Welcome to Canada 2016: Less a nation "strong and free" than a transnational oligarchy.
Though the infamous 'Panama Papers' are yet to wash up on Canadian shores, the message they bear is as apt in the True North as in any Banana Republic: Money trumps democracy, and notions of freedom and justice are illusions in the face of a Realpolitik predicated by what my first guest terms, a “full spectrum apparatus of domination and control.”
Mark Taliano is an Ontario-based writer, researcher, and activist who, in his retirement from instructing the youth of the nation, has turned his attention to the rest of us.
Mark's essays appear at the American Herald Tribune, Global Research, and the Common Sense Canadian, among other places.
Mark Taliano in the first half.
And; time is running short for the public to weigh in on a xylene processing plant planned for the shores of the Salish Sea. April 15th is the deadline for those wanting to make their feelings on the Texas-based Tesoro Corporation's scheme to site the massive petrochemical facility on Anacortes Island known.
Eric de Place is policy director, researcher, writer, and policy analyst for Sightline Institute, a Washington State-based independent, nonprofit think tank. Eric leads Sightline’s energy policy work, and is a leading expert on regional coal and oil export schemes.
Eric de Place and the Tesoro Corporation's proposed horror next door 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 good things coming this week to our city's streets, and beyond there too. But first, Mark Taliano and Canadian politicians: Controlled by the transnational oligarchy.
Looking around the City of Victoria, it doesn't take a lot of insight to conclude: This place is humming! Old houses in the suburbs, and once venerable buildings in the city proper, are turning into holes in the ground; nesting pots for steel and glass condos sprouting uptown and down.
The increasing human population, both resident and transient, requires more room too; room to move into and room to get around.
Making room for those people's in-migration is, naturally, just what made this place desirable in the first place; the remnant "natural elements" within the city - that would be developer-speak for trees.
According to a Habitat Acquisition Trust report of 2013, Victoria lost the equivalent of 12 Beacon Hill Parks between 2005 and 2011; and that was before things got seriously crazy around here.
Now, another stand of trees is slated for the axe to accommodate the ever more, more, more of a Garden City in full boom...
Stuart Herzog is the long-time, Victoria-based environmental and social justice advocate currently coordinating the Victoria Citizens Action Network, a coalition of groups and individuals coming together to work on issues effecting our city and region. Right now they're focused on BC Transit's proposal to clearcut the west side of Douglas Street between Hillside and Tolmie.
Stuart Herzog in the first segment.
And; Ken Boon is a farmer in the Peace Valley, and President of the Peace Valley Landowner Association. He's in court today in Vancouver, trying to get in the path of Christy Clark's Site-C dam.
Ken Boon taking Site-C to court in the second segment.
And; host to untold hundreds of thousands of refugees from Middle East wars waged by the West, tiny Lebanon is straining at the brink of national viability; and yet somehow it's managing to cope. But, that may not last, as it increasingly appears Lebanon will be next on the ISIS hit-list.
Patrick Henningsen is a freelance journalist and co-founder of the online news site, 21st Century wire, launched during the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. Patrick's geopolitical analyses and commentaries are featured online at RT and Al Jazeera, and of course at 21Wire. I spoke to Patrick last in the wake of the Paris attacks; he's in Beirut now, and we'll try reach him to get a sense of life today in what was once called "The Paris of the Middle East."
Patrick Henningsen in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news of some of what's good to do in and around our town in the coming week, and beyond. But first, Stuart Herzog and a bus lane too far for one Victoria neighbourhood.
Welcome to the Gentle Season. Spring has indeed sprung here in our green and pleasant land, and what marks change so profoundly as this season of rebirth and growth? It's no surprise that political movements of liberation invariably make a symbol of this season.
Conversely, what could rival the cruel despair of changelessness; the bone-chilling, soul killing absence of Hope that withers the human soul, rendering life itself into frozen meaninglessness? Even so, in Palestine, where an Arab Spring never blossomed, and the people are caught in the relentless, merciless, implacable onslaught of Israeli atrocity; atrocities visited daily, year in and year out; atrocities sanctioned overtly, or through the omission of censure, by close and powerful allies like America, and to a lesser degree Canada, even so, Hope lives on.
Listen. Hear.
Heidar Abu Ghosh hails from the now disappeared village of Imwas, Palestine and has for more than a quarter century represented his people, those dispossessed by Israel following its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War in every non-violent venue available, including serving a five-year term as President of the Imwas People's Committee. Mr. Abu Ghosh is currently touring Canada to educate us about 'Canada Park', the Canadian-sponsored project that effectively buried his home village; and, he's scheduled to speak here at the University of Victoria Thursday, April 7 in the David Turpin Building.
Heidar Abu Ghosh in the first half.
And; 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.
Michael Parenti in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus, Janine Bandcroft won't join us today, but will return with news of local goings on locally and beyond another time. So first up, Heidar Abu Ghosh and 'Uncovering Canada Park: A Dispossessed Palestinian Speaks Out.'
The plans have been in place for a long time, but looking across any of southern Vancouver Island's straits now, it's clear to see the industrialization of the Salish Sea has arrived.
The sharp increase in tanker and freighter traffic though is not only effecting Victoria and Sidney, gateway to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the open Pacific beyond; up the island, between Gabriola and the Sunshine Coast, there's a scheme in play to make of the foreshore there an overflow parking lot of sorts to relieve Vancouver's lengthening line of backed-up freighters.
Franz Gigl is with Gabriolans Against Freighter Anchorage, or (GAFA), an Island-based group behind the AnchorRage campaign opposing Pacific Pilotage Authority plans to create five anchorages for coal and other commodities freighters off the picturesque Gulf Island.
Franz Gigl in the first half.
And; it's not only the straits of the southern end of the island experiencing the negative effects of industry's hyperactivity; just off Campbell River, in the Johnstone Strait, the Ocean Eagle, a barge-hauling tug ran aground last week. It seems so far, yet another fortunate near-miss for the northern reaches of the island, with the Ocean Eagle reportedly not spilling its load of fuel and/or "general cargo" into the environment. Last August a fuel barge was run aground in Surge Narrows, its 60,000 litre load of fuel narrowly avoiding being spilled into the straits.
Ingmar Lee created and maintains the Facebook site, 10,000 Ton Tanker, the only sustained media effort to bring attention to regular foreign oil tanker traffic within BC's supposed tanker moratorium area. A long-time BC-based environmental activist, Lee is campaigning to address the maritime risks going unaddressed along the province's Inside Passage.
Ingmar Lee and what the Ocean Eagle's hard landing at Chatham Point tells us about the way BC manages its waterways 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 coming to the streets of our town, and beyond, in the coming week. But first, Franz Gigl and Gabriola's rage against the maritime machine.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio's 17th FunDrive show! Yes, hard to believe...17 years of doom und gloom; and to think; when I started, I thought the World would be all sorted out by now! Well, as ever we do, today's show will differ from the usual format. I'll feature some of the music played over the last year and more, and palaver a little about the aims of the show. Janine is joining me too to talk up the station and inspire youse in the community to get involved with your station here and help us help you.
Dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in corporate and state media, Gorilla Radio airs live every Wednesday, 1pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM; online at: Gorilla-Radio.com
2016-04-14
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Dr. Naoum Odnopozov