Canada’s Little Known but Once Flourishing Slave Trade

by Yves Engler - Dissident Voice

March 29th, 2017 

We love our tales about how “Canada” offered sanctuary to US slaves for decades, but the unabridged version is it sustained African bondage for much longer. In a recent Rabble.ca story titled “Canada’s earliest immigration policies made it a safe haven for escaped slaves”, Penney Kome ignores the fact that Africans were held in bondage here for 200 years and that the Atlantic provinces had important ties to the Caribbean plantation economies.

According to Kome, Canada’s relationship to slavery consisted of the oft-discussed Underground Railway that brought Africans in bondage north to freedom.

But, she ignores the southbound “underground railroad” during the late 1700s that took many Canadian slaves to Vermont and other Northern US states that had abolished slavery. Even more slaves journeyed to freedom in Michigan and New England after the war of 1812.

The Sleazy Origins of Russia-gate 

by Robert Parry - Consortium News

March 29, 2017

An irony of the escalating hysteria about the Trump camp’s contacts with Russians is that one presidential campaign in 2016 did exploit political dirt that supposedly came from the Kremlin and other Russian sources.

Friends of that political campaign paid for this anonymous hearsay material, shared it with American journalists and urged them to publish it to gain an electoral advantage.

But this campaign was not Donald Trump’s; it was Hillary Clinton’s.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

And, awareness of this activity doesn’t require you to spin conspiracy theories about what may or may not have been said during some seemingly innocuous conversation. In this case, you have open admissions about how these Russian/Kremlin claims were used.

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

March 29, 2017

37 years have passed since the brutal assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, and while Romero's murder is ancient history in the modern media context, it hasn't been allowed to rest forgotten entirely. There are still those seeking justice for the Archbishop, and it's that search chronicled in the newly released book, 'Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Óscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice'.

Matt Eisenbrandt is a Victoria-based human-rights attorney and Legal Director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice. In addition to the prosecution of war crimes, Matt also focuses on corporate accountability. He's a member of the legal team involved in bringing lawsuits against Nevsun Resources and Tahoe Resources, cases involving the alleged use of slave labour in Eritrean mines, and human rights abuses in Guatemala, to Canadian courts.

Listen. Hear.

Matt will be at Friday's Cafe Simpatico to launch his book, 'Assassination of a Saint' in commemoration of the anniversary of Archbishop Romero's death, and to discuss his human rights work with CCIJ.

Matt Eisenbrandt in the first half.

 And; as the crimes and criminals of Latin America's Dirty War are yet to be addressed and arrested, so too the embers of the Cold War have smoldered unchecked. Nearly thirty years past George H. W. Bush's declaration of a "peace dividend" to follow the end of the Soviet empire, a new generation of political opportunist has rediscovered the "Red Menace" and is busy now fanning the flame of a new, and hotter Cold War.

John Helmer is a long-time, Moscow-based journalist, author, and essayist. The Australian says his website, Dances with Bears is the only news bureau “independent of single national or commercial ties.” He’s also a former political science professor who has served as an advisor to governments on three continents and regularly lectures on Russian topics. Helmer's book titles include: ‘Uncovering Russia,’ ‘Urbanman: The Psychology of Urban Survival,’ ‘Bringing the War Home: The American Soldier in Vietnam and After,’ and ‘Drugs and Minority Oppression’ among others.

John’s recent article, 'The US War Had Been Good for President Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Economy Looks Stable Through the Presidential Election. So If You Are a US Warfighter, What Is the Regime Change Opportunity Now?' flies in the face of the latest Western press narrative.

John Helmer and depictions of an unpopular Putin perilously perched atop a precarious Kremlin in the second half.

And; CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events update of some of the good things going planned around here in the coming week. But first, Matt Eisenbrandt and requiem for an Assassinated Saint.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

As Trump's Denialists Get to Work, the Climate Is Changing 170 Times Faster 

by Dahr Jamail - Truthout 

March 27, 2017

You can feel it, can't you?

You already know what is happening to the planet. To Gaia. To Earth. To the only planet humankind will ever "permanently" inhabit. We've nowhere else to go but here ... this incredible, majestic, beautiful Garden of Eden that has held us, and carried us, this far.

