Free Marc Emery

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Marc Emery’s US Federal Prison blog #13: Letter to Jodie

submitted by on September 7, 2010
By Marc Emery
 
Dearest Jodie: What a sad and wrenching weekend, my dear. On Saturday morning you were so tired and sadly vacant for our visit (because of the terrible start with you being upset by the way a guard was treating me, and the unexpected photos when you were not dressed up or ready for them) that it had me reeling with sadness for the remainder of the day. That was the worst visit we’ve had. But I threw myself into work and began writing an excellent chapter for Barry Cooper’s new book, about my experience and observations about life in a federal prison. It’s turned out to be excellent; I know Barry will really like it and it will be a great addition to his book.

By Sunday we were both doing some great work to impress each other and ourselves, and became very excited to see each other on Monday to get it right. You did some great work on a personal letter to Judge Martinez, you were contacting elected Canadian politicians to sign on to a letter to Vic Toews urging my repatriation and getting commitments, you got press releases done and sent out for my sentencing on Friday, and we discussed how John McKay, the former District Attorney who originally prosecuted me and demanded my extradition here, called me an idiot in the Sunday Seattle Times while advocating legalizing marijuana.

We both thought it outlandish that McKay, who was part of the problem of prohibition (now admitted by himself in print), did not recant his actions against me. I was, after all, sincerely advocating the solution he now agrees is the necessary approach to solve the problem of organized crime. He was in the wrong, I was in the right, yet I’m an idiot and he is living life unmolested by any guilt over his tenure as D.A. while adopting the very politics I espoused as he pursued me and ripped me out of my country and happy home.

And then I did something so stupid. I knew that today, Monday, was Labor Day and we were both excited to see each other soon after 2pm. You and I have never encountered a holiday visit that changed the visiting schedule; the last holiday, July 4th, was on a Sunday and normally that’s a 2-hour visit any time between 7:30am and 2:30pm, so we didn’t think a federal holiday impacted times at all because that holiday schedule was no different than the usual Sunday schedule. So I assumed visiting started at 2pm, and you remember that child-like aphorism "Never assume, because you make an ASS of U and ME" – and I did! I didn’t look it up in my rulebook or think about it, so didn’t tell you that holiday visits are always at 7:30am, then you showed up at 1:45 to start the visiting processing at 2pm, and they turned you away because visiting was just ending!

It was so heartbreaking, frustrating, infuriating and depressing for both of us. I cried in my room, and I broke down and cried at the dinner table when I got my pathetic "dinner" of peanut butter, 2 slices of bread and white rice.

I decided to focus on the good parts of my weekend. I decided I want to turn www.MarcEmery.ca (which currently just takes people to www.FreeMarc.ca) into the website for my life story writings. I have fourteen stories in my autobiography done and I’m not particularly interested in whether it’s in published book form or not – I’d rather have a website where all my good writing can be accessed in one place. So I’m going to write a minimum of 100 stories about my life, as planned when I said the book would be 100 chapters, and I already have 14 done now. Then I want my best published pieces from other publications – like "Rastafari: The Secret History of the Marijuana Religion", which is my favorite piece I ever wrote for Cannabis Culture Magazine – included in another section called "My Favorite Writings". Others I want at MarcEmery.ca are "Prince of Pot Busted" from CC #58 [article also posted at www.CannabisCulture.com/FreeMarc] and the interview "Marc Emery: The Prince of Pot Speaks Out" from CC #16. The piece "On the 30th Anniversary of my Vasectomy & My Girlfriend’s 2nd Trimester Abortion" published at www.WesternStandard.ca will be part of my autobiography, and it’s my favorite written work on a life experience, up to some of the stories I’ve written in the last week.

I want to include the best of my original jail blogs from my imprisonment in Saskatoon in 2004 (which you transcribed from audio to post online, falling in love with me as you spent hours every night listening to my stories), but I’ll need to go over copies that you can send me in the mail. I’m really looking forward to what you think of my new auto-bio stories "Saving Roy", "Dad & Betty", "Toni Lauriston", "The Prophecy", "Breaking My Promise", "Two Years Behind Bars", "Stamp Treasure", "Bound Volumes" – and all of them. The only one that’s not really great is my first one I wrote about Cheech & Chong and “Big Bambu”, but everything else I think is very good material.

