Pacific Free Press

 Listen. Hear. http://www.gorilla-radio.com/2019/06/27/gorilla-radio-chris-cook-bonny-glambeck-greg-palast-janine-bandcroft-june-27th-2019/ It’s difficult to accept news of the epidemic-sized outbreak  of sea lice at fish farms in Clayoquot Sound with anything but a weary  sigh of unsurprise; afterall, why would Cermaq’s much contested  operations there differ from everywhere else concentrated fish feed lots  operate?Cermaq, the formerly Norwegian company newly acquired by Japanese  behemoth, Mitsubishi Corporation issued an apology, published in the  local Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News, admitting their inability to manage  operations in the Sound safely, saying, “we were unable to effectively manage sea lice populations for a variety of reasons including unusually hot and dry weather…”. For those long chronicling the damage the industry does on a good  day, and long predicting just such “unmanageable” outbreak scenarios,  Mitsubishi’s “so sorry’s” arrive dead in the water.Bonny Glambeck is director  of Clayoquot Action, an organization dedicated, they say: “to keep  Clayoquot Sound clean and green for future generations, to preserve the  diversity and integrity of the ecosystems, and to maintain and develop  community and cultural richness.”Bonny Glambeck in the first half.And; journalism is in crisis, and it’s not the good kind! Beyond the bane of “fake news” and journotainment  upchucked by network television and the marquee legacy presses, whether  in shooting wars, or digging through the muck of corrupt politicos and  their big business patrons, real journalists are now considered fair game targets. From the remote reaches of Russia and the Middle and Far East, to the marbled capitals of Britain and America, the new contempt for them has made an always difficult and precarious profession almost impossible. Just as intended.Greg Palast is an investigator,  journalist, author, and filmmaker. He’s reported the news from both  sides of the Atlantic for the better part of two decades, breaking  stories for BBC flagship news program, Newsnight and The Guardian  newspaper in Britain, and filing with The Nation magazine and Rolling  Stone stateside. He’s the recipient of plaudits, laudatory recognition,  and numerous awards for his work; the most recent being The Association  of Mexican Journalists’ 2019 prize for International Reporter  for his exclusive exposés of the theft of elections from Georgia to  Mexico and corporate media ban-busting reportage from Venezuela.Greg’s books, ‘Billionaires & Ballot Bandits’, ‘Armed Madhouse’,  and ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy’ have all resided on the New York  Times’ bestseller list, while his ‘Vultures’ Picnic’ was named Book of  the Year by BBC Newsnight Review. His latest documentary film, The Best  Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits is  recut, and available at Gregpalast.com.Greg Palast and the media’s crisis of stenography in the second half.And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor,  Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left  Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in  and around our town in the coming week. But first, Bonny Glambeck and  Clayoquot Sound plague of sea lice. Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon 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/

 A century past the end of the War  to End All Wars humankind has experienced unrelenting conflicts both  large and small, roiling the length and breadth of the World. A look  across media platforms at the headlines today reinforces the calamitous  political state of the planet, but what is rarely explored or explained  is the role it, the media, plays and has played in our seeming perpetual  state of war and its ever-rumoured coming. Listen. Hear. Stefan Goebel is a scholar, educator, author,  and Director of the Centre for the History of War, Media & Society  at Kent University. A reader in Modern British History, professor Goebel  is too co-editor of the recently published volume, 'Propaganda and Conflict: War, Media and Shaping the Twentieth Century'. Stefan Goebel in the first half. And; ten years after pajama-clad Honduran center-left president Mel  Zelaya was whisked from his bed and into exile by military coupsters the  country is a basket case. For the vast majority, the past decade has  seen economic collapse and the erosion of the meagre human rights and  agrarian reforms Zelaya had initiated in his final year in office. It  has also become the most dangerous place on Earth to live, with police,  gangs, and government-sponsored death squads providing impetus for the  main component of the Central American refugee crisis. Dimitri Lascaris  is a Canadian lawyer, human rights activist, and reporter for the Real  News Network. He's just returned from Honduras where he joined a  tri-national delegation of University academics and members of the  Central American Alliance Against Mining on a Human Rights fact-finding  mission to investigate local opposition to an iron-ore mine in the  Botaderos National Park in northern Honduras. Dimitri Lascaris and Honduras, ten years after democracy died in the second half. And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor,  Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left  Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in  and around our town in the coming week. But first, professor Stefan  Goebel and media, propaganda and conflict in the post-truth age. Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon 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/

