Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture

An interview with Matthew, coordinator of the Caravan to End Canada's Complicity in Torture. Matthew joined us by phone from Coberg, Ontario. He is currently travelling from Toronto to Ottawa with Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin, Ahmad El Maati, and others. Matthew discusses canada's role in rendition and torture. He also discusses the importance of the public education campaign as well as the Ottawa events scheduled during the Caravans. Arrival. Info available at nowar-paix.ca

download interview here.

Abousfian Abdelrazik - Another Victim of the "War on Terror"

An interview with Yavar Hameed, lawyer for Abousfian Abdelrazik. Mr. Adbelrazik is a 46-year-old Sudanese Canadian currently held in a kafka-esque limbo in Sudan. Evidence has been presented that Canadian officials have provided information to Sudanese officials and encouraged them to arrest and interrogate Mr. Abdelrazik. The case looks very similar to other torture and rendition victims. Mr. Hameed discusses the role of Canadian officials in styming efforts to repatriate Mr. Abdelrazik. The case exposes - again - the double standards of canadian citizenship and the racist machinations of the "war on terror".

download the interview here.

T.O Terror "18" and Canada's Terror Bust Propaganda

*recorded april 21st (sorry for the delay)

A discussion with investigative journalist and professor of Journalism Andrew Mitrovich. Four more of the so-called "Toronto 18" had their charges stayed the week before this interview was recorded. Andrew discusses the effects of these false charges and high-profile arrests on the members of the 18. He outlines the lenghty police and intelligence agency incopetence as well as discussing the media's short-comings in covering the original arrests as well as the subsequent trials.

Andrew is one of Canada’s leading investigative journalists. He has won numerous national and international awards for his reporting. He has written scores of front-page exposés about Canada’s spy service -- including breaking the stories of the top-secret documents stolen from an agent’s van while she watched a hockey game, and of the CSIS agent who wilfully destroyed evidence in the Air India bombing in order to protect a source.

He is the author of several books and articles, including Covert Entry: Spies, Lies and Crimes Inside Canada's Secret Service.

Listen to the interview here.

Afghanistan: The (In)justice System

This week we spoke with Sahr MuhammedAlly, from Human Rights First. She is the lead author of the report, Arbitrary Justice: Trials of Guantánamo and Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan, published last week. The report details the U.S./Canada interference in politicised trials stemming from former Guantanamo detainees. It also details the substantial short-comings of the Afghan criminal system and details prison conditions facing individuals rendered by Canadian, International, and Afghan authorities.

The interview is available here.

You can download the report from Human Rights First.

Investing In Conflict: Canadian Mining Companies, Militarisation, Resistance

We spoke with journalist/activist/researcher Dawn Paley. Dawn is based out of San Marcos, Guatemala. She discusses the activities of Canadian mining firm Goldcorp, among others, and community resistance efforts.

Interview is available here.

Dawn Paley's blog:
http://blog.reportero.org/

Dawn will be speaking in Ottawa, March 25th. The event is at Carleton U., 2017 Dunton Tower. 6pm - FREE.

Info on the event:
http://www.opirg-carleton.org/content/

Rendition, Torture, and the State

An interview with rendition victim Abdullah Almalki. Abdullah is a Canadian citizen who was detained, interrogated and tortured in Syria because of information that could have only originated from Canadian government agencies.

He is one of the individuals whose case is currently under review by the secretive Iacobucci inquiry. For an excellent backgrounder please see Amnesty 's detailed chronology.

The interview is available here.

Four Years Later: Eyewitness Reports on Haiti Today

This week marks the 4th anniversary of the February 29 2004 coup d’état that overthrew Haiti’s democratically elected government. The Canada-Haiti Action Network organised an event featuring three individuals who've recently travelled to Haiti.

We spoke with Darren Ell; a photographer and independent journalist based in Montréal. Darren spent almost three weeks in Haiti in January 2008 were he met with trade union organizers, health care providers, and other grassroots movement activists.

He discusses his trip, the current conditions in Haiti, Canada's role in the coup, the privitisation of vital services through "aid" administered by NGOs, among other things. His photo exhibit will be opening in September, in Montreal. The interview is available HERE.

Resistance to Petro Development in Peru

On 19 December 2007, the Federation of Indigenous Cacataibo Communities (FENACOCA), the Peruvian NGO Instituto del Bien Común, and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL); with the support of the Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP), have requested precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to protect the lives, health and physical integrity of Cacataibo indigenous peoples living in isolation in the Peruvian Amazon. The Cacataibo peoples in isolation are threatened by oil and gas exploration in their traditionally occupied territories.

