Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Janine Bandcroft, Policing Poverty May 14, 2012

This week: The Vancouver Island Public Interest Group, or VIPIRG, has created a report on a disturbing trend taking hold in Victoria. Here, and around North America, a tyrannical attitude towards the poorest in society has witnessed the targeting of unhoused and others appearing impoverished.

Police in Victoria, and beyond are devoting inordinate resources to attack those guilty primarily of being left out of an economic system devolving into a stark hierarchy of haves, have nots, and the violent actors maintaining an increasingly unjust, and unsustainable status quo.

VIPIRG says; “Out of Sight: Policing Poverty” is a community research project that takes a close look at how policing and the criminal justice system intersect with the lives of street-involved people in Victoria, Coast and Straits Salish Territories. Through over 100 peer interviews, the project opens a space for the experiences and perspectives of street-involved people to take center-stage in our communities’ efforts to build a better understanding of policing, criminal justice and poverty.”

Bringing into sight the social engineering tactics deployed by police against the impoverished in both segments today.

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.

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 Out of Sight – Policing Poverty in Victoria May 12, 2012

How do policing and the criminal justice system touch the lives of people who are street-involved? Are there reports of racial and social profiling in Victoria? How is public space policed? What role do policing and the courts play in addressing poverty? What needs to change? And how can we do something about?

Come bring your questions and ideas to an evening discussion with street interviewers, organizers and researchers from the “Out of Sight: Policing Poverty in Victoria” project.

About the research project

“Out of Sight: Policing Poverty” is a community research project that takes a close look at how policing and the criminal justice system intersect with the lives of street-involved people in Victoria, Coast and Straits Salish Territories. Through over 100 peer interviews, the project opens a space for the experiences and perspectives of street-involved people to take center-stage in our communities’ efforts to build a better understanding of policing, criminal justice and poverty.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Terry Wolfwood, Ilan Pappe, Janine Bandcroft May 7, 2012

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

Ape Goes to Ilan Pappe May 5, 2012

Went down to catch the penultimate talk by Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe. Here’s how the organizers described his trans-Canada tour (ending this date in Vancouver). – ape

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is pleased to announce that it is hosting a Canadian tour by renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappé from April 30 to May 5.

Dr. Pappé, a professor at the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (UK), is currently Director of Europe’s first Centre for Palestine Studies, housed within the Institute.

He is a specialist in 20th Century ethno-politics and the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and nine other books.

The tour, entitled “The False Paradigm of Peace: Revisiting the Palestine Question,” will offer Canadians a fresh perspective on the prerequisites for a durable, just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Dr. Pappé will discuss the reasons behind the decades of failed negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, and what the future has in hold for both peoples.

Redeye with Mordecai Briemberg, Ilan Pappe Apr. 28, 2012

On Saturday I interviewed Ilan on “Redeye” and you can find that in Vancouver Cooperative Radio archives:
http://www.coopradio.org/station/archives/62

Scroll down to the 10:00 am section on the webpage, and it is about 9 minutes in to the intro to the interview followed by the conversation itself.

MB

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Tom Woodley, Richard Sanders., Janine Bandcroft Apr. 30, 2012

This week marks the launch of a cross-Canada lecture tour by renowned Israeli history scholar, Ilan Pappe. Pappe is currently a professor at the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, and is the author of many books dedicated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most notably, ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.’

His Canadian tour, ‘The False Paradigm of Peace: Revisiting the Palestine Question’ is sponsored by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and concludes this Saturday, May 5th with double-header engagements in Victoria and Vancouver; the first being right here at the University of Victoria’s David Strong auditorium at 12 noon.

Tom Woodley is the President of the CJPME, and joins us in the first half.

And; According to the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, or COAT, there are more than 16 million Canadians sharing responsibility for Israeli atrocities because we have been, quote: “[F]orced to invest […] retirement savings in corporations with varying degrees of complicity in Israel’s system of apartheid, its occupation of Palestinian lands, its military/”security” industries, and its aerial bombardments of Lebanon (2006) and Gaza (2008-2009).” COAT is behind a campaign to get the CPP and its nebulous investment arm, the CPP Investment Board, to cease war profiteering and divest from arms and “security” companies all together.

Richard Sanders is founder and coordinator of COAT and serves as editor to its publication Press for Conversion. Richard Sanders and stripping the CPP’s war portfolio 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, Tom Woodley and The False Paradigm of Peace: Revisiting the Palestine Question with Ilan Pappe.