I’m surprised how good my chapter on life in Federal Prison is. It’s for a new book by Barry Cooper. It will really fully inform people who might be headed to federal prison what life is like in an FDC, including being in the ‘hole’, solitary confinement. That’s the point of Barry including the chapter: my experience there. It’s very thorough. The next chapter for him is "Life in an FCI", which I can’t write with authority until I get to my Federal Correctional Institution sometime after my sentencing this Friday. My transfer could be just three weeks after sentencing, or it could be months. I just hope it’s a place that has email (Corrlinks, which we use to communicate with each other and cherish) and that it is not too awkward for you to visit, since you don’t drive and rely on supporters to help.

I know I am asking the judge to recommend my designation be Lompoc FCI, 25 miles north of Santa Barbara in California. We have friends there you can stay with, and it’s near air routes from Los Angeles, so it won’t be as expensive to visit as many of the other places I might get sent to, which could be as far as Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, or North Carolina.

Of course, the best thing about this Friday the 10th when I get sentenced is my Transfer application, under the International Transfer of Offenders treaty, goes to the Canadian Consulate after I get sentenced. As soon as I arrive at my designated FCI, wherever it may be, I can put in my application to the US Bureau of Prisons for transfer back to the Canadian Correctional system. Under current Canadian law, I qualify for parole at 20 months of my 60-month sentence as a first time non-violent offender in the Canadian federal system. That means I could be out on parole in November 2011, in time to be with you for Christmas next year!

I just hit the 6-month (180 days) mark of my sentence today – that’s the time I’ve served awaiting extradition and my sentencing – so if I’m transferred to Canada, 20 months will be November 10, 2011. But that’s only if Public Safety Minister Vic Toews approves my transfer, and the US Bureau Of Prisons approves my transfer. D.A. Greenburg said he would not oppose my transfer in our negotiations, so that is very positive, and because there were no victims to my crime (according to my PSR report) there will be no objection from any "victims", so that just leaves the US Justice Department, represented by the BOP.

That’s why it’s important, dear Jodie, to emphasize to all our supporters, that the effort they make on Saturday, September 18th, Marc Emery Support Day, is vitally important. Canadians writing letters to Vic Toews is SO IMPORTANT; I need him to receive thousands of letters IN THE MAIL to assure prompt approval of my transfer. I need the US Justice Department to receive thousands of letters from US CITIZENS, IN THE MAIL urging my repatriation back to Canada. I don’t think enough attention has been paid to my US supporters making their voice heard at the US Justice Department for my transfer to Canada.

The Honourable Public Safety Minister Vic Toews
Parliament Hill
Suite 306, HC Justice Building
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
(No postage required in Canada)

204-326-9889 and 613-992-3128

•••

U.S. Department of Justice
Criminal Division, Office of Enforcement Operations
International Prisoner Transfer Program
JCK Building, 12th Floor
Washington, DC 20530

202-514-3173

I answered some questions from the Vancouver Sun’s Ian Mulgrew, who is preparing material for an article on my sentencing ["Prince of Pot prosecutor declares marijuana prohibition a bust"]. I know he has seen John McKay’s piece in the Seattle Times. My friend and great protégé Loretta Nall, in Alabama, was furious McKay called me an idiot (and tens of millions of Americans also) for using cannabis while he was the problem and I advocated the solution he now calls for, and she wrote a letter condemning his hypocrisy. But here is one of Ian’s questions with my answer:

Q: Do you have any regrets now that you’ve been incarcerated, and even put in solitary confinement?

A: I do have regrets. I regret that my methods of selling seeds to Americans put me in jail and took me away from my wife. I miss her dearly and think of her every day. I cry over it frequently in my cell or when I speak to Jodie on the phone. But then I have to consider what became of that $4 million I gave away to American and Canadian activists and lobby groups. I gave $5,000 in January 1998 to pay petitioners to gather signatures in Washington, DC for a medical marijuana initiative, which was finally implemented recently. If not for that $5,000, the signatures would never have been collected and the medical marijuana distribution scheme going into effect now (it was blocked by Congress for 10 years) would not exist. The director of the Alcohol Distribution Agency in Washington, DC actually called me on the phone earlier this year and consulted with me on protocols for running the medical marijuana production aspect of the system, of which he is in charge of. Even more significantly, in January 2000, I gave $15,000 of my seed profits to pay signature gatherers in Colorado to get the medical marijuana initiative on the ballot in that state. Without that money, the campaign probably would have failed; so Colorado, which now has over 200,000 of its citizens with medical marijuana cards and the legal ability to possess, cultivate and consume medical cannabis, would not be where it is today. Those 200,000 citizens would still be being prosecuted, instead of protected as they are today, because one Canadian cared enough and had a plan!

