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.
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.
I’ve been keeping myself very busy since being let out of solitary confinement on June 24th. I have many books, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and letters to keep me occupied, so the days sometimes fly by as I read and write back to people.
Inmates here who have family come visit from out-of-state are allowed to apply for extended visits, of 3 to 5 hours (visits are normally 2 hours long). It took a while for me to get a response from my application to have Jodie get extended visits, since she comes from out-of-country, but I finally got a response on July 14th; I can have an extended 5-hour visit with Jodie one day every month, but only if I don’t have any other visits for the rest of the month. Well, I’ll certainly take two two-hour visits every week instead of one 5-hour visit a month!
One day, the C.O. (correctional officer) on our range was sarcastic about all my mail. I came to his office in the middle of the range and asked him a question, and he said "You’ve got no time for that, you’d better get to all your mail and deal with that." He had to make four trips delivering it all to my cell: first the batch of newspapers, then the magazines, then two trips with ExpressPost envelopes and then regular letter mail. He later came to my cell and said, "Emery, do I look like your mailman? Do I? Tell all your people they can only send you letters on Saturdays." I said, "Yes, sir". There was a long pause, then he said, "Emery, I’m messin’ with ya’!" Well, they certainly can "mess with" inmates, because we’re under their authority in here.
I was showing an artistic inmate some of the photos of Jodie and I together for him to draw. He decided to draw a picture of us smiling at the camera in the sunlight at a rocky beach in Vancouver, with the caption "Fun in the sun at Acadia Beach". In the final drawing the inmate did, I look way too young; he took my age lines out, but I actually like how I look at 51 years old in that photo (it’s from last year; I’m 52 now). The C.O. who joked he was messing with me over being "my mailman" saw the drawing and asked me, "Is Acadia Beach a nude beach?" I explained about Wreck & Acadia being the two clothing optional beaches in Vancouver, one immensely popular (Wreck) and the other very small and private. He said he went to a nude beach in Spain, which he very much liked. So, conversations with a C.O. can range quite widely here.
Jodie’s wonderful love for me and activism has opened up my supporter base of family folks, children, grandparents, especially mothers – a great many letters to me are from women, mostly mothers with children, who admire me and Jodie and find common ground with us. That’s very good to read! Only a minority of letters are from "stoners". I have 8 pictures of families with kids, so people obviously feel I am a representative for their children, to bring about a world of peace and liberty so they can grow up in safety and freedom. It’s darn flattering people think of me as their representative for their rights and the good cause, so I really appreciate that, possibly more than any other accolade.
On June 20th, the Sunday edition of the Calgary Herald ran a full-sized FREE MARC logo on the front page of section 3, with the article from the LA Times taking up a whole page inside. It was incredible! Wowzer! That blew my mind. The inmates loved it here; they started a "Free Marc and his friends!" chant, and I had to shoosh them! I’m so pleased with the clipping I received of it. That’s prime media space we could never afford to purchase.
These two guys in Newfoundland, Colin and his dad Terry, have printed up 5" x 8" maxi-cards with the FREE MARC logo on one side and GOOGLE MARC EMERY on the other side. Colin said that hearing I was in solitary made him angry, so he printed up 1,000 cards that he puts in "price holders" on the shelves of supermarkets and stores. He made 250 fridge magnets of the FREE MARC logo, 1,000 giant postcards that he puts in peoples mailboxes as he walks down various streets in St. John’s (I spoke there at Bannerman Park on my Farewell Tour with Jodie last year), and 6 giant outdoor FREE MARC EMERY and GOOGLE MARC EMERY outdoor banners. They put the Free Marc fridge magnets on restaurant fridges and even made giant magnet images (12" wide!) for the sides of cars and fast food restaurant drive-thru signs. They’re quite excited to help out, and wow, that is some serious Newfie activism going on!
On July 1st, we got locked down and had a surprise inspection of everyone’s cell (which has happened a few times since). The whole morning was taken up with that, a lot of C.O.’s going from cell to cell and looking through everything, while we were all in the gym area waiting for them to finish. Any rule you broke you were reprimanded or lost something; I was told my cell was very good (clean, no contraband), so nothing happened to me.