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, Greg Palast, Robert Bateman, Janine Bandcroft, Apr. 23, 2012

Last Friday, trans-Atlantic reporting investigator, Greg Palast held a press conference. Coinciding with the second anniversary of the disastrous BP Deepwater Horizon oil platform blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Palast reports; BP knew they had major problems with the Deepwater Horizon, knew it was an environmental time-bomb certain to go off, and yet did nothing to prevent the predictable catastrophe that followed.

Greg Palast’s latest book recording the everyday depravity that is the modern world is, ‘Vultures’ Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores.’

‘Vultures’ Picnic’ joins Palast’s previous best-sellers, ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,’ and ‘Armed Madhouse’ completing a chilling trilogy chronicling corporate malfeasance and personal moral turpitude endangering all life on Earth. It is, quote: “a journey into the corrupt heart of Big Oil, and behind it, Bigger Finance, exposing once and for all the corporate vultures who feed on the weak and poison our planet.”

Greg Palast in the first half.

And; I went down to the Creatively United for the Planet Festival in Victoria yesterday to hear famed Canadian naturalist painter, Robert Bateman give a keynote address. Bateman famously smeared in black one of his paintings in a Youtube video famously protesting the proposed Gateway Pipeline project that he believes will certainly result in the destruction of British Columbia’s rich coastal environment. Bateman’s retrospective, ‘The Art of Robert Bateman,’ recently toured Canada and the USA, and his one-man show toured cities in Russia.

Robert Bateman in his own words in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz producer 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, Greg Palast and what BP knew about Deepwater and when, and why they did nothing about it.

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 Robert Bateman Apr. 22, 2012

Went down to the Creatively United for the Planet Festival in Victoria to hear famed Canadian naturalist painter, Robert Bateman give the keynote. Here’s Bateman’s bio.

Robert Bateman’s work is in many public and private collections, plus several art museums including the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, WY. He was commissioned by the Governor-General of Canada to create a painting as the wedding gift for HRH Prince Charles from the people of Canada. His work is also represented in the collection of HRH Prince Philip, the late Princess Grace of Monaco and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Bateman has had many one-man museum shows throughout North America, including an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC; most of these shows have drawn record-breaking crowds. Recently, the retrospective show, The Art of Robert Bateman, toured Canada and the USA for two years, and a one-man show toured four cities in Russia.

His honours, awards and honorary doctorates are numerous: he was made Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian award in 1984. He has also been given the Rachel Carson Award (1996), the Golden Plate from the American Academy of Achievement (1998) and the Order of British Columbia (2001), and Human Rights Defender Award from Amnesty International (2007); he was named one of the 20th Century’s Champions of Conservation by the U.S. National Audubon Society (1998).

He has also been the subject of several films and television programs. It is in honour of Bateman’s contribution to art and conservation that one public and two secondary schools have been named after him. As well, he has been awarded 12 honorary doctorates. Bateman’s art reflects his commitment to ecology and preservation. Since the early 1960′s, he has been an active member of naturalist and conservation organizations, now on a global scale.

Ape Goes to Alexandra Morton Apr. 21, 2012

Alexandra Morton is a scientist studying, among other things, the effects of fish farms on the wild salmon of the Pacific Northeast. She has fought tirelessly to educate the government, aquaculture industry, and the public at large of the dangers these concentrated fish lots pose to migrating wild salmon and other species. So far, the governments of Canada and British Columbia have colluded with industry to obfuscate the facts and deceive the electorate – all for the benefit of trade and corporate interests. She spoke at the University of Victoria on April 21, 2012. – ape

Ape Goes to Earth Day 2012

“Deflated” was the word my companion used to describe this year’s Earth Day March in Victoria, B.C., and I have to agree. Some small smattering of perhaps three hundred odd souls showed up, about a quarter the number that came out last week to the Stop the Enbridge Pipeline rally, walking over these same streets. But, you do what you can to fly the resistance flag, etc.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Rashid Sumaila, Joan Russow, Janine Bandcroft Apr. 16, 2012

This week: Earlier this month, the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre, in concert with the Global Footprint Network released a new economic and environmental index. The Eco2 Index is designed to gauge the threat of climate change on ecological and economic security. Rated were the most and least healthy national economies based on this new model’s values.