And Canadian governments collected taxes from me for those seeds sales. Health Canada recommended me before they started selling their two varieties of seeds. The worldwide Global Marijuana March, which sees 20,000-30,000 attendees march in downtown Toronto each year, with participation worldwide of perhaps a quarter million people in over 300 cities, was started with money from my seed sales; from 1999-2005, each year I contributed $35,000 to fund this now self-sustaining event to get it where it is today. The April 20 celebrations that go on everywhere on Earth, and attract 10,000 participants in downtown Vancouver each year, and 10,000 in Denver now too, and perhaps up to a million more celebrants around the world (but especially Canada and the USA), was started in 1995 by my co-workers and the money from my seed sales, and grew into a global phenomenon because I made it happen. The 2003 Canadian Supreme Court challenge to marijuana prohibition in Canada that took 8 years and $85,000 of seed sale money to finance would never have happened without that money. We lost 6-3, but we were only two judges’ opinion away from changing history – all because I was there with a plan to make it happen. My pioneering drug addiction clinic and rehabilitation center, the Iboga Therapy House, which blazed a trail for what is now recognized as the greatest hope for drug addiction recovery, ibogaine hydrochloride, was done from 2002-2004 with $205,000 in seed sales money.

I have hundreds of examples, Ian, of outstanding history-changing events: election campaigns, polls, rallies, clinics, court challenges, conferences, compassion clubs, legal challenges, class-action suits against the US federal government, and much more, all of which existed only because of the millions of dollars of seed money that I directed to those projects. $152,000 in seed money was contributed to the historic BC Marijuana Party campaign in 2001, where a full slate of 79 candidates participated seriously in every riding in British Columbia. It put cannabis at the front of the election and debate issues. All of these actions were peaceful and democratic and fully transparent, harming no one, for the purpose of liberating humanity and the beloved plant therapies of the Earth. To regret my actions that led to this sad and unjust incarceration would be to deny all the great good that came from my philanthropy, it would be to deny the great progress our movement has made as a result of my unrelenting and honest activism.

Do I regret being in prison? Yes. Often. I am, however, very pleased that I have made considerable progress in my autobiography. I am working hard away on my Canadian voters guide. I have a chapter completed about life in US federal prison for a new book by Barry Cooper. I have written 300 letters of correspondents to people of the world who have written me. I have been busy. I have tried to be stoic. My hero, Martin Luther King, Jr. was often called on to go to jail to force the issue of segregation before the media, courts, and politicians. To quote the book I have finished reading on King, "Pillar of Fire" by Taylor Branch: "Above all, King hated jail, which revived his bouts of self-reproach and depression. He decided to post bond the next afternoon." Even the great man himself found jail a hard thing to endure, and I have spent already far more time in jail for my cause and my people that King endured in his time.

That’s the end of that answer for Mulgrew. I share it with you, Jodie, because we both need inspiration and cheering up, and Mulgrew can only use a few lines at best.

I am still your ever-faithful husband, and I am always madly in love with you, and that makes my time more unbearable and at the same time endurable, knowing that I am still your hero, no matter what comes. It is you I rely on so much for moral comfort in my dark and sad days of loneliness that sometimes afflict me here, and when I contemplate the long, difficult road ahead, of enduring months and years of incarceration, it is your love and the legacy of my achievements that keep me from utter and abject collapse into despair.

