It’s been a big weekend for little Victoria just passed: Wrapping up today, the inaugural Victoria International Arts Symposium that played host to artists and activists from around the city and around the world. The theme this first year is “Artists of Conscience,” and with war and injustices of all description reigning freely these last half-dozen years, the time could not be riper for the culture-makers to focus their talents on those that would destroy all of humanity to serve their own base needs. <br><br>
While Victorians were treated indoors to visions of the better world possible, on the streets more than a thousand Victorians marched to mark the fifth anniversary of the Canadian military’s collusion in the rape and occupation of Afghanistan. I went down to the demonstration with a tape recorder to get the views of some of the participants at the march. Marching streeters in the first segment. <br><br>
And; yesterday more than seven hundred Victorians came out to hear Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of the wildly popular Democracy Now! news broadcast – heard daily at noon here on CFUV deliver a keynote speech titled, ‘Documenting Dissent.’ Goodman is at the end of an eighty city tour promoting here latest book, ‘Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back.’ I had the chance to interview Amy Goodman as she sped from one event to another Saturday. Amy Goodman fighting back in the second half.<br><br>
And; Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the good things to do in and around Victoria in the coming week.