Want to be a member of the ‘Free Marc’ Campaign but don’t know where to start? We present a step-by-step guide to occupying your local Conservative Member of Parliament’s office.

Why Occupy an MP’s Office?

The Conservative Party has declared a war on Canadian culture, including the cannabis culture. With mandatory minimums for marijuana proposed in Bill S-10, the extradition of cannabis activist Marc Emery, the busts of medical marijuana dispensaries in Quebec and Ontario, and the budget cuts to Health Canada’s medical marijuana program, it’s blatantly clear that the Conservative Party is out to destroy our marijuana culture and community.

CLICK HERE to read more about ‘FREE MARC’ CONSERVATIVE OFFICE OCCUPATIONS

We are no longer trying to change the minds of Conservative politicians; instead, we intend to show them we are here to campaign against them. We will go into their offices, come to their campaign events, and hound them wherever they are. We will be relentless, and by going directly to their offices, we demonstrate this.

In short, this is a war of ideas and values, and we are taking the fight to them. No longer will we let our MP’s hide in their offices and ignore the people. We will force them to acknowledge us, by sight, sound, and if you have your medical marijuana card, smell.

This Conservative Party wants to rule and control you. When we occupy their offices and roll marijuana on their desks and the police do nothing to stop us, it cuts through the core of their punishment-happy psyche and sends a strong message. Nothing says “You can not stop us” like rolling marijuana on their desk.

This article is intended to let you know how you can help take the fight directly to the Conservative Party!

Your Rights

First, let’s go over your rights according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

Section 2: Fundamental Freedoms

Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.

The keys here are “Expression” and “Peaceful Assembly”. Expression includes more than just speech, because it allows non-verbal expressions, like protesting, using loudspeaker systems, etc. “Peaceful Assembly” specifically allows protest, or indeed any assembly that is peaceful.

Section 20: Communications by public with federal institutions

(1) Any member of the public in Canada has the right to communicate with, and to receive available services from, any head or central office of an institution of the Parliament or government of Canada in English or French, and has the same right with respect to any other office of any such institution where

(a) there is a significant demand for communications with and services from that office in such language; or
(b) due to the nature of the office, it is reasonable that communications with and services from that office be available in both English and French.

You have a right, as a Canadian to access services at any office, anywhere, during open hours, in both languages. This includes Member of Parliament offices; even offices belonging to Member’s of Parliament other than in your own riding.

Section 32:

(1)This Charter applies

(a) to the Parliament and government of Canada in respect of all matters within the authority of Parliament including all matters relating to the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories; and
(b) to the legislature and government of each province in respect of all matters within the authority of the legislature of each province.

So, you have a right to protest, a right to be served in any office of government, and the Constitution applies to all government entities, including constituency offices. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a mall because the office is rented by the public, which makes it public space. You have every right to be inside any MP’s office during open hours. If they say it’s private property, they are wrong – it’s rented by the public.

Sit-ins, or occupations, have a long history in activism, with a peak in popularity in the 1960s. We have the right to protest inside these offices, and we must exercise that right.

How To Occupy an MP’s Office

(1) Pick a date, time, and place to meet for your protest

Pick a secondary place to meet, like a local bong shop or public place where people are allowed to assemble without drawing too much attention. Then you can depart to the MP’s office as a group and arrive together. Any date during the week will do, and MP offices are typically open from 9am to 5pm, with an hour lunch break from 12-1.

(2) Invite everyone you know

Let your friends and fellow activists know of a the place to meet but don’t tell them exactly where you are going afterwards or make them promise to keep it a secret! It’s very important not to let the Conservatives know you are coming. Don’t write the specific details of your plan on Facebook or other websites, as pot activists are often being monitored. The Conservative Party pays hundreds of people to watch social networks, forums, and blogs, so be careful. These occupations are effective with a large crowd or even just few people.

(3) Prepare your cameras, phones, etc

Make sure your batteries are charged, memory sticks cleared, and cameras ready to record! Make sure you are videotaping from the moment you walk into the office, until the moment the police back down. If you have a smartphone, download and install Qik so that you can send video directly to the Internet from your phone. The more cameras the better! If you’ve seen the video of my arrest, you will know how important video is to keeping us safe from unfounded charges.

(4) Arrive together at the MPs office

Make sure you and your fellow activists arrive together so you’re not waiting around in front of the office. If some of your people are late, simply enter as a small group. It is vital to get into the office before they lock it up, which they will likely do if they know you’re coming.

