This week: How can we describe to the ages the circumstance, wherein a good man, a humble man, a medical man, can be sent headlong into the maw of America's prison system, now internationally recognized for its systemic sadism, for the crime of aiding the sick, hungry, and dispossessed? But just so is the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, condemned to a life of purposefully inflicted pain and privation, with little hope of deliverance.

Katherine Hughes is an artist/potter who attended most every day of Rafil Dhafir's three and a half month trial, bearing witness to the abrogation of justice by lawyers, witnesses, and the judges of his case. She has, in the long interim since his 2003 kangaroo court trial worked diligently to educate the public about Dr. Dhafir's fate.

And; Linda Taffs is a Victoria-based peace and justice activist. She is a founding member of the Campaign to End the Sanctions Against the People of Iraq, and traveled to that country with the Canadian Peace Team in the lead up to what became 'Operation Iraqi Liberation.'

 

Katherine Hughes and Linda Taffs in the first half.

 

Ten years into the Ever War, what has become of we, the self-styled Western arbiters of world order? As modern-day sage, George Orwell proverbially says; "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." Orwell could too have added; "in those times, the depravity of power is so complete, human compassion itself becomes subversive." How else can we describe to the ages the circumstance, wherein a good man, a humble man, a medical man, can be sent headlong into the maw of America's prison system, now internationally recognized for its systemic sadism, for the crime of aiding the sick, hungry, and dispossessed? But just so is the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, condemned to a life of purposefully inflicted pain and privation, with little hope of deliverance.

Katherine Hughes is an artist/potter who attended most every day of Rafil Dhafir's three and a half month trial, bearing witness to the abrogation of justice by lawyers, witnesses, and the judges of his case. She has, in the long interim since his 2003 kangaroo court trial worked diligently to educate the public about Dr. Dhafir's case, the criminalization of Islamic charities, and the threat to American democracy inherent in the persecution of those supporting them. Hughes is currently working on a documentary film exploring the case of the good doctor done wrong.

And; Linda Taffs is a Victoria-based peace and justice activist. She is a founding member of the Campaign to End the Sanctions Against the People of Iraq, and traveled to that country with the Canadian Peace Team in the lead up to what became 'Operation Iraqi Liberation.'
 
Katherine Hughes and Linda Taffs in the first half.

 

And; just how did we get here, and what underpins the continuance of what was originally sold to us as the Global War on Terror, or GWOT? Joshua Blakeney is a Calgary-based freelance journalist and activist. Blakeney's research became national news after being awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship to study the Origins of the Global War on Terror. Since, Joshua Blakeney has published numerous articles on the GWOT, the 9/11 attacks preceding it, and the role of corporate and state media in sustaining the myths that help perpetuate it.

Joshua Blakeney 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 our city's streets over the past tumultuous week, and to brief us on the Vancouver observation of the weekend's continent-wide demonstrations for systemic. But first, Katherine Hughes and Linda Taffs on the cause and costs of defender humanity in modern day America.