We have ignored the fact that we are, at best, mere stewards. We have forsaken the Earth by fantasizing that the planet was ours to control. To exploit. To manipulate. To drill, mine and desecrate. To gain riches from. The balance is upset, the die is cast, now we reap the consequences of a whirlwind of forces so vast we cannot comprehend them.

We needn't look far to see how very far off the climate precipice we have already fallen, as our pace accelerates by the day. A recent study, Extinction Risk from Climate Change, published in the prestigious journal Nature, shows that half the species on Earth today will likely disappear by the middle of the century -- within 33 years.

Although this information is devastating, perhaps we should not be surprised, since we've known for years now that we have already entered the Earth's sixth mass extinction event.

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D. Rockefeller’s Gruesome Legacy

by F. William Engdahl

26 March 2017

The death of David Rockefeller, the de facto Patriarch of the American establishment, at age 101, is being greeted by establishment media with praise for his alleged philanthropy.

I would like to contribute to a more honest picture of the person.

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Does BC Premier Christy Clark have a sketchy reputation?

by PressProgress (Broadbent Institute)

March 21, 2017

The Victoria Times-Colonist's editorial board recently suggested Clark's "ethical standards" do not reflect "the values British Columbians should expect from political parties."

Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail's editorial board said Clark's BC Liberal government is "addicted to money" and added that "the perception that corporate money is influencing government decisions is impossible to avoid."

From sketchy donations to dodgy expenses to unethical conduct to straight-up scandals, here are 41 times Clark's BC Liberal government showed that after all these years in power, they might not have a lot of integrity.

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The Cold, Hard Facts Of Life – A Reappraisal

by David Edwards - Medialens

Cogitations
 
January 24, 2017

The alarm clock rings. I set it myself but it feels like it's linked to some centralised system ordering the nation's workforce awake. I swing my feet out into an unwelcoming, cold room; put on my clothes, including grey socks, grey suit, black shoes, and the white shirt I ironed the night before.

As usual, I leave the top button undone and attempt to hide my disobedience beneath a colourful, strangling tie. I have a sense that I'm able to breathe in the space between the open top button and the loose knot of the tie, that some small freedom resides there. 

I crawl out onto an icy, pitch-black street to join a steadily growing stream of commuters flowing like rainwater down the gutters and into the London Tube.

I'm aware of an internal resistance, like a hand pressing on my chest, against which I have to push. I travel one and a quarter hours, with a single change at Tottenham Court Road, journeying from the South to the West of London.

Will Washington Risk WW3 to Block an Emerging EU-Russia Superstate

by Mike Whitney - CounterPunch

March 23, 2017

“Russia is an inalienable and organic part of Greater Europe and European civilization. Our citizens think of themselves as Europeans…That’s why Russia proposes moving towards the creation of a common economic space from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, a community referred to by Russian experts as ‘the Union of Europe’ which will strengthen Russia’s potential in its economic pivot toward the ‘new Asia.’”

The relentless demonization of Vladimir Putin is just one part of Washington’s multi-pronged strategy to roll-back Russian power in Central Asia and extinguish Putin’s dream of a “Greater Europe”.

Along with the attempt to smear the Russian president as a “KGB thug” and “dictator”, the media has also alleged that Moscow intervened in the US presidential elections and that Russia is a serial aggressor that poses a growing threat to European and US national security.

The media onslaught, which has greatly intensified since the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, has been accompanied by harsh economic sanctions, asymmetrical attacks on Russia’s markets and currency, the arming and training of Russian adversaries in Ukraine and Syria, the calculated suppression of oil prices, and a heavy-handed effort to sabotage Russia’s business relations in Europe. In short, Washington is doing everything in its power to prevent Russia and Europe from merging into the world’s biggest free trade zone that will be the center of global growth and prosperity for the next century.

This is why the US State Department joined with the CIA to topple the elected government of Ukraine in 2014. Washington hoped that by annexing a vital landbridge between the EU and Asia, US powerbrokers could control critical pipeline corridors that are drawing the two continents closer together into an alliance that will exclude the United States.

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Reality and the U.S.-Made Famine in Yemen 

by Kathy Kelly - CounterPunch

March 22, 2017

This week at the VCNV office in Chicago, my colleague Sabia Rigby prepared a presentation for a local high school. She’ll team up with a young friend of ours, himself a refugee from Iraq, to talk about refugee crises driven by war.