(5) Enter the office

Politely let the staff know you’re there to protest, that it’s legal, and that you’ll be staying until closing. Remember, our “fight” isn’t with the secretaries, it’s with their bosses (and the party bosses). The staff will call the police, but don’t worry. Police, if they demand you leave, will give plenty of warning before any arrests; most police have been instructed that these protests are legal. If you don’t have a medical marijuana card, don’t bring marijuana with you, as police will likely demand your card. If you have a card, remember, you can roll marijuana anywhere you like, legally. Inform police and staff that you are there under Sections 2, 20 and 32 of the Charter of Rights. Once you’re in, get comfortable. Occupy any open offices and sit down, either on the floor or at a desk. If the door is open, you can enter the office, so go ahead! Don’t let police or staff intimidate you!

(6) Call the media

It is good to have a list of phone numbers for local newspaper and TV stations that you can call once you’re inside the office. Tell them you are staging a ‘Free Marc’ protest inside the MP’s office and have the address ready. Give them other details if necessary and ask them to send someone. It usually takes journalists and photographers a bit of time to show up, so it’s best to call as soon as you’re inside the office.

(7) Announce your Success on Twitter

The best way to tell the world you are in an MP’s office is via Twitter and other social networking sites. If you’re savy, add the Twitter Application to your Facebook account and enable auto-reposting of your twitter to your Facebook. This way, anything you tweet from your phone will go out over both social networks. It’s important to get your Qik feed (if you have one) included in your first tweets. Post details of what’s happening and you’ll have people watching your protest live via the internet!

(8) Have fun

You are exercising your rights, something millions have fought and died for! Enjoy it! Sing, play guitar, and enjoy sticking it to the Conservative Party! You can do anything in the office that doesn’t disrupt their ability to do business. Let them talk to people, let them work, but by all means have fun! You are free to speak with any members of the public who enter, so let them know all about Marc Emery, Bill S-10, and why we must defeat this Conservative Party.

9) Don’t stop filming

No matter what police, staff or anyone else tells you, DO NOT STOP FILMING! You have every right to film police, and we have already fought and WON in court over that right. If police start seizing cameras, remove your card and pocket it (without the police seeing) and make sure you are recording to Qik.com. If Police seize cameras, we will sue, and we will win. DO NOT STOP FILMING!

10) Decide when to leave

When staff and police are less than polite, we stay for longer periods; where they are completely welcoming, we stay for less time. We want to train the Conservatives that we will force our rights upon them if they decide not to respect them. For those who do respect our rights, we leave early and post their names to the Internet. So far, Ed Fast and Gary Lunn have been somewhat welcoming, while Stephen Harper, Rob Nicholson and Andrew Saxton have been completely hostile. We stayed at Harper’s office until exactly 5 because they tried to force us out. Nothing makes this Conservative Party feel powerless like the inability to remove us from their offices. So enjoy yourself! When your group decides to leave, thank the staff and police for their hospitality and smile! This is fun, so let them know you’re enjoying yourself.

‘How-To’ wrap up:

Bring: Cameras, Cell Phones, Handbills, buttons, whatever you’ve got! We’ve done these occupations with as many as 30 people and lots of signs, to as few as 4 people without any signage. This is about taking the fight to the Conservatives, so it’s our presence, more than our materials, that makes all the difference.

You have every right to be inside of an MP’s office, and if you’re a medical user, you have every right to roll your marijuana inside that office! Enjoy yourselves, smile a lot, and stick to your guns – you have every right to be there!

Frequently Asked Questions

What if Police say we have to leave?

Tell them "no, I have every right to be here until closing, feel free to call Crown (Counsel) and discuss it with them." If Police push on this, it’s up to you; if you’re willing to get arrested to prove your point, do so, otherwise leave the office. It’s good to plan ahead for this, and discuss as a group who, if anyone, is willing to get arrested should it come to that.

What if Police tell us to stop recording?

Don’t. Tell them: "an MP’s office is public space, you are on public duty and have no expectation of privacy. The Supreme Court of Canada has already decided this issue. Also, this is live to the Internet, so you’re going to have to explain why you, as a law enforcement officer, don’t already know that."

What if staff say they’re closing early?

Tell them: "no, your posted open hours are 9-5, you can not simply prevent us from protesting by closing; that would violate our constitutional rights. We will leave promptly at 5pm, the posted closing hours for this office."

What if people get arrested?

