This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook

Christopher White is a University of Alberta alumnus who does, despite Mr. Harper's assurances to the contrary, care about the operation of democracy in Canada. He cared enough in fact to set up 'Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament,' a Facebook site that has in the two weeks since Harper's unilateral move signed up scores of thousands of Canadians who insist they do care about Canadian democracy.

 

Christopher White in the first half. 

 

Listen. Hear.

 

Andrew Nikiforuk is a Canadian journalist and author whose titles include: 'Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, 'The Fourth Horseman,' 'Pandemonium' and the Governor-General's Award-winning Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil'.  He is also the recipient of eight National Magazine Awards and an Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy.

 

A new year and a familiar scenario in Canada. It's deja vu all over again in Canadian politics for 2010; in 2009, the Harper government started the year by shutting down the country's parliament with a precedent-setting use of proroguing. The press and opposition howled then, and they're howling now that Harper has made the pre-emtive shut down of the House a tradition. But the prime minister is dismissive of criticism. He says, as with the Afghanistan quagmire, his pollsters tell him, "Canadians don't care about this." Christopher White is a University of Alberta alumnus who does, despite Mr. Harper's assurances to the contrary, care about the operation of democracy in Canada. He cared enough in fact to set up 'Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament,' a Facebook site that has in the two weeks since Harper's unilateral move signed up scores of thousands of Canadians who insist they do care about Canadian democracy. Christopher White in the first half.

And; the first bomb went off in October of 2008, since then, five more explosions have targeted the Encana pipeline in the north-east of British Columbia. So far, the RCMP, CSIS, and various independent security experts have failed to come any closer to finding the person or persons responsible. Despite the lack of information on the case, the RCMP arrested Wiebo Ludwig, an Alberta farmer and religious leader who spent two years in jail following RCMP attempts to entrap him in another bombing campaign aimed at the oil and gas industry in that province. Ludwig is out now, the RCMP saying they do not possess the evidence needed to hold him further.

 

Andrew Nikiforuk is a Canadian journalist and author whose titles include: 'Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, 'The Fourth Horseman,' and Pandemonium the Governor-General's Award-winning Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil'.  He is a recipient of eight National Magazine Awards and an Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy. Andrew Nikiforuk and back to the big oil's future in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster Janine Bandcroft will join us to keep us current with the cruelest month on the city's streets. But first, Christopher White and Prorogued: The Harper Parliament That Couldn't.  

 

 

 

Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, David Barsamian, Rhoda Berenson, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, William Bowles, Mordecai Briemberg, James J. Brittain, Vincent Bugliosi, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Juan Cole, David Cromwell, Murray Dobbin, Jon Elmer, Reese Erlich, Anthony Fenton, Jim Fetzer, Laura Flanders, Chris Floyd, Connie Fogal, Glen Ford, Susan George, Stan Goff, Amy Goodman, Robert Greenwald, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Sander Hicks, Julia Butterfly Hill, Scott Horton, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Chalmers Johnson, Diana Johnstone, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Brewster Kneen, Betty Krawczyk, Anthony Lappe, Frances Moore Lappe, Jason Leopold, Jeff Leys, Dave Lindorff, Jim Lobe, Jennifer Loewenstein, Wayne Madsen, Stephen Marshall, Linda McQuaig, George Monbiot, Loretta Napoleoni, John Nichols, Kurt Nimmo, David Orchard, Greg Palast, Mike Palecek, Michael Parenti, Robert Parry, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, William Rivers Pitt, Justin Podur, Lila Rajiva, Jack Random, Sheldon Rampton, Paul Craig Roberts, David Robb, Paul de Rooij, John Ross, David Rovics, Danny Schechter, David Schindler, Vandana Shiva, Norman Solomon, Starhawk, Grant Wakefield, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.