Spain’s constitutional crisis geared up last week with the unilateral declaration of independence issued from the separatist Catalonia government of Carles Puigdumont.
Predictably, Madrid made good on it’s threat to turf out the regional government, and went further: arresting those in the pro- Independence leadership that hadn’t already slipped out of the country, banning the independence movement outright, and taking over Catalunya’s media, police, and government bureaucracy.
The lament going up today in Spain is for the death of democracy, a haunting reminder of the country’s not so distant fascist past.
Dr. Pablo Ouziel is a Post-Doctoral fellow at UVic whose project in progress is, ‘Towards Democratic Responses to the Crisis of Democracy in Spain: Forms of Participatory and Representative Civic Engagement.’
Pablo Ouziel in the first half.
And; the Pop-Up Prayer Vigil encampment has moved along to Saanich. The ongoing homelessness camp and protest site has been on the move weekly, spending the last few weeks at various locations in Oak Bay; much to the consternation of local authorities, residents, and an increasingly hostile local media. Chrissy Brett is spokesperson, and self-described “head cat herder” for the Vigil/Protest movement. I spoke with her a few days ago about what they hope to accomplish.
Chrissy Brett keeping a vigil for homelessness in the second segment.
And; activist efforts to ban the capture and incarceration of whales and dolphins scored a major victory in Vancouver earlier this year when City Council voted to ban the practice, despite intense lobbying by the Vancouver Aquarium and its industry allies. That victory wasn’t the end of the struggle, nor even the beginning of the end; but perhaps it was, as Winston ‘the Whale’ Churchill would say, “the end of beginning” of the campaign to stop world-wide the obviously barbarous practice of cetacean imprisonment.
Camille Labchuk is Executive Director of Animal Justice, an organization dedicated to looking out for the legal interests of animals, exposing cruel and systemic practices creating animal suffering both in the wild and in agriculture, and seeking meaningful policy changes to redress those practices.
Camille Labchuk and whales (and dolphins) for the saving in the final segment.
And; Victoria-based activist and CFUV Radio broadcaster at-large, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin. But first, Pablo Ouziel and Spanish democracy’s dark night of the soul breaking on an uncertain morning.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/