We will help cover legal costs related purely to a sit-in, videotaping, or medical users rolling marijuana. It only takes one person charged to mount a Charter Challenge, and defending people in court is expensive. If you want to be arrested, do so, if you don’t, do not. Getting arrested is not about courage, it’s about the ability to do so without being harmed. We do not want people losing their jobs, or otherwise compromising their ability to be activists in the future! If people start being arrested, it’s your decision, stay and get arrested with them or leave and start calling media and lawyers. We are a team, with many different positions, so do what you’re comfortable with!

What if the MP wants to talk to us?

Talk to them! Inform them that you’re very upset at the Conservative Party’s policies on drugs, and their total disregard for evidence or popular support. Tell them that you will be campaigning against them, and so will your friends, so long as they continue to support Stephen Harper’s government. If they are willing to resign from the party, vote against Bill S-10, or speak out in favour of Marc Emery, then post it online! If we can make friends in the party, by all means do so. Sadly, the vast majority of these MPs will remain in opposition to drug policy reform, so let them know we will be back during the campaign to make sure they’re defeated.

What if they say the office is private property?

They are wrong. Tell them: "this office is rented by the public, making it public property." It’s that simple, they tried this at Stephen Harper’s office, and we stood our ground. Calling an MP’s office private property is like calling the sky Green, you can say it all you want, but that doesn’t make it true.

Have more questions? Email them to jacob@jacobhunter.org and I will update this article! Let me know when you’re doing a rally in your area and I will help get people out to it! Above all else, remember: Bring CHARGED cameras with EMPTY cards 🙂 Be safe out there and have fun! Free Marc Emery!

Jacob Hunter is policy director for the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, founder of WhyProhibition.ca and an organizer for the Free Marc Emery Campaign. Read his Cannabis Culture Blog.

Let Others Know about Marc Emery with the Free Marc Stencil!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Use the Free Marc stencils to let others know about Marc Emery! You can quickly and easily reach thousands of people simply by leaving a Free Marc stencil in a high traffic area in your town. We have already had reports of Free Marc images appearing across the United States, Canada, and around the world.

 

You can use the stencil and instructions below to join others around the world in raising awareness about Marc Emery!

 

How To Create a Reusable Free Marc Stencil:

 

 

1. Print out the Free Marc Stencil Designs:

 

2. To create an 8.5"x11" stencil, print on regular paper, then continue to follow step 4 on.

 

3. There are 2 ways to create a larger stencil:

        3a. Print the image at a print shop at the custom size you would like the stencil to be. OR

        3b. Print the image on transparency paper and rent a projector. Use the projector to project the image on the wall, adjust the image to the size you would like the stencil to be, then trace the image on paper.

 

4. Tape your printed image to either cardboard or flexible plastic.

 

5. Use an exacto knife (Be Careful!) to cut out the black lines/areas on the image for the smoking Marc profile image (or the white areas in the prison bars and fist image), going through the cardboard or plastic as well. This will be what is shown after the stencil is painted or chalked over.

 

6. Remove the paper, and start to let people know we need to Free Marc Emery with your new cardboard or plastic stencil!

Dear Jodie: What a wonderful day-after-our-4th anniversary visit! After we kissed goodbye, I went into the anteroom where I get stripped down and take all my clothes off, I’m asked to riffle my fingers through my hair, open my mouth, move my head from side-to-side and bend my ears, show my underarms, lift up my “sac”, turn around and show the bottoms of my feet and – there’s no other way to say it – spread my ass cheeks, to make sure I have not taken any contraband from you (though it would be impossible). My clothes and shoes are checked, and then I’m clear to get dressed and I’m brought back to my unit, Delta Bravo as it’s called, or DB.

 

It was a wonderful two-hour visit. I had all my freshly ironed clothes on, my brown visitation t-shirt under my khaki smock, my khaki trousers pressed so sharply, just for this visit. I always save my best clothes for when you come, and I hang them in my locker so they keep all the fresh sharp creases from the ironing they got on Wednesday. I love the passionate 30-second kiss we’re allowed to have when we first meet, and I love lifting you up and holding you with my arms while we kiss. You always look so attractive in your beautiful dresses. After our kiss, which is so electric to me, we sit opposite each other and our eyes are usually only 6 inches away while we talk up a storm, pretty well non-stop for two hours. It’s amazing how we get all the politics, social, reminiscing, your business, the people you work with, your challenges and difficulties, as well as many amusing vignettes and anecdotes covered, all in that two hours. Holding your hands and rubbing your arms as we do is so satisfying, you almost purr when I rub your arms. And then the lovely goodbye kiss at the end and your beatific smile that is so reassuring to me. Unlike so many other prisoners here, I have the committed devotion of a completely loving, faithful wife who once vowed when she was 16 that "One day I’m going to work for Marc Emery, or marry him, or both!" Oh, my sweet wife, what a brilliant prediction that was 9 years ago. So glad I made such a good impression. When we fell in love three years later, I had hopes, but little could I predict that we would become the dynamic couple we have been since – and you, such a brilliant public speaker, compassionate and remarkably intelligent leader of people, the perfect loving wife, and a truly liberating voice of the oppressed and marginalized.