The rank hypocrisy of Western civilization’s ruling elite, though  never really too deeply hidden has, with the recent arrests of  journalists and raids against their publishers, broken the surface of  the body politic like some septic pustule.But worse than embarrassment, this sore blooming in the face of much vaunted “rule of law” proclamations made across the once Free World, and elsewhere, is more pox than spot, and not easily vanished by either creams, lotions, or official bromides.Last week, Australia’s State broadcaster ABC was just one such media outlet to experience the new democratic understanding of press rights and freedoms.John Helmer is a journalist,  former academic, government policy advisor, author, broadcaster and  principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. An Australian  national, his recent article, ‘The Julian Assange Case Now Puts the US on Trial in a British Court: Is There a GET-OUT-OF-JAIL Card for Assange?‘ explores security state targeting of journalism, and the unenviable fate of his countryman and all those caught up in the new anti-information dragnets.Some of John Helmer’s book titles include: ‘The Deadly Simple  Mechanics of Society’, ‘Drugs and Minority Oppression’, (with Claudia  Wright) ‘The Jackal’s Wedding – American Power, Arab Revolt’, ‘Grand  Strategy for Small Countries, Case Studies in Transforming Weakness into  Power,’ and his latest is the newly out political and personal memoir,  ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’.John Helmer in the first half.And; Canada’s senate has shot down proposed amendments to the new Impact Assessment Act,  also known as Bill C-69. This despite what one Senator reports was a  veritable “flood” of evidence from fishing organizations, indigenous  leaders, and environmental groups concerned that, as it stands, the Bill  delivers regulation of seabed oil exploration permits into the hands of petroleum interests.Gretchen Fitzgerald  is the National Programs Director of the Sierra Club Canada Foundation.  Her work focuses on environmental impacts of offshore oil and gas,  volunteer engagement, and climate change.Gretchen Fitzgerald and rescuing the New Impact Assessment Act…Before It’s Too Late! in the second half.And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor,  Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up  to speed with some of what’s good going on in and around our town in the  coming week. But first, John Helmer and journalism under fire.Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon 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/

 Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Mt. Polley tailings spill  into Quesnel Lake and beyond little has been done to affect the way  mining is conducted in this province. Imperial Metals, the company  responsible for that disaster, among other things, has yet to be  properly held to account for the damage its negligence caused. And it  doesn’t seem likely to be in the future.With governments’ unwilling to address this long-standing and ongoing  failure of oversight a citizen-led initiative has begun. The BC Mining Law Reform Campaign launched a couple of weeks ago, and it is determined to succeed in bringing mining operations in BC to heel.Douglas Gook is a Quesnel-based ecology activist and farmer who’s  focused on Eco forestry alternatives in the woods there and beyond for  more than forty years. The former BC and Canadian Green Party candidate  is a director of the BC Environmental Network and Spirit Dance  Cooperative Community, and leads Forest Protection Allies, one of the  many environmental organizations pressuring government to get effective  cleanup processes going, and appropriate compensation for those effected  five years after the infamous Mt. Polley spill. He’s also one of a  growing chorus who do not accept the Site C decision as final.Douglas Gook in the first half.And; despite the great hope for peace in Colombia, an announcement by the country’s military of a “new” strategy to  deal with what they say is a continuing insurgency, and against  organized drugs gangs, has sparked concern of a return to the bad old days of death squads and the “falsos positivos” program of the civil war.Daniel Kovalik  is a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy  defender, journalist and author. He teaches international human rights  law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and was until  recently Senior Associate General Counsel for the United Steel Workers  Union. Kovalik has observed elections in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and  Colombia, where he too witnessed the 2016 peace plebiscite promising an  end to the generational war there.Dan’s also served as an attorney for Colombian plaintiffs in cases  alleging corporate human rights violations, and is co-recipient of a  Project Censored Award for chronicling the murder of trade unionists in  Colombia. Some of his many book titles include the ‘Plot To…’ series:  ‘The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have  Conspired to Vilify Putin’, ‘The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and  the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran’, ‘The Plot to Control the  World: How the US Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections  Around the World, and his latest, ‘The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How  the US Is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil.’ Dan Kovalik and failing peace in Colombia in the second half.And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio  broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to  bring us news of some of the good things going on in and around our town  in the coming week. But first, Douglas Gook and citizens acting where  government won’t with the BC Mining Law Reform Campaign.Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon 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/

