The Daily GRRR! - January 23rd, 2015 - Waves Through Walls: Prison Radio

Welcome, I am your host Dan Kellar and you are listening to The Daily GRRR! Waves Through Walls: Prison Radio, on 100.3fm, CKMS in Waterloo, Ontario. Soundfm.ca on the web, today is Friday January 23rd, 2015.

We are broadcasting from the centre of the Haldimand Tract, the occupied Grand River Territory of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations).

The Daily GRRR! is a project of the Grand River Media Collective; and is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

The clip that kicked off the show is from Mumia Abu-Jamal with his piece entitled A Day in France. Check prisonradio.org for more of Mumia’s podcasts.

Today’s feature is from prisonradio.org with a new piece from prisoner Kenneth Hartman called The Trouble With Prison.

Now we will start with today’s headlines:

The Daily GRRR!
HEADLINES for January 23rd , 2015 
1. Federal Solitary Confinement Practices Targeted in Lawsuit
2. Waterloo Regional Cop Charged With Harassing and Threatening Family
3. Swift Current RCMP Arrested on Hard Drugs Trafficking
4. Canadian Blasphemy Law Still On The Books
5. Band Office Firebombed and Race Tagged in Campbell River
6. Canada Set to Deport Refugee Roma Family to Violence in Hungary
7. US Kept Massive Oversea Phone Call Database Until 2013

1. Federal Solitary Confinement Practices Targeted in Lawsuit
Growing tired of waiting for the government to “ finally take action”, the BC Civil Liberties Associates and the John Howard Society of Canada have launched a lawsuit against the federal government for the continued use of solitary confinement in canadian jails.

With 1 of 4 federal prisoners experiencing solitary confinement, and despite many international bodies and experts coming forward with warnings about the dangers of solitary confinement, the canadian prison industrial complex houses as many as 1800 people in solitary at any given time.

The BBCLA notes “The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and the UN Committee against Torture have concluded that prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement can amount to torture. The negative effects of long-term solitary confinement are well-documented. These effects include psychosis, hallucinations, insomnia and confusion. Solitary confinement can create mental illness where none previously existed, or exacerbate pre-existing illness. It is a risk factor for prison suicide. The suicide rate for prisoners is seven times the rate of the Canadian public, with nearly half of those suicides occurring in solitary confinement.”

The lawsuit, which challenges the constitutionality of using solitary confinement comes following the death of Edward Snowshoe, an indigenous man who killed himself following a long stint in isolation, and the findings of the inquest into the suicide of Ashley Smith at the Grand Valley Institute in Kitchener. Smith was subjected to extremely long periods in isolation before killing herself while guards watched on a screen. The lawsuit also charges that solitary confinement leads to the deaths of prisoners and discriminates against inmates in mental distress and indigenous inmates.

News360 notes “Studies have shown the harm of segregation is particularly acute and irreparable for young people. Their developing brains, pliable social skills and unformed psychology absorb the experience in strange and irreversible ways.”

The case could go to trial next year, though the whole thing could shift to the supreme court which would lengthen any process.

2. Waterloo Regional Cop Charged With Harassing and Threatening Family
Waterloo Regional Police HQ is keeping a tight lip over the arrest of an officer after the cop was charged with criminal harassment, uttering threats, unauthorized possession of a firearm and making harassing phone calls.

The cop was off duty when the incidents which led to his arrest occurred and his identity is being kept secret because he was charged after his own family turned him in for the behaviour that was targeted at them.

This is yet another case which shows the violent behaviour of cops, especially when they take off the uniform. This dirtball cop will be in court on february 11th.

3. Swift Current RCMP Arrested on Hard Drugs Trafficking
An RCMP officer for 7 years, and most recently posted in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, 31 year old Michael Chachula has now been arrested and charged with trafficking cocaine and ecstasy.

A months long investigation was sparked after a criminal complaint against the mountie, and further investigation led them to arrest the cop for selling cocaine and ecstasy, drugs that inevitably got into the hands and blood streams of kids who were not educated to safely and responsibly consume such hard drugs.

Chachula will be in court February 18th and is yet another toxic apple found oozing in the rotten orchard better known as the RCMP.