Rashid Sumaila is the director of the UBC Fisheries Centre and he joins us in the first half.

And; is a sustainable world possible under the capitalist economic system; and if not, how else can we organize our societies? For a growing number, cooperatives are the viable alternative.

Joan Russow is former leader of the Green Party of Canada. Since stepping down from the Greens, Joan has worked as a reporter and film maker, recording the climate change conferences in Copenhagen and Cancun, and more recently working on the film, ‘Cooperatives: Counterpoint to Capitalism.’

She’ll be traveling down to Venezuela later this month to chronicle the groundbreaking progress cooperatives have made there since the Bolivarian Revolution.

Joan Russow, looking south to the future in the second half.

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

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 Stop Enbridge Rally April 15, 2012

I went down to the demonstration…There, between 1-3 thousand people of all stripes showed up to demonstrate their opposition to the proposed Enbridge pipeline that would carry poison bitumen from the Tar Sands environmental disaster in Canada’s north (primarily Alberta) across the width of British Columbia, transiting hundreds of streams and rivers, to be deposited at Kitimat, B.C., there to be shipped through the treacherous waterways of inland fjords, and out the jagged coastal Salish Sea for ports in Asia and the US. One spill threatens the entirety of life within this unique environment.
[Technical note: there’s a bit of hum in the audio from the PA system…please be patient.. it stops. -ape]

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Brian Thiesen, Dawn Paley, Janine Bandcroft April 9th, 2012

This week: Around the country, across the continent, and throughout the once-called 'Free World' the Smart Meter and its variants is appearing, bulldozing its way onto the walls and into wireboxes the world over, whether welcomed or not. But, what are these devices; and why are people worried?

Brian Thiesen is Chairman of the Kamloops chapter of Interior Smart Meter Awareness, an affiliate of No BC Smart Meters, and he joins us in the first half.

Listen. Hear.

And; Last month, Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, a Zapotec community activist in San José Progreso, Oaxaca, Mexico was gunned down with his cousin, Rosalinda Dionicio Sánchez, and brother Andres Vásquez Sánchez as they drove home. Bernardo knew his life was in danger; others opposing foreign mining companies in his ancestral territories have died violently. Bernardo recently told a Canadian journalist what he thought the crux of the growing tensions between Canadian listed, Fortuna Silver and locals was.

Dawn Paley is a Vancouver-based journalist who has written for a multitude of newspapers and magazines in Canada. She has worked in radio and television too, her reports featuring on Democracy Now!, Free Speech Radio News, and CBC Radio. Dawn is also a contributing editor with The Dominion – Canada's grassroots newsmagazine, and is a co-founder of the Vancouver Media Co-op. She is also a media educator, teaching community journalism workshops and online journalism, most recently with the Alliance for Global Justice.

Dawn Paley from south of south of the border 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 up to speed with some of the goings on going on on the streetz of the city and beyond.

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, Jon Elmer, Janine Bandcroft Apr. 2, 2012

This week: The controversial Enbridge pipeline scheme that would disgorge tar sands bitumen at Kitimat for ocean trans-shipment to Asia and America created more controversy yesterday in Bella Bella, where the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel, or JRP, was scheduled to hear depositions from local intervenors.

The small community on BC’s central coast, at the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, came out in numbers, (in full welcoming regalia) but someone on the panel panicked. The review was cancelled, the JRP citing “safety concerns.”

Ingmar Lee was at the rally that welcomed the Joint Review Panel. Ingmar lives in Shearwater, where the JRP retreated to from Bella Bella, and is a long-time ecology defender at the front lines of efforts to stay the destructive hand of industry, and works to enlighten the ignorant as to the great dangers facing this corner of the Pacific’s ecosystem.

Ingmar Lee in the first half.

And; last Friday marked Land Day in the Occupied Palestinian territories. That is the annual observance by Palestinians of their dispossession at the hands of Israel. It was marked, as it has routinely been, by Israeli state violence, resulting in death and injury.

Like last year’s observance, this year’s Land Day differed from previous years due to the context of the ongoing “Arab Spring,” and the quickening disintegration of the political status quo in the region.

Jon Elmer is a Canadian journalist who has reported from and lived in Occupied Palestine for the better part of the last decade. He’s back in Canada now, filling his war chest for a return assignment.

Jon Elmer and the increasingly turbulent situation in Palestine 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 the streetz of the city and beyond.

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 2012 Piggies

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.