It was really hot in the prison in early July, but they fixed the air conditioning so now it’s not nearly so overwhelming. With no fresh air and limited air circulation, it’s good to have the AC on when the summer heat hits. They also fixed the ice machine, so I can cool down the water I drink. I never have soda pop or any juices, because everything except water makes you thirstier!
Here is our daily prison routine:
5:40 am: Cells unlocked
6:00 am: Breakfast, free range time*
6:45 am – 7:30 am: Lockdown
7:30 am: Cells unlocked, free range time
10:45 am – 11:15 am: Lunch
11:15 am – 11:45 am: Out of bounds**
11:45 am – 12:30 pm: Free range time
12:30 pm – 1:15 pm: Lockdown
1:15 pm – 3:30 pm: Free range time
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm: Lockdown
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm: Dinner
5:00 pm – 5:30 pm: Out of bounds*
5:30 pm – 9:40 pm: Free range time
9:40 pm: Lockdown
* "Free range time" means any time that we are not locked into our cells, and I use that time to check and send emails through the Corrlinks program in the computer room, or play dominoes and socialize with other inmates.
** Out of bounds means the other shift (there are up to 100 inmates in my unit DB) is eating, and our level cannot access the computer room.
I did my Pre-Sentencing Interview on July 6th. The lady from Court Services came by with my lawyer Troberman, and asked me questions about my past. None of it involved the actual "crime" of selling seeds, it’s just background information like family, addresses where I lived, my siblings, my criminal record, my history of (non-)drug use, my education, my income, etc. Pretty dull stuff really. I thought it was all about what I did and why I did it, but it was so she can prepare a report for the court at my sentencing hearing on September 10th. I can’t imagine it being controversial or even that interesting. It’s boring because I own very little, have massive debts, my family is "ordinary", I haven’t got a big criminal record – there’s nothing very interesting about it on those levels.
I wrote a letter to my childhood best friend Roy, but instead of telling him about this place in a straightforward way, I wrote a funny sarcastic review as though it were a bad hotel with the worst shopping and restaurant service. I raved about the "21 day all non-inclusive Special Housing Unit" for a spa, and "the clothing store where you can buy the exact same style as everyone else". After a lot of mockery I ended with, "The motto of New Hampshire is ‘Live Free or Die’. Apparently ‘Live Free or Die’ is on the state license plates. In unsurpassable irony, the license plates are made by prisoners at the state prison in Corcord, New Hampshire. I guess the state motto isn’t worth the license plates they are printed on." Writing about this place in the form of a package-tour holiday from Hell might be a fun idea. Sections like "Vitamin D is over-rated", "Special Housing Units: because you’re Special", "The Sea-Tac Slim-fast diet… as seen on Oprah", "We’re Known by the Company We Keep", "Playful Supervisors Keep the Fun & Games Going 24/7", etc. I think its got endless potential!
Jodie wrote in her July 5th blog about our visits on July 2nd and 4th. On the 4th we got to have photos taken together. I bought five photo tickets, so we were able to get five pictures of us in the visiting room, which I’ll send to Jodie once they arrive (it takes 3 weeks, they say). On the 2nd, I had to take a drug "breathalyzer" test before my visit. I got through 52 years of my life to get to my first drug test! It felt kind of accomplished to blow 0.00. It’s strange though, because I’m not sure how it would detect anything, or how any inmates can possibly get drugs – I haven’t seen any here, and it’s maximum security, so I don’t know how anything could get in.
I was sent a transcript of Jodie’s speech at the Cannabis Day rally in Vancouver on July 1st. Cannabis Day is our celebration on Canada Day, and it’s been happening since 1996 at the Art Gallery downtown. Between 5,000 and 10,000 people take part, with music and speakers, tents and booths selling pipes, bongs, and every type of cannabis and cannabis-infused product imaginable. It’s always a wonderful time! This was the first major marijuana event in Vancouver that I was not part of, but my wife did an incredible speech in my absence. I wrote to Jodie, "I hope many, people see that barn-burner of a speech on YouTube.com/PotTVNetwork. I hope that is put on CC home page right away. Promote that heavily on Facebook & MySpace. Put ‘Marc Emery says Mrs. Emery is a wonderful speaker, and this is a beautiful, touching, urgent, loving speech to all Canadians and the Canadian Cannabis Culture.’ Way to show me how it’s done, Mrs. Emery. This is a good one, you do 5 minutes better than anyone I know, including me. You are incredible!"