 

Knowing these things about you makes my time here more bearable. My 5-year expected sentence is officially pronounced on September 10 in the Seattle federal court. That means, with 135 days served on my sentence already (65 days here at SEA-TAC FDC and 70 days at North Fraser in Canada awaiting extradition), and in anticipation of 270 days of time off my sentence for good behaviour (54 days off each year), my expected released date if I spend every day of my sentence in the US penal system is June 16, 2014. I have 3 years, 10 months, 21 days to go. The only way I could endure such an ordeal as it already is, is with the kindness, sincerity, devotion, sweetness and competence of your love and your skills. You are my saviour, Mrs. Emery; you are the greatest person to ever come into my life. I often think it’s because of your clearly sincere devotion to both me and my life’s cause in your blogs, videos, and public statements, that people, especially women, have taken to admiring my work and what I represent and who I am. They trust your judgment, Jodie, and they know that a woman who believes in me like you do after over six years together with me, almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week, cannot be fooled. They see your total devotion and they see a love like few others, like out of a romance novel, like out of a epic tale like Tristan and Isolde, or like Robert & Elizabeth Browning, a love for the ages, a love uncorrupted, a love based of principles of noble idealism. Your unmistakable sincerity in your love for me makes people believe in and want to help me, because they want to assist in that kind of pure love. It’s their way to be part of a romance, part of noble cause, something the universe wants to be done. You are doing God’s work, my sweet beautiful Jodie, and people can see that. They tell me so in the letters I get daily. "Your wife loves you so much," "Jodie’s blog about visiting you made me cry," messages of that nature are in those heartfelt letters I receive here in my cell every day.

 

My daily routine begins at 5:40 am when the C.O. (Corrections Officer) unlocks my cell door. I share a 12′ x 7′ space with a "cellie", as my cellmate is called. Our cell has a bunk bed; I have the top bunk. It is narrow, about 28 inches wide, and six and half feet long. I bound out of bed and head to the inmate "computer room". I am always the first one there at 5:45 am, but the computers begin to operate at 6 am. The only function of the keyboard is to type; the control and alt functions do not have any purpose on the keyboard. As the Bureau of Prisons screens all emails, they have to hire an army of censors and reviewers to review all emails inbound and outbound. Therefore they charge me $3.50 an hour to use the Corrlinks Inmate email service. I use the email 3 to 4 hours a day! I am allowed 30 contacts maximum. I have my lawyers, my dear wife, most of my close friends like Dana, Jeremiah and Jacob, your mom, my sister, Tommy Chong, and more activist friends among my 30 email contacts.

 

Each night you send me a lovely note describing what you did that day, and I see it first thing at 6:00 am as the email program kicks into gear. I love reading about your previous wonderful, challenging busy day. It used to be my life too, before my principles and activism got me put in this grim place. The way you write in detail of your decisions, your worries, your interviews, our supporters, the political situation, the sit-ins and MP office occupations, and, of course, your deep abiding love for me, both relieves me and saddens me. Last week was the most challenging week for me so far. I cried many, many times uncontrollably when I read your notes and wrote to you. Tears streamed down my face on probably six occasions, and then once the tears rolled out, my nose runs too… Normally I can cope with this estrangement, this terrible ache in my heart, always missing you in this alien place where I am the "criminal alien" (more about that term later), but sometimes it becomes emotionally difficult.