 Isolated from one other by walls  made of media-induced mistrust, rather than considering the issues of  the day in nuanced terms political discourse has increasingly become an  identitarian, black and white battle between entrenched camps. From our  sheltered thought silos, it's possible to forgo the difficult task of thinking through problems, choosing instead to hurl abusive missives, (and more substantive missiles) at one another. Despite this spreading plague of self-satisfied, diametric certitude,  there still exists a middle ground. It's shaky, dangerous territory few  would choose to make a stand on, but between the derision and scorn  suffered from both extremities, it's in the grey zone between our only  hope of collective salvation lay. Brian Davey  is an economist who's spent most of his working life in the community  and voluntary sector in Nottingham, England, particularly in health  promotion, mental health and environmental fields. He is a co-founder of  Ecoworks, a community garden and environmental project for people with  mental health problems, member of the Feasta Climate Working Group, and  former co-ordinator of the Cap and Share Campaign. Davey is also editor of the Feasta book, 'Sharing for Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society', and author of 'Credo: Economic Beliefs in a World in Crisis'. Brian recently posted at FEASTA.org the article, 'Greta Thunberg, PR and the “Climate Emergency”', an attempt to find common ground in the current climate crisis debate.   Brian Davey in the first half. And; last week, officers of the US Secret Service Uniformed Division  assisted US Department of State Diplomatic Security Service Special  Agents in extracting from the Venezuelan embassy  in Washington, four remaining protesters, barricaded inside. It was the  culmination of a six weeks-long stand-off, seeing noisome, and  sometimes violent, confrontation between pro-government and  counter-government supporters of Juan Guaido, the man recognized by the  United States and some of its allies as the legitimate representative of  democracy in that country.  Jeb Sprague is an educator, author, essayist and journalist whose articles can be found at the Grayzone Project, and The Canary,  among other places. He lectures at the University of Virginia and is  author of the books: 'Globalizing the Caribbean: Political Economy,  Social Change, and the Transnational Capitalist Class', and  'Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti'. Sprague is also  editor of the book, 'Globalization and Transnational Capitalism in Asia  and Oceania', and is a founding member of the Network for Critical  Studies of Global Capitalism (NCSGC). Jeb Sprague and the death of diplomacy in DC in the second half. And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor,  Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up  to speed with some of what's good going on in and around our town in the  coming week. But first, Brian Davey and finding the middle ground in  the middle of a climate emergency. Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon 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/

 It's difficult to believe we didn't see this coming. Everywhere Bellum Americana  is in force today, the "rule of law" is no more. And, despite  Trudeau's, or Chrystia Freeland's repeated invocations, that parrot is  neither sleeping, nor getting back on its perch; it is dead: dead as the Magna Carta; dead as the Treaty of Westphalia; dead as the Nuremberg Charter. The sad truth is, we really are, finally, on our own. Christopher Black  is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war  crimes cases, and executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress. Black’s articles on international law, politics and World events appear  at New Eastern Outlook among other places, where a perusal of his latest  efforts reveals the relentless assault by the empire and its satraps  against international jurisprudence and nations in all quarters of the  globe.  Christopher Black in the first half. And; what worth a tree? How much for a forest? The inexorable  mastication and digestion of British Columbia 's forests by timber  interests and their servants in various governments is an old story - in  human terms. For the last century and half, a mere fraction of the lives of the giant  cedars routinely ground down for consumer products, nature has been  regarded here as resource; merely an instrument to be used to secure the  wealth, comfort, and ease of the settler caste. Now though, as with so  many other systems, the coastal rainforest ecosystem has reached a  tipping-point, one from which once crossed reclamation will never be  possible.      J Ocean Dennie is with Friends of the Sooke Hills Wilderness,  a grassroots group of concerned citizens advocating for the continued  protection of wilderness areas threatened on southern Vancouver Island.  His decolonizing advocacy work and environmental activism over the past  few years includes: involvement with the Social Environmental Alliance,  Indigenous Solidarity Working Group and Fish Farms Out Now! J Ocean Dennie and stopping the road to ruin in the Sooke Hills Wilderness in the second half. And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor,  Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with some of the  good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming  week. But first, Christopher Black and an international rule of law run  amok. Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon 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/

