Jamie Kneen is the communications and outreach coordinator with MiningWatch Canada, specializing in land use planning, and environmental assessment, with a focus on African and Latin American regional programs. Jamie Kneen and mining making a killing in El Salvador in the second half.

Happy New Year! This is our first show of the new year, and as is customary with new beginnings, a look back across the tracks taken to arrive at this launching point is always helpful, (a piece of folk wisdom missed by Barack Obama when he assumed the bombadier's seat nearly one year ago). Aiding our foray into British Columbia's new beginning is long-time friend of the show, and champion of the environment here in B.C. and further afield, Ingmar Lee. Ingmar is a world traveller, who between journeys spent 20 years planting trees in this province, more than a million of them by his estimation. He recently ascended the sixty meter flag pole on the legistlature lawn to raise a banner decrying the provincial governor, Gordon Campbell's feting as force for Green at Copenhagen; and he stands charged for the crime of disrupting another bombing campaign, subterranian blasting done, it is suspected, to provide a complete resource map for the drillers of the oil and gas industry. Ingmar Lee in the first half.

And; when it comes to destroying the environment, few industries can compete with the mayhem and devastation wreaked through mining. And, Canada is a world leader in the practice. Of course, many people living on top of the land mining interests would like to get under don't appreciate the prospect and get in the way. It's a familiar scenario, playing out across the world, where transnationals arrive, bribe local governments, even hire mercenaries and local thugs to clear the way for their endeavours. And occassionally, when the people on top of the land the miners want to get under are not intimidated by the threats of corrupted legislators, or the violence of the thugs, more drastic actions are used against them. In El Salvador last week, two community organizers opposing the plans of the Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Corporation were brutally murdered. Jamie Kneen is the communications and outreach coordinator with MiningWatch Canada, specializing in land use planning, and environmental assessment, with a focus on African and Latin American regional programs. Jamie Kneen and mining making a killing in El Salvador in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with news from Victoria's streets. But first; Ingmar Lee assessing British Columbia under the newly greened premier Campbell.