 

On Friday night (July 23rd) five inmates came over to my cell and asked what the matter was. I said, “it’s my 4th wedding anniversary and I’m so missing my wife. She’s everything to me," I told them, "and the thought of years without her is just too much to bear". I then started to cry again – I couldn’t help it – right in front of them. Then the unexpected happened. Each one added, "I’ve certainly been there, it’s okay to cry." My cellie said, "I was crying last night, didn’t you notice?" I said, no, I hadn’t. "I pulled my hat over my eyes and turned up the radio,” he said. “I was just sobbing." A big fellow named Kodiak (after the big bear), whose job before here was "collections", let’s say, added, "I’ve cried many nights here, we all have". All of them chimed in with their stories of many times crying. An African-American inmate came by and spoke to me at length in a most profound way, saying, "I wish I had someone who cared for me as much as your wife cares for you, I’d be so grateful to cry because I miss her. If you can cry, if you can keep your humanity, then when you get out of here, you’ll still be a human being. If you get hardened, and you lose that humanity, and lose that part of yourself that is real, that is of the real world, then prison has defeated you. When we get hardened by this awful place, we lose as human beings. I sure wish I had someone to cry over. Be grateful you aren’t on the phone screaming, ‘You dirty bitch!’ after you find she’s had sex with your brother or best friend, like my woman did". It’s true, Jodie would never be unfaithful. And indeed, all of my fellow inmates were in more sad situations than I, and I was grateful they all took some moments to reassure that all is normal and I’ll get through it. No one held it against me that I cried, and I was thankful for such kindness in unexpected places.

 

After the email program comes on, I am on that until 6:40 am when it’s morning lock-up. Normally breakfast is at 6:00 am, usually milk, an orange, and cereal (like corn flakes) or porridge. I pass on breakfast so I can read emails from Jodie and my friends from 6 am to 6:40 am. Then we are locked in our cells from 6:40 am to 8:00 am. I got back to sleep in this period, and when our cell door is unlocked at 8 am, I go out to the showers that are available from 8 am to 10 am (and also 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm, and 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm). By 8:30 am, I’m showered and shaved, in clean clothes. We get all our kit of clothes washed on Tuesdays: 7 pairs of underwear, 7 pairs of socks, 6 t-shirts, 3 smocks, and 3 trousers. The socks and t-shirt are pale pink/salmon coloured, the trousers and smock are khaki. I have one pair of white socks and a brown t-shirt, which I wear as my dress clothes for your visits, as I did today! I hope the 5 photographs we took when you visited me on the 4th of July come back in the next week, and I will send them to you so you can remember what I look like when I am in my "Sunday best" clothes. I am looking forward to seeing those photos myself; they should be back any day now!

 

For the rest of the day I read and write. I get 3 newspapers daily – the NY Times, The Seattle Times and USA Today – so I read them and stay well informed. I have 9 magazine subscriptions: Reason, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Harper’s, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, The Economist, and MacLean’s. I enjoy MacLean’s because even though they can be jingoistic police-loving Conservative-Party fascist sympathizers, it’s nice to get a round up of all things Canadian. When my MacLean’s subscription started, I was in solitary confinement, and I was so desperate for reading material, I was grateful the subscription had started. I got to page 12 of the June 24 edition and was reading about Alanis Morrisette’s wedding, the new prime Minister of Japan, and lo & behold, I was the next item. Yes, indeed, I was in solitary reading about me being put in solitary. A nice little moment that put a smile on me in that grueling 21-day punishment (June 4 to 24). In fact, today is a special day because I got my phone access restored! Along with being put in solitary for 21 days, I lost all email, phone, and commissary privileges – in fact, all privileges. You can’t even get a visitor or a phone call to your lawyer while you are in solitary. You get indifference and 24 hour lock-up. Thank goodness I had a radio and earphones to make it bearable, but barely so (listening to music and radio ads takes up some time, but I had 24 hours of isolation every day to get through). But after 52 days without phone privileges, my phone access is on again, starting today. I called Jodie right away and woke her up! You get 300 minutes each month maximum. Calling a Vancouver number is 35 cents a minute. Normally that’s 10 minutes a day, but the days when Jodie visits (8 times a month), I don’t call her, so its just about 15 minutes each of the other 22 days a month. Today is an exception, as it’s the day after our anniversary and I haven’t used the phone for 52 days, so I’m excited. I’m going to splurge and call her for 15 minutes tonight!

 

Along with my newspapers and magazine subscriptions, I get letters from supporters. When Jodie’s evocative blogs spoke about my struggles dealing with solitary confinement, I received up to 30 letters a day, peaking on June 28 (I got out by then) at 45 letters that one day. Now it’s about 7 letters a day. But I wrote back to each and every serious thought-out letter of support. In the last 30 days I have written 165 thorough handwritten substantive letters to correspondents, and I still have about 85 to catch up on. A University class of 40 students has even written me 40 individual letters with each having attached a photograph of themselves to it, sent from the Critical Thinking project at Sannasastra University in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. I’m trying to get to one student every day and explain to them what I am doing here, why my cause is just, and what I believe. They all write in charming English, as my language is their second language, after Khmer.

