By DHARM MAKWANA, Toronto SunVANCOUVER – A pollster’s error has convicted marijuana advocate Marc Emery in the court of public opinion, his wife Jodie claimed Monday.
Angus Reid Public Opinion released the incorrect findings of an omnibus poll on Canadian attitudes towards drugs, which included questions on if Marc Emery’s five-year prison sentence was too harsh or too lenient, and whether respondents agreed or disagreed with the federal government’s decision to extradite him to the U.S. to serve his time.
Jodie Emery said the wording of questions published by Angus Reid misrepresented his offence of mailing marijuana seeds to customers across the U.S. border.
"(The question is) absolutely untrue and it skewed the results because most people would support the extradition of someone who sold marijuana," she told QMI Agency. "The issue is seeds.
"The government is considering whether it should transfer Marc home or not, and in order to do that they’re going to try and gauge public support."
Angus Reid vice-president of communications Mario Canseco explained an automatic generator for statistical tables piped in the wrong questions and wrong results in the published document posted to the website.
The eight-page post was pulled hours later and a replacement omitted any mention of Emery.
"It’s the wrong question, it’s the wrong table. It never should have been there. We’re going to release the right questions (Tuesday) with the answers and the right definition on what he plead guilty to."