Jodie will be speaking at Seattle Hempfest this year on August 21st and 22nd, just as she did last year. It will be interesting for me to be so close to the biggest marijuana and hemp event in the world, but while locked up in prison; I’ve never even been to Seattle Hempfest. Jodie will visit me on Friday the 20th, and again in the morning on Sunday the 22nd, so she’ll be able to tell everyone there that she’s seen me and spoken to me that very weekend!
Commissary arrives every Wednesday, along with laundry. Every week we get our commissary form to fill out, and I buy stamps, envelopes, writing paper, and any snacks I want to get, like tuna packs and trail mix nuts. I’ve bought a variety of spices, garlic sauce, other sauces, so I’ve been zesting up the food we’re served. I never eat chips or chocolate, because junk food makes me feel uneasy. Mondays are always a good day because mail comes, and a flood of newspapers from the weekend (Jodie has me subscribed to the New York Times, the Seattle Times, and USA Today). I get fantastic reprints from our wonderful friend and activist supporter Chris Goodwin in Toronto. He sends me these amazing dense printouts with hundreds of neat facts and trivia that are like 200 lines of pure information, and several pages of it. I find them mesmerizing. If I were to go on Jeopardy, they’d be just the thing to read in the warm-up room. That’s what they need here: Inmate Jeopardy, and if you win, you get 6 months off your sentence. That’s a bankable idea!
I’m reading "Hitch 22" by Christopher Hitchens, after finishing "The Armageddon Factor" about Canada’s evangelical Christian government and how the fanatical religious right has infiltrated our Canadian media and legal system. Hitch-22 is a beautifully written memoir; his charm and wonderful use of the English language is very entertaining, seductive and inspiring. He is so clever and "charming" keeps coming to mind. I’d certainly love to have dinner with the guy, that’s my first and constant impression. You just love every sentence this guy writes. The Armageddon Factor is revealing and informative, but I don’t think we have reason to fear (Jodie is always very anxious and worried about it) – we just have to demonize Prime Minister Harper & His Band of Punishment Freaks appropriately at all opportunities. Harper is cold as ice. He’s a lot like Nixon, a lot of getting back at enemies, revenge and punishment; he has no friends, and power/manipulation is his only lust. His wife isn’t living with him anymore after having an affair with an RCMP officer, because he doesn’t care about sex, love, friends – only power over others. He is full of hate. He has no joy in life other than seeing his enemies flail. Nixon was the exact same. Both have and had contempt for virtually any free thinker. We absolutely must get rid of the Harper Conservative government in Canada.
Another book I just received is "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness". A number of the black inmates want to read it after I’m done. It’s all about how blacks make up a huge proportion of incarcerated drug offenders. Chris Goodwin sent me a lot of poetry from a book of black poets, lots of Tupac, Black Panther stuff, so the African-American guys think I am different, obviously, from the usual white inmate. One fellow is getting me to read his urban autobiographical work of ‘fiction’ he’s writing. More of them are calling me Prince without sarcasm, and one guy put me in his cool rap song. My "cellie" (cell mate) says all his kids and and their friends are super impressed I’m his cell mate; they all know of me, he says. Many inmates have family and friends who are fans of my work and excited to be able to say their friend or husband/boyfriend/brother is imprisoned with me. Even visitors have recognized Jodie and are eager to share their stories about how they know of us.
I hope my supporters are continuing their efforts to end prohibition and free all the peaceful, non-violent drug war prisoners. As I have said before, as far back as 2004, "Let my incarceration galvanize you to action". And remember, one person can undo the evil of several thousand people. You should never underestimate your power. Plant the Seeds of Freedom and Overgrow the Government!
– Marc Emery’s prison blogs are compiled and posted by Jodie Emery based on emails from Marc
Imprisoned cannabis activist Marc Emery has been released from solitary confinement after spending three weeks in a small cell, 24-hours-a-day, with little human contact.
He has lost over 15 pounds since being moved from his regular cell on June 3 after unknowingly breaking a prison rule by recording a telephone message to his supporters.