Send Marc a letter! Get the address at www.CannabisCulture.com/SendMarcMail

I write 5-7 letters daily and sent out. Then I have books to read. I have enough books so I don’t require any more for now! I’m at page 300 of Christopher Hitchens’ Memoir “Hitch-22”, a very erudite and delightful book from the contrarian current events commentator, formerly of England, now an American based in Washington DC. It’s very good and charmingly written. I’m halfway through “The Armageddon Factor” by Marci McDonald. This is a book about the Christian fundamentalists and their very successful attempt to co-opt and takeover the Conservative Party of Canada. Even Stephen Harper, Canada’s bloodless and ice-cold Prime Minister –whose 2009 press secretary Kory Teneycke implied he hoped I got raped in the showers while in prison in the USA – is claimed to be "born-again". If you are known by the company you keep, the Prime Minister and the former press secretary are opportunistic sanctimonious religious scumbags of the worst sort. I know Christopher Hitchens (also author of “God Is Not Great”, which I also have here and must start soon) would approve of that assessment. Speaking of our Prime Minister, how come his wife has an affair with an RCMP officer assigned to her security detail, and no one in the press reports it? If the Prime Minister is getting "high with a little helps from his friends" like cocaine party-boy Rahim Jaffer, and the 37-years-married Minister of the Public Safety Vic Toews impregnated his 18-year old assistant, and Mrs. Harper is boinking an RCMP officer and not living with her husband, what is all this talk of Conservative party family values? Go figure!

 

I’m also reading “To Kill A Mockingbird”, and although it’s nicely written, it’s slow to get going. I still don’t know what it’s about yet, after 50 pages, other than people of Alabama in the ‘30s were poor and often ignorant, but sometimes not. So far, no conflicts have been introduced, and having long ago seen the movie with Gregory Peck, I know that eventually some innocent person gets accused of something heinous at some point. Boo Radley has to figure in with the heinous crime because these kids stalk him for the first 50 pages. Still to read is Robert Crumb’s “Illustrated Book of Genesis”, Alan Moore’s “Swamp Thing” and Top 10 graphic novels, along with “Tom Gordon Volume 2”. I am at page 300 of Taylor Branch’s excellent history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggle for civil rights from 1954-1968; the first volume, at 1,000 pages, called “Parting The Waves”. So I am in the midst of 4 books with many others in the on-deck circle.

 

This keeps me busy all day until we are locked in our cells at 9:40 pm. From that time on my cellie and I have some serious discussions about life, our wives, our dreams (of getting the hell out of here), our families, and our thoughts, and I often write letters and he reads. At 11 pm, he has usually fallen sound asleep and I read one of my books with a little battery-powered book light bought from the commissary.

 

Occasionally I play dominoes with my friend Robert, a 62-year-old African-American Vietnam veteran. I am also part way through writing a biography of Robert’s time in Vietnam and his youth from age 14-18 in West Philadelphia. I have taken many notes about his year in Nha-Trang in South Vietnam and his teenage years from 14-18 leading up to it. He lived a few blocks from where American Bandstand was broadcast, and even went there and danced. The Philly group The Delfonics used to practice on the streets of West Philly when Robert was 15, 16, 17, just before he shipped out in 1967, the same year The Delfonics got big on the R&B charts. The Delfonics were used extensively in the Quentin Tarantino film soundtrack for Jackie Brown. I’m hoping to get seriously to work on his story this week; all my background interviews and research are done. I have drawn a detailed map of his immediate neighbourhood he grew up in with every store, newsstand, pool hall, EL Train station, and building represented. I want to see if I can bring his childhood ghetto to life in my writing, and convey the drama and chaos and fear in a young 18-year-old soldier in the throes of the Vietnam War. This era of 1966 West Philadelphia is also the setting for a four-season-run half-hour NBC drama series, now re-run in syndication, called American Dreams. (2002-2005)

 

