Free Marc Emery

Re: A Notable Defector In The War On Pot, Sept. 10.

Chris Selley claims my husband Marc Emery sold seeds to Americans for profit, but Marc was never selling seeds for personal gain. His purpose was to finance drug policy reform, and he was tremendously successful at it. The Drug Enforcement Administration made clear that they targeted Marc as “the founder of a marijuana legalization group” due to his money being “channelled to marijuana legalization groups active in the U.S. and Canada” and his arrest was “a significant blow to the marijuana legalization movement.”

There are seed sellers in Canada, Europe and even the United States who are not arrested and certainly don’t get five years in U.S. federal prison. Marc never set foot in the States and he paid income tax to Revenue Canada as a “marijuana seed vendor.” Marc should not have been extradited to a foreign country and the excessive, unjust punishment in the U.S. federal prison system he will endure — he should have been dealt with in his home country, where the activities took place.

Marc needs to be brought home to serve his time here in Canada.

Jodie Emery, Vancouver.

By: Loretta Nall, National Post

 

While I agree with most of Chris Selley’s column, I take exception to his assertion: “However asinine, the law’s the law.”

 

I live in Alabama, where it used to be legal to own a slave and illegal to help a slave gain freedom. We also had Jim Crow laws that prevented blacks and poor whites from taking part in the political process. None of those laws were just and, everyone who had the courage to break them were true heroes, as is [marijuana activist] Marc Emery.

 

Just because something is against the law doesn’t mean it’s bad and just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s good, as former Alabama laws so clearly demonstrate.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Marc Emery clearly has the moral high ground on this issue.

 

Loretta Nall, Alexander City, Ala.

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.

Brett Ryan Book, Grand River Sachem

 

I’m writing to voice my displeasure with Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.

 

The recent extradition of activist Marc Emery to the United States of America is a complete travesty to our sovereignty and a chilling warning of the future to come.

 

What kind of government sends a peaceful man to a foreign prison for a crime that we here neglect to punish him with?

 

The crime in question is selling marijuana seeds online, a thriving business that Marc Emery used to help support legalization efforts worldwide, and a business that Mr. Emery had legally claimed with Revenue Canada.

 

Despite what recent media reports would have you believe, Marc Emery did NOT keep his millions of dollars.

 

The profits from Marc Emery Direct Seeds were used to fund political organizations, rallies and marches, medicinal clinics, and even aid in legal costs.

 

Knowing this, it is clear to see the investigation and subsequent arrest of Mr. Emery were of an extremely political nature-evidence of this found in former DEA Administrator Karen Tandy’s press release which heralded the arrest at curbing financial support for legalization.

 

The fact that this entire case is political is very troubling, as it doesn’t take an overly intelligent individual to realize that Marc Emery is a political prisoner.

 

How could the Harper Conservatives allow such a questionable extradition to take place and why do they refuse to answer questions about the extradition?

 

Perhaps your frequent Conservative Party contributor ( Honorable MP Dean Allison ) could shed a little light as to why his Party felt it necessary to aid and abet in the political persecution of a Canadian citizen.

 

Brett Ryan Book,

 

Mount Hope

 

Grant Maxwell, Nanaimo Daily News

 

So Marc Emery, that arch villain, is now in solitary confinement. The wrong-wingers will no doubt state that this needless excess is due to his post ‘confinement’ activities.

 

Our MP James Lunney won’t answer his door and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson sold us out to bullies.

 

Once again I suggest a 45-gallon drum of testosterone to every Tory, followed by five gallons of Ritalin. I’m sure their response will be to call the yellow stripes.

 

Grant Maxwell

 

Nanaimo

Ellie O’Day, The Province

 

It seems rather inconsistent that the Canadian government would extradite Marc Emery to the U.S. for selling marijuana seeds for something considered a misdemeanour in Canada.

 

And yet, after a decade, it stubbornly will not extradite Canadians alleged to have ordered the killing of their own daughter/ niece in India.

 

Ellie O’Day,

 

Vancouver

Michael J. Dee, Langley Advance

 

Dear Editor,

 

I do not know about Canada, but in the United States, law enforcement officials who under the colour of law deprive individuals their rights is a crime.