Emery’s supporters view the punishment as an excuse to silence a successful political activist who has been a thorn in the side of government officials and drug policy makers for years.
On Thursday, June 3, officials at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center in Washington gave Emery an official citation for allowing his wife, BC Green Party Director-at-Large Jodie Emery, to record a message from him over the phone, claiming it broke the prison’s rule forbidding third-party calls. Emery was locked in a Segregated Housing Unit (SHU) and denied access to books, television, the telephone, or contact with his wife and family.
On June 24, an internal "disciplinary hearing" was held for Emery. The Disciplinary Hearing Officer said he realized that Emery didn’t know he was breaking a rule (as it wasn’t explicitly stated in the rule book), but told him he can’t do third-party political lobbying over the phone. Emery has been denied phone access until July 25, but is allowed access to electronic mail and to have visits.
"I’m just so relieved not to be in the torturous SHU unit," Emery wrote in his latest blog post at Cannabis Culture. "That’s plain mind-bending, being in isolation."
Emery’s attorney Rick Troberman says he thought the prison’s reaction was "completely overblown" and "unusual". "There was nothing in the conversation that was derogatory about the Federal Detention Center or his current situation or anything else," he told CC. "Why they’re choosing to make such a big deal of it is, frankly, a mystery to me."
Troberman said prison officials seemed upset that several Emery supporters had staged a small protest "inside the lobby" of the Federal Detention Center and probably wanted to send a message to the activist.
Emery is currently awaiting sentencing after being extradited to the US by the Conservative government of Canada. Emery was raided and arrested by the US DEA and Vancouver police in 2005 for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet and using the money to fund activism.
Many see Emery’s move to solitary and other punishment as way to shut him up, intimidate his supporters, and silence criticism of the government and its policies.
On the day of Emery’s arrest, the US Drug Enforcement Administration admitted their investigation was politically motivated, and that the activist’s arrest and extradition was designed to target the marijuana legalization community that Emery spearheaded for over a decade.
Today’s DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group — is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement.
His marijuana trade and propagandist marijuana magazine have generated nearly $5 million a year in profits that bolstered his trafficking efforts, but those have gone up in smoke today.
Emery and his organization had been designated as one of the Attorney General’s most wanted international drug trafficking organizational targets — one of only 46 in the world and the only one from Canada.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery’s illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canda. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.
Since Emery was extradited, Canadian cannabis activists have staged over twenty Conservative Party Office Occupations, some resulting in arrests and police brutality. Protestors have shown up at the offices of several high-profile Conservative lawmakers including Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson appears to be rattled by the protests, sending RCMP officers to homes of cannabis activists and hiring personal body guards.
Rather than face several charges with mandatory minimums attached, Emery agreed to a 5-year plea deal on one charge. This deal contributed to his two co-accused receiving probation in Canada instead of jail in the US. After sentencing, Emery will apply for transfer to Canada for the remainder of his sentence. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews will decide if Emery will be allowed to come home.
The Canadian Minister of Public Safety is Conservative MP Steven Blaney, and he alone has the power to bring Marc Emery back home – with just a simple signature. Please politely ask Minister Blaney to approve Marc Emery’s transfer application to finish his prison sentence in his home country Canada.
PHONE NUMBERS TO CALL:
613-944-4875 or 1-800-830-3118 (Public Safety Ministry office) 613-992-7434 (Parliament Hill office) 418-830-0500 (Constituency Office #1) 418-625-2626 (Constituency Office #2)
You can read aloud the following (either to the secretary who will answer the phone, or to the voice mail recording) or you can say something similar, based on how you feel about what has happened to Marc – but please remember to always be polite! And if you ask for an official response (which will require you leave your contact information) the office staff will have to use time and resources to reply, so they might be more inclined to tell the Minister to approve Marc’s transfer so they can get back to their normal workload!
“I’m calling to leave a message with Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney. I am requesting that he approve the prison transfer request of Canadian Marc Emery, who has been imprisoned in the United States since 2010. The Minister has had Marc Emery’s transfer application paperwork since earlier this year, and the United States’ federal government has already approved Marc’s request. Please make sure that the Minister knows that I, and many others, want Marc Emery brought home to Canada as soon as possible so he can finish his prison sentence closer to his wife, friends, and family.”
