Happy Victoria Day Victoria! Yes, today is that one day set aside each year to honour our fair city's namesake, the late Queen Victoria, Empress of India, Protector of the Faith, etc.

 

As befitting an imperial fete, the hoi polloi lined the streets of the city to pay homage to convoys of Chamber of Commerce-approved floats, while being berated by representatives of the newer empire, phalanxes of American high school marching bands, their blaring, brassy marshal tunes a reminder of just why I hate a parade. Just why these American kids come up here yearly to pay homage to a dead monarch, the epitome of all their young republic fought to overthrow, however remains a bit of a mystery, like so much about our cousins south.

 

Those paragons of truth, justice, and the American way have it seems, in these last years, lost their way. Nearly seven years after the fateful 9/11 attacks, the charade first floated by the Bush administration to explain the infamy of that day persists, few yet daring to question the absurdity of the Emperor's squirrely tale.

 

Hal Sisson is a Victoria-based author and member of the city's 9/11 Truth Movement. He's a former newspaper reporter, lawyer, and author of numerous books, including: 'The Big Bamboozle,' 'Caverns of the Cross,' and 'Modus Operandi 9/11,' a fictional accounting of some of the strange facts on the ground surrounding the crime of the century ignored by investigators and the media.

 

Hal Sisson's latest book is, 'Potshots,' an examination of that other great charade, the so-called 'War on Drugs.' Hal Sisson in the first half.

And; tagging along with the brass bands parading with military precision along the city's thoroughfare were too representatives of Canada Out of Afghanistan, a grassroots movement of Canadians opposing the nation's involvement in the war against, and occupation of, that benighted land.

 

Aida Mashari is one of those opposed, and she joins us in the second half.

And; Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with all that's good to do in and around Victoira in the coming week. But first, Hal Sisson and taking Potshots at official fictions and perfidious public policy. 

 

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