this very moment, marauders cloaked in propriety plot to dispossess the natives, driving through their lands rightofways as paths to enrich themselves, and profit the distant government.

It’s not gold for Empire this time, but energy they crave; the new coin of the realm. The Enbridge pipeline project hopes to make of the province a conduit for Alberta’s bitumen mines, sluicing the toxic goo through pipes to the sea at Kitimat. Last week, the project sprung another leak, with VanCity announcing divestiture of all investments in the companies behind the scheme.

Zoe Blunt is a Victoria-area based environmental activist, organizer, and facilitator. She’s a citizen journalist whose work has been instrumental in the implementation of myriad campaigns locally, and throughout the province designed to protect the ecological integrity of B.C.’s wild lands, ensuring habitat viabililty for the animals in it, and cultural continuity for the people depending on it. Zoe was front and centre in efforts to convince VanCity to change their investment portfolio options, excluding Enbridge related vehicles.

Zoe Blunt and plugging the pipeline’s progress in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us in the second half to bring us up to speed with some of the good things going on in and around Victoria in the coming week. But first, Tom Swanky and the Great Darkening at the heart of our colonial beginnings.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Rod Marining, Ramzy Baroud, Janine Bandcroft Aug. 20. 2012

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This week: Rod Mariner is a long-time environment defender, a co-founder of Greenpeace International, navigator of the Sea Shepherd vessels Farley Mowat and Steve Irwin, among others, Chair of the BC Environmental Network, Listserve manager for the Landwatch Campaign, and Coordinator for PATH, or People’s Action for Threatened Habitats. Rod departed with the Caravan to Wet’suwet’en from the lower mainland a couple of weeks back, and joins us in the first segment with reports of the caravan and their getting in the path of a promised pipeline at the heart of B.C.

And; they’re baaack. Yes, the Neocons have resurfaced! Rebranded and up to their bloody elbows in mischief again, the folks that brought you the Balkans, Iraqs I and II, Afghanistan, and Libya, are front and centre of the Washington war lobby pack and afroth at the mouth for more gore. Syria is just one project for the Foreign Policy Initiative, or FPI. That is the new monicker for the war mongers formerly known as the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American journalist, editor, educator, and former Al-Jazeera producer. Ramzy is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle and author of the books, ‘Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion,’ ‘The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle,’ and his latest book, ‘My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story.’ Ramzy’s work can also be found at his website, ramzybaroud.net. Ramzy Baroud and Neocons on the Wing over Syria in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio 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, Rod Marining and the next stage of resistance to Big Oil in B.C.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ingmar Lee, Robert Parry, Janine Bandcroft Aug. 13, 2012

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The two best known pipeline project proposals for British Columbia are the so-called “twinning” of the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline, that has until now quietly issued Tar Sands product all the way from Alberta’s Satanic Mills, disgorging at Vancouver, and the proposed creation of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline that hopes to see the Tar Sands goo transported to Kitimat, where it will then be shipped through the treacherous fjords and inland islands en route to China’s insatiable industrial monstrosities, and perhaps to car mad California.

Lesser known than these though is the Pacific Trail Pipeline, designed to facilitate gas fracked from B.C.’s Northeast.

Last week, the Caravan to Wet’suwet’en launched from towns and cities across B.C. and North America, to converge at the Pacific Trail/Enbridge Northern Gateway right-of-way.

Rod Mariner is a long-time environment defender, a co-founder of Greenpeace International, navigator of the Sea Shepherd vessels Farley Mowat and Steve Irwin, among others, Chair of the BC Environmental Network, Listserve manager for the Landwatch Campaign, and Coordinator for PATH, or People’s Action for Threatened Habitats. Rod departed with the Caravan to Wet’suwet’en from the lower mainland last week, and joins us in the first segment.

And; last week, details about the source of Mitt Romney’s great wealth broke. Mitt it turns out accepted millions to set up his vulture capital fund from the first families of El Salvador at the height of the dirty wars there in the 1980’s. A footnote in U.S. policy atrocity now perhaps, but the death squad terror supported by Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and businesses like Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital set the stage for the horror to follow in Iraq, and across the middle-east.

Robert Parry is an old-time investigative journalist and founder of the news website, Consortium News. Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books are: Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq; and, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’. Revisiting Robert Parry and the death squad legacy of Latin America in the second segment.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from Victoria’s streetz and far beyond. But first, Rod Mariner, the Caravan to Wet’suwet’en, and resistance in an age of environmental madness.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jon Elmer, Terry Wolfwood, Janine Bandcroft Aug. 6, 2012

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This week: Last week, the European Union came through for Israel, upgrading special trade status, strengthening economic ties on myriad fronts, and reversing trade penalties for the Gaza massacre of 2008. Most incredibly, all this was undertaken in violation of the EU’s own European Neighbourhood Policy that requires “preferred trading partner” status be reserved for those nations respecting international human rights, democratic values, and the humanitarian obligations expected of civilized governments. And all this without AIPAC, or a November election.

Jon Elmer is a Canadian writer and freelance photojournalist who has lived in and reported from Occupied Palestine for the better part of the last decade. Jon has photographed and reported from more than a dozen countries, including Nepal, the Basque region, Western Sahara and Morocco, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Jon’s work can be found featured across the internet at Al Jazeera English, the InterPress Service, and Le Monde diplomatique among others, and at his site, JonElmer.ca.

Jon Elmer in the first half.

And; Theresa Wolfwood is Director and co-founder of the Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation, and is a writer, photographer, and long-time activist who has travelled from the highlands of Mexico to the gates of Gaza and beyond in pursuit of peace, social justice, and women’s rights. Terry has written for Briarpatch, Peace News, and Third World Resurgence, among others, and is the local co-ordinator of Victoria’s Women in Black. Today at noon, the Women in Black held their Hiroshima Day vigil downtown at the tourist office, across from the Empress Hotel to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the role Canada played in the production of the bombs that were needlessly dropped upon the people living there.

Terry Wolfwood standing vigil for the dead and remembering the continuity of life in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio 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, Jon Elmer and Israel reaping rewards from the jostling line of its foreign “best friends.”