Faxes and letters are also useful, as they are physical copies of paper that the Minister is supposed to receive and review. Please remember to keep your message very short and simple so that it’s more likely to be read. You can also ask for a response by phone, email, fax or letter, but be sure to include your contact information.
FAX NUMBERS:
418-830-0504
418-625-4663
613-995-6856
MAIL ADDRESSES:
Hon. Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
Canada (Note: no postage required for mail to the House of Commons)
Hon. Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety
115 President Kennedy Road, Suite 101
Lévis, Québec
G6V 6C8
Canada
Hon. Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety
1516-D Route 277
Lac-Etchemin, Québec
G0R 1S0
Canada
We want the Canadian government to bring Marc Emery home to serve his sentence in Canada.
This is a normal process called "Treaty Transfer" whereby American and Canadian prisoners are transferred home to serve their sentences in their native country. This is normally done so that prisoners can be closer to their families, and be better monitored and reintegrated into society.
Now that Marc Emery has been sentenced in the USA (to 5 years), his lawyers have initiated the treaty transfer application. They expect no objection from American authorities, but there must also be support from Canada’s Public Safety Minister.
Originally we were fighting for Canadian officials to block Marc's extradition entirely. Now we are simply asking the Public Safety Minister to accept Marc's treaty transfer and allow him to serve some of his sentence in Canada.
Please contact the Canadian Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews (pronounced "Taves") and ask him to approve Canadian citizen Marc Emery's prison transfer application so Marc can serve his sentence in Canada. Please be polite and respectful when contacting Vic Toews.
At 6:00pm on Thursday, June 24th, I was finally released from solitary confinement after three weeks of isolation.
The Disciplinary Hearing Officer was very gracious (in so much as I was in solitary for 21 days) and agreed that the phone use infraction – the podcast to supporters that was never released – was minor in the big picture. He made it a "397" which involves no loss of good time (the discount of 15% a year on my sentence). He also said "Everyone here knows you are famous and it was a shout-out to your supporters that was not harmful, and we know you didn’t criticize the Federal Detention Centre, but you can’t do third-party political lobbying over the phone." So lesson learned. I don’t have phone access until July 25th, but at least I can "email" Jodie through CorrLinks and have visits in person, instead of the cruel "video visits" they’ve recently designated for inmates in solitary confinement.
The staff here are acknowledging me more than before as a "famous" person of repute. I was always friendly and polite to the guards, never hostile, angry or sarcastic. I always said "thank you" when they brought me food or un-handcuffed me. Eventually they said, "you’re welcome" in response. 21 days in the hole toughened me up, made me appreciate things. I have no interest in anger, defiance or protest from within these prison walls. I was totally polite and along with the program all my time in solitary. I am not interested in breaking rules or causing trouble in here. I’m just so relieved not to be in the torturous SHU unit. That’s plain mind-bending, being in isolation…
I received 30 letters on Thursday, and 28 the day before. There are some heartfelt ones I will respond to when I get more stamps. On Friday I got 35 letters – I’m very grateful that people are writing to me, and I will spend time writing back to as many as possible. I was under incredible strain and mental duress for those 21 days in "the hole", but now I am swamped with work once again: so many letters to respond to, all of books to read now that I have access to them again, and many ideas to develop. I couldn’t sleep my first night back in general population, unit DB, "Delta Bravo". I ate a huge lunch Friday! Other inmates gave me their extra salad and salsa, and I ate everything they poured on my tray. I could tell they were thinking, "Look at him eat, holy Jeezus!" I lost 15 pounds or so since I’ve been imprisoned, but I’m eating more now that I’m out of isolation and have access to bigger food servings.
One interesting thing happened in solitary on Monday June 21st, when the first MacLean’s magazine of my subscription arrived (thankfully I was able to get newspapers and magazines, but they ultimately took up very little of the constant 24-hour deprivation each day). I devoured the whole issue in one day and, as I was reading about the new prime minister of Japan and Alannis Morrisette’s wedding and other news items on page 12, I came across a news blurb about me being put in solitary confinement – which I read as I sat right there in solitary confinement! That made my day, knowing that people are still following my story. Same with the June 13th issue of the Seattle Times; I got that and, wow, a full page about me! The Disciplinary Hearing Officer said, "everyone here knows you are famous," and indeed they do know. That’s probably what created the crisis; they really didn’t know what to do with me. They ended up boosting my reputation and the FREE MARC campaign in a way that would otherwise not have happened. 21 days in solitary is near torture for any ordinary innocent human being.