Typically though, I don’t take much time for amusements, I never watch TV and since out of solitary, don’t listen to the radio, although there is an excellent World News Report station here, 91.7 FM, that features hour long blocks of programming from CBC Canada, BBC, Radio Australia, National Public Radio (NPR), Radio Russia and other world radio services. The last time I listened to CBC was two weeks ago to hear anthropologist Wade Davis deliver his one-hour 2009 Massey Lecture called “The Wayfinders: What Ancient Wisdom Holds For Modern Society.” Davis is brilliant, and while he spoke, I said to myself, “I’ve heard this before,” and indeed I had – both Wade Davis and I spoke at IDEA CITY in Toronto in 2003, and he was a featured speaker a few hours after I was. That day his speech was the same subject, but only 20 minutes long, so by 2009 he had fleshed it out to an hour for the Massey Lectures. It was a nice moment when I realized I was granted similar status as the great Wade Davis for one afternoon in 2003, as well as the many great individuals who attend IDEA CITY every year. Davis originally hails from Vancouver, and may still call it home, but teaches at Harvard.

 

So my day stretches from 5:45 am to 1 am when I turn off my book light, and by then my eyes are weary and I’m exhausted, so I fall easily to sleep.

 

 

 

Wayne Phillips, Kamloops Daily News

 

Regarding Cheech and Chong, Just Say So Long ( We Say editorial, The Daily News, July 20 ).

 

And turning Marc Emery over to the Americans was a great display of national sovereignty, right? "Bitchfest," indeed!

 

What gives them the right, the editorial asks! Probably the same right that allowed the editorial staff to comment on Cheech and Chong’s candour.

 

While Cheech and Chong might be challenged on where exactly Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s head is lodged, it is safe to say that Cheech and Chong’s analogy was apt and, of course the criticism is just; not only is it justified, it’s long overdue. Moreover, it is absurd to think otherwise ( unless, of course, the editorial staff is of the ilk that expects running into a brick wall head first yet one more time will accomplish anything different this time around. )

 

I, myself, would venture to say that Obama is the more likely candidate. Moreover, the office ( of prime minister ) itself is brought into disrepute not only by Stephen Harper but rather the antics of the Conservative Party in general. It is not a question of liking or disliking Stephen Harper, it is more the case of not liking what he is doing to Canada, specifically in the area of drug policy.

 

There is a comprehensive study that was released April 27, 2010, by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy ( ICSDP ) entitled Effect of Drug Law Enforcement on Drug-Related Violence: Evidence from a Scientific Review that exposes an extensive correlation between drug-law enforcement efforts and increased drug-related crime, homicide and gun violence. The Executive Summary ( http://www.icsdp.org/ and http://www.icsdp.org/research/publications.aspx ) demonstrates the commonalities between violence and the illicit drug trade in relation to the impacts of drug law enforcement interventions have on drug market violence.

 

So, what’s not to understand?

 

Wayne Phillips,

 

Hamilton, Ont.

By Szandor Blestman, Weekly Blitz

 

When I was growing up, I learned in school that one of the reasons the United States of America was better than the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was because we didn’t hold political prisoners in our jails. That was something the bad, bad communists did. That was something that was done in communist countries to keep dissidents in line and to silence them. Such a thing could never be done in America. I don’t know if this is still taught in the schools, but if it is then I believe our children are being grossly misinformed. The United States of America has become the leading nation when it comes to jailing its citizens, and the vast majority of them have been jailed for non violent crimes. We are, in effect, being jailed by the political class for disobeying rules they have deigned necessary, not for actions that have harmed another human being or his property. Most of those jailed are, in effect, political prisoners.

 

The federal government of the United States of America has declared war on its own civilians and the majority of those spending time in jail are prisoners of that war. They call this war many things, the war on drugs and the war on terror being the most prevalent, but it is really a war fought against people in order to try to keep a concept hidden from the public consciousness. That concept is the concept of freedom, the concept that individuals own their own bodies, their own labor, their own property and best know how to run their own lives.

 

The power elite and their political puppets use such emotionally charged terms as "war" to elicit specific responses from the populace. They want people to believe that anyone with a differing or divergent point of view from that of the establishment is a bad person. They want people to believe that anyone with a difference of opinion is a menace to society and a threat to all that is good and just. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the people who are spending time in prison are not only ordinary non violent folk who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, they are likely kind, loving individuals with family and friends who care for them and miss them dearly. Many of them were likely hard working, productive members of society until they were caught or reported breaking one of the multitude of "laws" created by control freaks who seem to see us common folk as cash cows meant to be milked for their benefit.