 

In response to Matthew Claxton [Stoners need better arguments, April 30 Painful Truth, Langley Advance], the Canadian and American judiciary have reviewed the marijuana laws by rational review.

 

Rational review is used by the courts when no fundamental rights are affected by the law. Judicial review of these criminal laws by rational review is deprivation of rights under the colour of law.

 

Poor Mark Emery is not recognized as a person; neither am I. He is being deprived of his liberty for political reasons.

 

The lawyers in both countries do not care that these criminal laws affect individual rights to liberty, to property, and to privacy secured from unreasonable deprivation by your Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Bill of Rights of the United States.

 

Due process of law, the rule of law requires laws that affect fundamental rights to be reasonable and necessary. The laws must be demonstrably justified by a compelling state interest, to protect public health and public safety, to be reasonable.

 

To be reasonable, the laws must protect you from me and me from you, not me from myself.

 

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

 

Selling marijuana seeds through the mail does not threaten the rights of others.

 

The private growing and private use of marijuana is not a threat to public safety.

 

So why is Marc Emery going to prison in the United States?

 

Deprivation of his rights, under the colour of law, is a criminal offence.

 

Michael J. Dee,

 

Windham, Maine, USA

Jody Wynen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

Last week there was a very brief article on the extradition and arrest of Canadian citizen Marc Emery for the charge that he sold millions of cannabis seeds to U.S. customers.

 

I must admit that I was more than disappointed that the Saint Louis Post gave this so little coverage.

 

It is outrageous to threaten a non US citizen with prison time merely for the crime of selling of marijuana seeds when there are so many other offenses that our limited resources could be used to pursue, especially when so many States have decriminalized and legalized the medical use of cannabis.

 

Throughout the United States, and even within Missouri, we as a nation are reevaluating how we think about cannabis.

 

In Columbia, MO marijuana has been decriminalized, and just last week Mayor Francis Slay finished conducting a mini-poll to gage the public opinion of the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. Check out the results, they are overwhelmingly in favor of legalization. The point is that there is currently a very lively public debate dealing with the issues concerning marijuana, and it deserves more coverage. The extradition of Marc Emery is an outrage, and to use him as a scapegoat, by attempting to sentence him in US court for a "crime" that we as Americans are reevaluating ourselves, is worse than immoral. it is downright hypocrisy.

 

Jody Wynen

 

St. Louis

BERT LOEHNER, Vancouver Sun

 

Re: Emery pleads guilty to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, May 25

 

U.S. prosecutor Jenny Durkan boldly states, "Today Marc Emery acknowledged he broke the law." What she doesn’t state is he broke U.S. law and was never in the U.S. He was in the sovereign nation of Canada, where this crime would most likely garner a fine, rather than 30 years to life in a federal prison.

 

Marc Emery is a political pain in the ass. He is vocal and pushes the law to its limit to advance his cause. In the process, he gives B.C. residents endless political entertainment. If anything, he is the Clown Prince of Pot.

 

Let’s face it, the massive U.S. antidrug army has caught an easy target. The mere fact he voluntarily surrendered to authorities shows he is not the drug lord U.S. authorities claim.

 

I suspect Canadian politicians and bureaucrats colluded with U.S. authorities in his arrest and extradition. They were willing to compromise Canada’s sovereignty to get rid of an irritant. As a Canadian citizen, I would like to know who these people are. I feel what they have done is far more dangerous than anything Marc Emery has ever done.

 

BERT LOEHNER

 

Vancouver

Brett Ryan Book, Hamilton Spectator

 

Re: ‘Prince of Pot pleads guilty to drug distribution for five-year prison term’ ( thespec.com, May 25 )

 

Marc Scott Emery pleaded guilty to drug distribution in a Seattle courtroom as part of his five-year plea bargain deal.

 

His story brings shame to our current government and its lack of fortitude in the face of mounting pressure from the Drug Enforcement Agency. One can only ask why the DEA can operate inside our borders with such impunity and why such a politically fuelled extradition was ever allowed to happen.

 

These are questions Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada will be faced with by a growing number of angry voters who are all awakening to the sad truth. The best thing the Conservative government can do now is to bring Emery home to serve his sentence, or face a walloping backlash at the polls.

 

Brett Ryan Book