In newspapers, I saw photos of how Toronto looked leading up to the G8 and G20 security. They make Toronto look so ugly with all those fences and para-military. It’s insane to spend $1 billion on "security", and scares away tourists. These meetings accomplish nothing. How come with all those cops in Toronto can’t stop the one thing they are supposed to do, and prevent street mayhem and disorder? I mean, there must be cameras everywhere, surely the cops could move in and arrest these hooligans – unless, as many suspect, the "Black Bloc" vandals are really cops acting as agent provocateurs. But even then, if it’s cops, it still shows that for $1 billion they still can’t stop or deter street disorder, so they may as well have not spent any money at all. Either scenario undermines the rationale for spending $1 billion on security.
Jodie has been sending me news stories about the blatant police abuse and assaults in Toronto. The police seem to go crazy at these G20 or G8 events. I’m sort of glad that journalists and media were scooped up so perhaps people can see what Canada is like in Harper-vision. I sure hope Canadians are very disturbed and will punish the Conservative Party in the next election by supporting and voting for the candidates who can unseat the Conservative members of Parliament. The Conservatives are at new lows in the polls of 30%, and the Greens at 12.5% (which is close to the vote they got in the last election, yet they unfairly did not get any seats – what a "democracy"!). Let’s have an election, for goodness sakes! The speculation that the Liberals & Conservatives form a coalition is absurd. The Liberals can govern fine with the NDP in a coalition with the support of the Bloc. The Conservatives have burned those bridges by playing so dirty the last 4 years.
My cellmate likes to read late, which is good since I also have a lot of reading and writing to do. It may be possible to get my own cell, because a large number of inmates currently here are being shipped out next week. The only thing is, I would likely get a cell mate eventually, and my cell mate now is probably as good as you could get for a "cellie" (as they’re called), so I’m not sure that’s preferable in the longer run.
When lunch was served on Saturday, I was very hungry. They haven’t made my diet "no flesh" (vegetarian) yet, as they haven’t transferred instructions from SHU (Segregated Housing Unit, "the hole"). Lunch was chicken and potatoes and mixed frozen-type vegetables. I saw from the return trays most people left various parts, as the quality is very poor, but I devoured it all: threw all those mixed vegetables in, added the potatoes, stripped the chicken off the bones, added the gravy, and ate that down like a starving African. I would have eaten the other guy’s meal, too! Go to solitary for 3 weeks and you don’t complain about food much after that. You can’t wait for mealtime. I actually had an apple on Sunday (it was a Red Delicious; in solitary you just got unripe Granny Smith apples) and banana Saturday; any fruit is definitely appreciated. My stomach had shrunk from the reduction in food volume while in "the hole".
On July 4th, Independence Day here in the USA, Jodie is coming to visit and we’ll be able to have a photo taken together! She’s coming for the weekend, which she will hopefully do every weekend with the generous support of fans and friends. So we get to see each other on Friday the 2nd and Sunday the 4th (visits are only allowed every other day). I found out that inmates who have family come from out of state are able to apply for extended visits once a month, so instead of 2 hours per visit, which is the time limit, Jodie and I can spend 3 or 4 hours together each day for one weekend each month! On July 16th and 18th she’ll come see me and we’ll get up to 7 hours of holding hands and talking. Even though visits take place in a very large, crowded and noisy, guarded room, it’s priceless to hold my wife’s beautiful hands and look into her loving eyes and hear her voice. I know she feels the same way!
I have to get back into writing Robert’s life story (the African-American senior Vietnam draft veteran I wrote about in my earlier blog posts), but first I’m going to write letters to the fans who wrote me. I will get a staggering amount of mail on Monday June 28th, probably over 50 letters, plus 8 newspapers (from the weekend backlog) and a few magazines, so I’m busier now than I was at the beginning. Robert’s story is going to be really good though, so I’ll have to commit to 1-2 hours a day to that by Wednesday. My old cellmate here, the Iranian Jew/Canadian who’s got an odd and unjust case, is not nearly as happy with his other cellmates. He liked having my intense cross-examinations, which all my cellmates here and in Canada do – people rightly regard my interest as caring. I help them analyze their lives and address the problems that led to their imprisonment. It’s clear I want nothing from them and I’m not a criminal, so they are always eager to download their life stories and listen to my advice.