 

This war has spilled across the borders of the United States and is affecting the population worldwide. The DEA seems to think it has the right to enforce the laws of the United States in whatever country it deems necessary. I don’t know that the DEA has the right to do this, but it certainly has the power thanks to your tax dollars. A good example of this is the case of Marc Emery. Mr. Emery is a Canadian. He was simply selling marijuana seeds. This is a practice that is not illegal in Canada. Yet it is illegal in the US, though hardly ever enforced. Mr. Emery was set up by the DEA in a sting operation in which he sold seed across the border. The DEA then used its power as a federal agency of the United States to coerce the federal Canadian government into extraditing Mr. Emery to the United States.

 

Mr. Emery’s business harmed no one. It only maybe hurt the feelings of a few bureaucrats who felt perhaps Mr. Emery’s opinions were becoming too popular. You see, Marc Emery not only sold marijuana seeds, he ran a magazine named Cannabis Culture and used the money to fund marijuana legalization activism worldwide. He believes, as I do, that everyone owns their own bodies and can determine for themselves which substances to use and which to avoid. He would likely still be free if he had just pocketed his profits rather than using them to promote his marijuana legalization efforts. It appears as if Marc Emery was targeted not for his illegal activity, but for his political activism. And they had to use an unethical sting setup to make it look legitimate.

 

The same is true of tax protestors. People fighting the unethical, unconstitutional income tax have been forced into prison despite the obvious unpopularity of this theft. Even though the vast majority of the populace seems to be brainwashed into thinking the federal income tax is legitimate, the arguments against it are intriguing and compelling on both legal and moral grounds. Ed and Elaine Brown were two such protestors who wished to make such arguments during their trail. The federal judge presiding over their trail denied them the opportunity to make over thirty such arguments in their defense. As a result, they realized the court system was rigged in favor of the state and refused to take part in it any longer.

 

Ed, a contractor, and Elaine, a dentist, gathered together such a following that the Feds determined that the only way to get to them would be to unethically infiltrate their supporters. It appears as if the Feds are worried about their image and don’t want to be thought of by the general public as the violent agency they are. They want people to forget such incidents as Waco and Ruby Ridge, but a leopard cannot change its spots. Ed and Elaine Brown were productive members of society until the Feds put them in unproductive prison cells.

 

People such as Ed and Elaine Brown and Wesley Snipes aren’t in jail because they didn’t pay their taxes, they’re in jail because they refused to obey. They refused to knuckle under to the coercion and threats of the federal government and decided to exercise their rights. They refused to cower in fear before the political gang that runs this nation and decided to show them for what they are, a violent gang of thugs who believe they own us and a portion of our labor. These are arguments the authoritarian power mongers don’t want to hear because they’re true, and the truth is sometimes hard to face. They would rather do harm to those who have never harmed another than face the reality that they are greedy failures in a coercive monopoly funded by theft and unable to compete in a legitimate marketplace.

 

What happens when the practices used by the policing agencies are used against them? Barry Cooper is a good example to look at. A former narcotics officer, he created a sting operation to catch the police breaking the law and disobeying the constitution. His police training served him well as he had learned to setup drug dealers. He filmed the police breaking their own laws and streamed it to the web in such a way so that their guilt could not be denied. This angered the cops. As a result, Barry Cooper and his family have been harassed by authorities ever since. Candi, his wife, lost custody of her eight year old son. They have both been arrested and charged with filing a false police report. They await trial on said charges. It seems what’s good for the goose is not good for the gander. It seems that the police can setup and harass ordinary folk to catch them breaking laws, but when ordinary folk do the same to the police, the ordinary folk better watch out.

 

The system is plagued with unfairness. It is set up so that those with authority aren’t burdened with any personal responsibility for their decisions. They are not held accountable for their actions even when such actions harm others or are financially unsound. It takes those who rail against it and make honest, sensible arguments and silences them by removing them to cold prison cells. We might not have the cruel and unforgiving gulags the Russians had under communist rule in the last century, but we have prisons populated with political prisoners who don’t even know they are political prisoners. Our government has interrupted and ruined the lives of millions for its political power, expediency and agenda.

 

The war against the people needs to end. The federal government needs to step aside. The common folk need to reestablish their lust for freedom. The bureaucrats need to start respecting the rights of the individual once again. The federal government needs to be recognized for the monstrous mechanism of tyranny it has become. Hopefully, the cogs inside that mechanism will start refusing to allow it to run smoothly. We should be allowed to spend our money as we see fit, to smoke what we want to smoke, to say what we wish to say, and to live our lives as we wish to live them without fear of government intrusion and imprisonment. The disobedience of a few have shown us the ugly truth. The disobedience of many will help set us free.