The numbers are staggering: last year, more than 4,000 Canadians suffered premature and completely preventable deaths, and more are dying this year and will continue to do so largely because Canada’s political representatives lack the courage and vision to change a system that literally gives up for dead citizens it regards as lost causes.
Next week, February 20th, in Victoria and across the country, the National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis will take to the streets yet again in efforts to bring the Justice system to its senses and reform finally the nation’s drugs policies.
Garth Mullins is a long-time Vancouver-based DTES activist, writer, broadcaster, musician, trade unionist, contributor to CBC Radio One’s Ideas program, and his weekly column past appeared at 24 Hours Vancouver. He’s also been at the fore, with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, responding to that city’s ongoing overdose crisis.
Garth Mullins in the first half.
And; while Washington debates whether Donald Trump believes Haiti to be either “shithole” or “shithouse” uncontested is the under-reported fact, “peacekeepers” from the euphemistically known “United” Nations used at least one of Haiti’s rivers as an open sewer, initiating the cholera epidemic that august body is yet to take full responsibility for. Thus is the fate it seems for long-suffering Haiti, despoiled and denigrated by its powerful neighbours, and through their intervention “humanitarian” and otherwise kept the poorest of the Western Hemisphere’s countries.
Mark Schuller is Associate Professor of Anthropology and NGO Leadership and Development at Northern Illinois University and affiliate at the Faculté d’Ethnologie, l’Université d’État d’Haïti. He is the author or co-editor of six books, including the forthcoming ‘Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti’. Schuller is also co-director/co-producer of the documentary Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy (2009), and he’s active in several solidarity efforts. His recent CounterPunch article asks, ‘What Is a Shithole Country and Why is Trump So Obsessed with Haiti?‘
Mark Schuller and anatomy of a shithole in the second half.
And; Victoria-based activist and CFUV Radio broadcaster at-large, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events bulletin of good things you can get up to around here in the coming week. But first, Garth Mullins and wearing the red for the reform of Canada’s drugs policies.
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/