Ending up in solitary is being blamed on Nicholson and the Prime Minister, as though torturing me in a US prison was what they had in mind all along. That has turned out to be more than they anticipated. I heard about how Nicholson has hired private personal security (on the taxpayer’s dime, of course) for "undisclosed" reasons, though the news article mentioned he has been running away from any FREE MARC activists and signs. My supporters are not dangerous or threatening – it’s free speech and exposure of his cruelty that Nicholson truly fears. The L.A. Times article really helped boost my US support, and the libertarian and anti-prohibitionist media are using me to ratchet up the campaign to repeal prohibition, which is exactly what I want from my imprisonment. Let my incarceration not be in vain; let it galvanize you to action!
Free from isolation, but still a prisoner in a maximum security facility as I await my sentencing in the US federal system… Marc Emery #40252-086
– Blog posts are compiled and posted by Marc’s wife Jodie Emery
Reporting from Vancouver, Canada — For years, his seed catalogs were scrutinized by discerning cannabis cultivators across the U.S. and Canada, much like the ladies of Cumbria might fuss over Chiltern’s inventories of sweet peas and heirloom tomatoes.
There was Blue Heaven pot, capable of producing a "euphoric, anti-anxiety high," or Crown Royal, whose "flower tops come to a flat golden crown, sparkling with gems of THC," or Hawaiian Sativa, with its "menthol flavor that tingles the taste buds and tickles the brain."
The difference between Marc Emery’s pot seeds and countless others on the market was that if you bought Emery’s, he’d use the money to launch a cannabis tsunami across North America that would set the war on drugs adrift like a cork on a massive sea of weed.
"Plant the seeds of freedom, overgrow the government," Emery urged his clients. With a pot plant on every patio, he declared, violent drug gangs would see their livelihoods disappear and police would be reduced to "running around … chasing all these marijuana plants."
Sooner or later, he promised, "they will simply give up and change the laws."
Well, not yet. Emery, who U.S. authorities fingered in 2005 as one of the top 46 international drug trafficking targets, was ordered extradited by the Canadian minister of justice last month and relinquished to federal marshals in Seattle. He now faces a likely five years in U.S. federal prison.
"In fact I have done these things, so I admit my guilt," Emery said in an e-mail after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. "We are winning, especially in the United States, and I can take a lot of credit for that…. When I am gone, or even locked up here in the U.S., my historical legacy is secure."
Here in "Vansterdam," where cannabis cafes, head shops and even a supervised needle-injection site are prominent features of downtown, pot is a multibillion-dollar industry. And Emery, a longtime fixture at political forums and downtown street rallies, is widely seen as one of its titans.
The extradition of the 52-year-old self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot" has sparked a sovereignty outcry across Canada, where supporters, civil rights advocates and even several members of parliament have demanded to know why he was handed over to the U.S. for an offense that Canada seldom prosecutes.
"It seems like the American war on drugs is just reaching its arm into Canada and saying, ‘We’re going to scoop you up,’" said Libby Davies, a member of parliament from Vancouver. "The whole thing has struck people as being over the top, harsh, unwarranted — and at the end of the day, what are they trying to prove?"
Canada and the U.S. have been on strangely opposite political trajectories when it comes to the war on drugs.
"It seems like the American war on drugs is just reaching its arm into Canada and saying, ‘We’re going to scoop you up,’" said Libby Davies, a member of parliament from Vancouver. "The whole thing has struck people as being over the top, harsh, unwarranted — and at the end of the day, what are they trying to prove?"
Canada and the U.S. have been on strangely opposite political trajectories when it comes to the war on drugs.
Many of the state campaigns to legalize the medical use of marijuana in the U.S. did so with donations from Emery. He ran for mayor of Vancouver in 1996, 2002 and 2008, finishing a perennial fourth or fifth.