4.Canadian Blasphemy Law Still On The Books
In the aftermath of the murders of French satirists at the Charlie Hebdo magazine by men claiming to be acting in concert with AQAP, many canadians have posted many fundamentalist or “holier than thou” comments around free speech.

Most mainstream commentary completely lacks any discussion around power relations as they relate to free speech, and fail to criticise satire when it jumps into the realm of racism.

While such discussion has been covered on the Daily GRRR! previously, today I wanted to point to recent articles from the toronto star which point out that Blasphemy laws still exist in canada and have been used as recently as 1980.

The laws have only been used a couple of times since its creation in 1892 but both times the blasphemy was directed at Christianity.

It is not just anti-Jesus speech that will get you in trouble in canada. It is also worth remembering that i myself was arrested several years ago by the OPP for posting information and a poem online which shared my feelings about a cop who had infiltrated several protest group i was then a member of.

5. Band Office Firebombed and Race Tagged in Campbell River
Anti-native racist messaging was tagged on the walls before the band office of the Mamalilikulla-Qwe'Qwa'Sot'Em was firebombed. The office sustained 40,000$ in damages and the RCMP in Campbell River, on Vancouver Island may consider the arson and the racist spray painting as a hate crime.

No arrests have been made and the investigation continues after the attack last week.

6. Canada Set to Deport Refugee Roma Family to Violence in Hungary
While 2 of their adult children have been accepted as refugees, Anasztazia Szilagyi and Dezso Nemeth have been ordered deported back to Hungary with their 21 year old son and 10 year old daughter.

The family, who fled Hungary in 2011 amidst rising racial violence is being supported by solidarity across borders in a last minute campaign to cancel the January 28th deportation order. They also have applied for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds but have not received an answer.

Leah Freedman, for Solidarity Across Borders said “The fact that the two older children were accepted shows that refugee board officials do not agree with the Conservative government that Hungary is safe for Roma.”

The Campaign asks people to:

Write or call Federal Minister of Immigration Chris Alexander and Federal Minister of Public Safety Steve Blaney and ask them to stop the Nemeth family’s deportation and give them status in Canada. Point out that the family have been denied a pre-removal risk assessment, which would assess the violence that this family faces before their January 28th deportation date, and that they have an application for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds currently in process.
CONTACT DETAILS:
E-Mail: Minister@cic.gc.ca and Chris.Alexander@parl.gc.ca or Fax: 613-996-1289 or Fax: 905-426-9564
Email: steven.blaney@parl.gc.ca and blanes1b@parl.gc.ca or Fax: 418-830-0504

7. US Kept Massive Oversea Phone Call Database Until 2013
A US district judge has allowed information to be release concerning a massive data gathering project undertaken by the US government for at least a decade ending in 2013. The project collected information about outbound calls from the US to several other countries, using War on Drugs legislation from 1988.

The project came to light during the prosecution of an U.S.-Iranian dual national who is accused of unlawfully exporting non-military technology to Iran. Hassanshahi’s attorney, Saied Kashani, told the Washington Post, “The government has converted the war on drugs into a war on privacy...They’ve used a statute, which is designed for limited subpoenas to get information about drug trafficking, and used it to gather routinely and monthly records of every phone call placed by every American overseas, and then they’re making this information available secretly to every other government agency.”

Thats all for the headlines, now for some
Midway Musichere is a tune off of David Rovics’s new album Meanwhile In Afghanistan. This is Watch Out for the Cops
http://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/meanwhile-in-afghanistan-double-album

And we are back, you just heard Watch Out for the Cops
from David Rovics’s new album Meanwhile In Afghanistan.

You are listening to Waves Through Walls edition of The Daily GRRR! Today is January 23rd , 2015, my name is Dan Kellar and we are now moving into the feature portion of our broadcast.

Today’s feature is from >prisonradio.org with a new piece from prisoner Kenneth Hartman called The Trouble With Prison.

That was Kenneth Hartman with his new prisonradio.org piece called The Trouble With Prison.

This has been the The Daily GRRR! for January 23rd , 2015. We are on weekdays from 9-10am on 100.3fm CKMS in Waterloo region, and http://soundfm.ca on the web. Check out all our past shows and other Grand River Media Collective work on our webpage http://grandrivermc.ca

The Daily GRRR! is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

Stay tuned in for more Grand River Radical Radio after we close the podcast.

Thanks for Listening.

END OF SHOW