Sabia recently returned from Kabul where she helped document the young Afghan Peace Volunteers’ efforts to help bring warmth, food and education to internally displaced families living in makeshift camps, having fled the Afghan War when it raged near their former homes.

Photo by Gerry and Bonni | CC BY 2.0 

Last year Sabia had been visiting with refugees in “the Calais Jungle,” who were fleeing the Middle East and several African countries for Britain. Thwarted from crossing the English Channel, a large mass of people were stopped in this refugee camp in Calais, France, from which French authorities eventually evacuated them, defying their careful solidarity and burning their camp to the ground.

As part of her high school talk, Sabia prepared a handout to show where refugees are the most welcomed. One detail astonished her.

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

March 22, 2017 

Almost as famous in Canada for the billions of government dollars cycled through its operations as it is for the seminal snow vehicle, the Ski-doo, Bombardier Inc. is currently earning international recognition too; though infamy might be the more accurate descriptor of reaction to the aerospace giant's involvement in the A1 rail project promising to dissect centuries-old villages, disrupting the lives and destroying the livelihoods of people who will likely never be allowed to use the high-speed double-decker train carriages rocketing through their communities.

What's worse though is, despite the A1's probable illegality under international law, Bombardier's participation in the project chugs along with the full support of the Canadian state.

Listen. Hear.

Dave Thomas is an associate professor in the department of politics and international relations at Mount Allison University on Mi’kmaq territory, whose teaching and research interests focus on the role Canadian actors abroad play in international political economy, and the study of critical pedagogy.

His recent article in Briarpatch Magazine, 'Bombardier and Israel: A corporation’s complicity in Palestinian dispossession' examines this country's part in the contentious AI High-Speed rail project, cutting through Palestine's West Bank.

Dave Thomas in the first half.

And; in what may prove a preview of things to come on this side of the Pacific, last week South Korea's president was removed from office in a political influence corruption scandal, the investigation of which this week reached into the boardrooms of some the country's biggest companies.

Park Geun-hye, daughter of South Korea's assassinated former military dictator, Park Chung-hee was impeached in December, but until last week enjoyed presidential immunity. The case has ignited a furore in the South, even as tensions escalate between North Korea and the Combined Forces Command, currently holding the biggest ever of its annual Foal Eagle "war games" exercises.

Tim Shorrock is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist, musician, and author of the book, 'Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.' His articles appear at his website, TimShorrock.com, and in the Washington Post. Tim grew up in Asia, and spent much of the 1980's in Japan, reporting on the financial intrigues of the then-biggest of the Asian Tiger economies.

Tim Shorrock in the second half.

And; passionate educator, horticultural innovator, and intrepid green business entrepreneur, Christina Nikolic will be here with the Left Coast News and Events update at the bottom of the hour. But first, Dave Thomas and "a [Canadian] corporation’s complicity in Palestinian dispossession."

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Wednesday, 1-2pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

NYT’s ‘Tinfoil Hat’ Conspiracy Theory

by Robert Parry - Consortium News

March 19, 2017 

There are real reasons to worry about President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, including his casual belligerence toward Iran and North Korea and his failure to rethink U.S. alliances with Saudi Arabia and Israel, but The New York Times obsesses on Trump’s willingness to work with Russia.

On Saturday, the Times devoted most of its op-ed page to the Times’ favorite conspiracy theory, that Trump is Vladimir Putin’s “Manchurian candidate” though evidence continues to be lacking.

The op-ed package combined a “What to Ask About Russian Hacking” article by Louise Mensch, a former Conservative member of the British Parliament who now works for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and a connect-the-dots graphic that when filled out shows the Kremlin sitting atop the White House.

But the featured article actually revealed how flimsy and wacky the Times’ conspiracy theory is.

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The Dangerous Reality of an Iran War

by Sharmine Narwani  - The American Conservative

March 15, 2017

A new war in the Persian Gulf could start accidentally—and would take a toll on U.S. forces.

BEIRUT—After weeks of saber-rattling over Iran as the “number one terrorist state” in the world, the Trump administration appears to have quietly dialed down the rhetoric a notch. Here in the Middle East, however, where every peep and creak out of Washington is scrutinized to death, interested parties haven’t stopped speculating about a confrontation with Iran.

Fifty days into his term, Trump’s foreign-policy course remains an enigma. He swears “all options” remain on the table with Iran—but do they?

USS McCampbell and aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in

Persian Gulf. (Wikimedia Commons)