"When Marc was arrested, he had $11 in his bank account," said his wife, Jodie, 25, who has co-edited Emery’s magazine, Cannabis Culture, and served as his deputy in the Marijuana Party of British Columbia, which he founded. The party took 3.5% of the vote in the 2000 elections and made cannabis a must-address issue in every election since.
Emery won few friends in President George W. Bush’s administration when former drug czar John Walters, apparently seeking to stamp out rumblings of marijuana decriminalization among Canada’s then-ruling Liberal Party, addressed the Vancouver Board of Trade in 2002.
Emery surreptitiously bought a table at the event, and along with fellow activists David Malmo-Levine and Chris Bennett, heckled Walters mercilessly. The next day, activists blew marijuana smoke in Walters’ face during a tour of downtown
Not long after that, they figure, is when the U.S. investigation of Emery was launched. But his friends say that only increased his sense of mission — and self-esteem.
"A lot of people take great offense when he gets compared to people like Martin Luther King and Gandhi, and they say, ‘Marc, you can’t compare yourself to someone like that.’ And he says, ‘These are men who stood up for things … who suffered for what they represented, and to many, many people, they were the leader of their movement,’" Jodie said.
"Marc does have a gigantic ego," she said.
"Majestic," said Malmo-Levine.
Cannabis has been Emery’s holy grail, but it would be a mistake, his friends say, to think of him as a pothead weaned on tree-hugging and the Grateful Dead. To the contrary, he is a libertarian capitalist whose politics lean free-market, individual-rights Republican.
"A lot of people think he’s a leftie, but he’s really a true conservative. He wants to get the government out of people’s lives," his wife said.
As a 17-year-old high school dropout in London, Ontario, he opened his own bookstore, City Lights, in 1975, and clashed with the authorities there for selling banned copies of High Times magazine and the rap group 2 Live Crew’s forbidden CD "As Nasty as They Wanna Be."
Emery was arrested not only for selling banned material but for repeatedly defying the province’s Sunday closure laws; after years of conflict, he moved to Vancouver, where he hooked up with local hemp activists who shared his growing fascination with the history of cannabis and the governmental campaigns against it.
"’Where, oh where, are the hemp professionals?’ He totally slammed all these guys in dreadlocks," Bennett recalled. "I’d say, ‘Who are you to criticize anybody? Are you going to get pot legalized?’ And he said, ‘Just watch me.’"
Emery opened his pot paraphernalia store, BC Hemp, in 1994 and started up his seed business later that year. Over the years he has been arrested more than a dozen times, whether for selling seeds in Vancouver or passing a joint in Saskatoon, but hasn’t faced serious jail time until now.
His seed business, he has argued, did more good than harm by undermining the criminal cartels that have turned marijuana trafficking into a corrupt and violent international business.
"What I did was make it possible for small home growers to produce their own made-in-the-U.S.A. marijuana," he said. "I stopped millions of American dollars from flowing to terrorists, cartels, thugs and gangs."
The mainstream marijuana legalization movement in the United States, however, has been largely silent since his arrest, not lending their voices, for example, to the rallies in nearly 80 cities around the world that followed Emery’s transfer to the U.S.
It was largely alone that Emery sat in a Seattle courtroom late last month, with only a handful of supporters on the benches.
He had agreed to plead guilty to the single count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, Jodie said, largely to ensure that his two employees also charged in the indictment would not have to serve jail time.
"It was the most preferable of all the alternatives," a subdued Emery told Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, who asked why he was admitting to the charge.
"Sometimes there are no alternatives, you’re right," the judge said. "There are only bad and worse."
Emery was led away not long after that, but nobody really expected he’d go quietly.
The Prince of Pot’s blog posts from the SeaTac detention center go out regularly on the Internet to his supporters. What he wants to do next, though his attempt to get a recorded phone call out has so far only gotten him stuck in solitary confinement: Potcasts.
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.
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.
By Szandor Blestman, Weekly Blitz
I’ve been keeping myself very busy since being let out of solitary confinement on June 24th. I have many books, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and letters to keep me occupied, so the days sometimes fly by as I read and write back to people.
By. Jeremiah Vandermeer, Cannabis Culture
CONTACT CANADA’S PUBLIC SAFETY MINISTER
At 6:00pm on Thursday, June 24th, I was finally released from solitary confinement after three weeks of isolation.
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times