The Cacataibo Indigenous peoples in isolation live in the areas superimposed by the Block 107 oil and gas exploration concession in the Cordillera Azul region in the central Peruvian Amazon. There is overwhelming historical evidence that shows that forced contact with indigenous peoples in isolation results in serious illnesses and numerous deaths. Yet, despite the high risk of forced contact and life-threatening diseases, the Peruvian government approved oil and gas exploration in the traditional territories of the indigenous Cacataibo peoples in August 2007. The Canadian company, Petrolífera Petroleum Del Peru S.A.C., has recently begun laying down lines of explosives to conduct seismic testing, as part of its exploration for oil and gas in Block 107.

We spoke with Marcos, a member of the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL) about the efforts to resist Petrolífera Petroleum's incursions into Cacataibo territories.

The audio is available HERE.

The Dominion - Own Your Media Tour

The Dominion is an excellent grassroots news service. They are undertaking a cross-country tour to discuss their 5 year plan, decision making structure and, in general, a vision for independent media. We spoke with Hillary, one of the Dominion's organisers.

For more info, visit www.dominionpaper.ca

The interview is available HERE.

Angela Davis Lecture

Here's the full audio from the Angela Davis lecture. The lecture took place Feb. 1st, in Southem Hall at Carleton University. Please enjoy!

AUDIO HERE.

Not In Our Name (NION-Ottawa)

Organized by Not In Our Name – Jewish Voices Against Israel's Wars are one of the groups that helped organise Israel Apartheid Week in Ottawa.

Not In Our Name (NION) network that began in Toronto, Ontario, during the summer of 2006, in solidarity with the people of Lebanon and Palestine against Israel’s wars and in opposition to the complicity of the Canadian government with Israel’s criminal actions.

We spoke with Corey, a member of NION's Ottawa chapter. The interview is available here:
http://www.opirg-carleton.org/riseup/audio/080207NION.MP3

The War on Drugs

In an attempt to stave off the emerging Canadiana version of the U.S. War on Drugs, activists from
the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) brought their message to Garrison Hill. We spoke with Tara, Kila, and Max.

The interview can be heard here:
http://www.opirg-carleton.org/riseup/audio/080204harmreduction.mp3

You can check out a detailed report from Tara on Rabble, here.

Beyond Bullets: Suppression of Dissent

An interview with Jules Boykoff, author of Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the U.S published by AK Press. Boykoff discusses his book and the various modes of suppression used by the U.S. government over the past 100 years. He discusses the neutralisation and/or destruction of various movements including but not limited to: civil rights, BPP, early labour/anarcho, and current earth lib/animal lib. He also discusses the role of the corporate media in suppressing social justice campaigns.

The book, Beyond Bullets, is available at the infoshop!

The interview is downloadable from A-Infos:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=26409

Anarchists Against the Wall

A conversation with Sahar, from the Israel/Palestine-based Anarchists Against the Wall. AATW describe themselves as a direct action group that was established in 2003 in response to the construction of the wall Israel is building on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank. The group works in cooperation with Palestinians in a joint non violent struggle against the occupation.

Check out their website:
www.awalls.org

Download the interview:
www.opirg-carleton.org/riseup/audio/080114sahar.mp3

No Nukes!

An interview w/ David from the Ottawa Coalition Against Mining Uranium (OCAMU). OCAMU are the folks behind the Jim Harding tour, so we spoke about the group, it's organising and the perils of uranium for the ottawa environment/watershed.

The interview is available for download here:
http://www.opirg-carleton.org/riseup/audio/080121ocamu.mp3

You can also listen to an interview with author/activist Jim Harding about his new book, Canada's Deadly Secret, on the A-Info's website.

You can also check out the OCAMU websites, http://ocamu.org/drupal/, or know-uranium.org.

Project Censored 2007 List

In what is becoming an annual tradition, the rise-up took a bite into this year's list of the 25 top stories from Project Censored. Steve co-hosts this show as we go through what we feel are the particularly relevant stories for a can-con audience.
You can check out all the info from the Project Censored website (it's probably more interesting than listening to us two jerks):
http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2008/index.htm

If you'd prefer to listen to our rendition of the list, you can download the broadcast here:
http://www.opirg-carleton.org/riseup/audio/steve.mp3

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