Kevin Annett: Co-Op Radio Cancels The Monday Brownbagger Program

Please disseminate widely

As a programmer of the Monday Brownbagger program and as the program’s founder, this is to notify the public, especially supporters of Co-op Radio in Vancouver, that the Monday Brownbagger has been cancelled.  The decision was made by the programming committee and then passed on to the board of Co-op Radio.  The board subsequently decided to cancel the program on a pretext that Kevin Kelso, Monday Brownbagger programmer, had violated on two separate occasions the programming policy of the radio station.  This cancellation was done unilaterally, without an opportunity of any Monday Brownbagger member to challenge the cancellation in front of the board.

The cancellation of the Monday Brownbagger program follows a similar cancellation of the program Hidden From History, a program that focussed on the systematic atrocities against native children and native adults by the church, the state, the RCMP and the Vancouver police force.  The cancellation of Hidden From History was also done in an unilateral manner with no recourse given to its programmer, Kevin Annett.  These two cancellations have set a precedent by Co-op Radio for tyrannical actions against its programmers.   

Kevin Annett and some members of the Monday Brownbagger collective are now involved in an ongoing campaign to expose the incestuous and illegal activities within Vancouver Co-op Radio as perpetrated by some of its staff and its board members.  They will be submitting regular articles and reports to Vancouver’s Agora newspaper (www.agoranews.org/) and other media.

These actions, in reality, spell the end of a co-operative radio station in Vancouver.  In addition, the actions are also effectively eliminating programs that are critical of wrongdoings of Co-op Radio, but also wrongdoins of the state and its institutions of enforcement, law making, judicial rulings and criminal activity.  This has been ongoing for some time now, even before these two incidents. 

Co-op Radio is being attacked internally, consciously or otherwise, by people acting with the state and against the principles of a radio station supporting free, truthful speech.  The programmers who are supportive of principle and free speech will not tolerate this state of affairs and will fight back in any way that is effective and possible.  They will be withdrawing financial and other support from the station and urging supporters of Co-op Radio to join them in a principled stand.

Co-op Radio has taken a sharp turn away from the aims and principles of its founding members and does not deserve the support of the public anymore, as it has, in effect, become an enemy of the people. 

Don Nordin