 True to this time of lies, "free"  is the name given to the attempt to capture and enslave the people of  the World, while the word "trade" serves as a wry misnomer, meant to  convince us the artful deals of the masters of capital are both  consensual, and somehow mutually beneficial. Together, 'Free Trade' is a concept Orwell would recognize, and cry laughing at the bitter predictability of.  Dr. T.J. Coles is an Associate Researcher at the Organisation for Propaganda Studies, a columnist for AxisOfLogic.com, and author. Coles’ articles too appear online at CounterPunch, Truthout and Z  Magazine, among other places, and his many book titles include: ‘Real  Fake News’, Britain’s Secret Wars’, ‘The Great Brexit Swindle’,  ‘Manufacturing Terrorism: When Governments Use Fear to Justify Foreign  Wars and Control Society’, and his latest, ‘Privatized Planet: ‘Free Trade’ as a Weapon Against Healthcare, Democracy and the Environment’. Journalist and filmmaker, John Pilger says, "In this meticulously  sourced book, T.J. Coles breaks down the facade of “free trade” and its  army of acronyms, spelling out the threat from an extremism that wants  your healthcare, wages, pensions and much more. You have been warned."  T.J. Coles in the first half. And; readers of Marx, Karl not Groucho, remember the term, "Après moi,  le déluge!" It was meant by Marx to indicate the contempt in which all  capitalists must hold the life of the lowly labourer. How else can  captains of industry masticate and disgorge the legions required to  maximize profit, and relentlessly grow the economy? But, endless  progress demands a certain, strategic short-sightedness, a disregard for  the consequences of one's actions. It's a wilful blindness increasingly  difficult to maintain today, where King Louis XV's phrase, "After me,  the deluge" now belongs to us all and encompasses the whole of the  World: "Après nous le déluge!" After US, the flood. Inveterate American activist and singer/songwriter, David Rovics  has for decades toured the World bringing his message of revolution and  evolution for and to the masses. He's shared the stage with the greats  of the age: Pete Seeger, Anne Feeney, Joan Baez, Chumbawamba, Billy  Bragg, Attila the Stockbroker, and countless others. David is too a  frequent essayist, and now a regular columnist at Dissident Voice, a  podcaster, and Danish barista... Safe to say he's done a lot of things,  but now David Rovics is set to enter the least illuminated of all  Canada's dark corners, Ottawa, Ontario, (beatless heart of a heartless,  beaten nation) for an evening of music, fun, and class struggle.    David Rovics, before the flood in the second half. And Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor,  Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left  Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in  and around our town in the coming week. But first, T. J. Coles and  Privatized Planet: Free Trade As a Weapon Against Democracy, Healthcare  and the Environment. Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon 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/

 Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the WikiLeaks release of ‘The Guantánamo Files‘. A lot has changed since their original airing, and a lot hasn’t.Obama has come and gone, the immediate closure of “Gitmo” now just  another of his hoped for but unkept promises, while both the publisher  of the files revealing the horrors of the camp, and the person Obama  pardoned for leaking them are themselves now imprisoned; Julian Assange held in solitary at London’s infamous Belmarsh Prison, and Chelsea Manning,  after a month of solitary confinement, facing “indefinite detention”  for refusing a Virginia Grand Jury’s subpoena to testify in its  investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks.Andy Worthington is  an investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public  speaker. A recognized authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror”,  Andy is co-founder of the Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker  campaigns, both dedicated to bringing justice for inmates of that place  past and present.The London-based Worthington is also a singer, songwriter, founding  member of the band, The Four Fathers, (currently searching for a new  bass player) and urban photographer whose State of London series is a seven years-long daily chronicle of that great city.Andy Worthington in the first half.And; despite the rightward trend in European politics, Spain’s Socialist Party, the PSOE, held power in Sunday’s elections there, though again with a minority. While the government’s renewal, and seat increase gives Pedro Sánchez’ party a strong mandate to govern, the admission to Parliament of 24 members of the ultra-right VOX party is grabbing the headlines.  It’s the first far-right party to gain seats since democracy replaced  the dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco more than 40 years  ago.Dr. Pablo Ouziel  is Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria’s Political  Science Department and Centre for Global Studies. He’s a native of  Barcelona, and his Post-Doctoral Fellowship project at UVic is,  ‘Democracy Here and Now: The Exemplary Case of Spain’. Pablo Ouziel and political breathing space for Spain’s left in the second half.And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor,  Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left  Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in  and around our town in the coming week. But first, Andy Worthington and  eight years later, the Guantánamo Files then and now.Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon 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/