Having finished part one and two of Taylor Branch’s fine biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., I am now reading Stephen Davis’ biography of Bob Marley, hoping I can find inspiration in Bob’s incredible rise to greatness from the most humble of origins. Of course, Leonard Howell, the founder of Rastafari, was made to suffer ridicule and persecution by the Jamaican government in his lifetime, so I have the example of the great ones in my soul, Miss, and I am cognizant that there is a fine place in history for the both of us, so let’s rejoice about our unique love, our great marriage and our incredible destiny that awaits us. Remember our world tour we will embark on upon my return and final release from prison! We will go to Ireland, England, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil and everywhere else my supporters have invited me – let us hope that happens in 2012! Our fans will sponsor us, just as they did across Canada for our Farewell Tour last year. We have never traveled abroad because the US authorities would have had me arrested since I have been doing my revolutionary activity since 1995, so it’s been 14 years since I have been anywhere outside of Canada. Once my US time is done and this sentence is served here and in Canada, we can visit the cannabis culture across the globe – it will be the reward for all our struggles. And then I hope we will finally go on our triumphant tour of all 50 states in the USA to meet our people, and it will be glorious with cannabis legal and accepted, finally, after all these pernicious government persecutions have been declared obsolete. That is the dream!

Our Farewell Tour was so wonderful last summer: 30 cities across Canada in 38 days, and we never had an argument or any kind of kerfuffle! We were so in love even knowing I would be gone soon, and we traveled hours every day to get to the next speaking engagement. How is the Farewell Tour DVD video coming along by the way? I know you have the first cut, but have yet to watch it. That magnificent tour will be fully captured on DVD when you add the photographs we took in each city, along with the videos you made (and still have more to make) on YouTube, which chronicled all of the tour locations and dates.

(More videos to come – Subscribe to PotTV on YouTube!)

Paul McKeever is finally able to produce the new movie “Principle of Pot” on DVD and he told me of the packaging and the production going on. You’ll have them later this month, it’s hoped. He said he finally watched it for the first time since he produced it, about 5 months ago, and it still seemed pretty good to him! It took 17 months to do. I responded to Paul that it is a brilliant work, painstakingly put together, considering it’s available for free and he’ll never make a dime from all that work. It has so much seminal material on my life. People send me letters with my quotes from “Principle of Pot” all the time. I wonder how many views on YouTube it has now?

The "Principle of Pot" DVD will be great as a document to explain so much of my life, I think, especially when someone asks, "Who is Marc Emery?" when they see signs at an intersection or on an overpass that say "Google Marc Emery". The doc was very rationally presented, and easy to digest even though it’s four hours long as it’s very visual and entertaining. I don’t think that anything about me on video will ever be as complete or as good a job explaining the history of my wide-ranging politics and activism before, and including, marijuana.

I told Paul that the CBC documentary “Prince of Pot” director Nick Wilson got such great feedback and exposure for his debut director’s job that it’s unlikely he’ll find any subject matter as interesting or as challenging. “Prince of Pot” was broadcast over 18 times on CBC, Knowledge Network, and Court TV. I hope he will do an updated re-issue of the DVD with producer Anne Pick, reflecting my incarceration and interviewing you in your much more mature persona that isn’t captured in the original 2006/2007 “Prince of Pot” movie.

In a strange and disturbing parallel thought, I know it was my life story that propelled director Chris Doty, from my hometown London, Ontario, to end his life. Five days before committing suicide, my friend and video & play biographer Chris confided to me over dinner, looking me in the eye and saying with sadness and confession, "No one cares about the histories that you and I care about, Marc. I might end up amusing people with my historical work, and some things, like my Donnelly play, made money and were popular, but that was a fluke. People don’t care that you are one of London’s greatest sons; they ignore it. It’s all meaningless to them. This damn world of cheap, sleazy television… it makes me wistful, like I was born in the wrong time."

Then you and I went with him to the premiere of the great play about me, “Citizen Marc”, which I so loved and was proud of everything about it; I thought it was amazing. And after the premiere, Chris escorted us back to the London Armories Hotel, standing outside the front entrance, and he asked me what I thought. I said, "It’s perfect, Chris, absolutely perfect. You should film it for DVD and release it with your first documentary about me [‘Messing Up The System’], and take it on the road as well." And then he wanly smiled and said "I’m pleased to hear you say that, Marc. That way, if I died tomorrow, I could go content knowing you approved."

Those were the last words I spoke to him, the last I heard from his mouth. Five nights later, on a Thursday night in his mother’s home, he hung himself, because, I always thought, Wednesday and Thursday night’s performances hadn’t sold out like the premiere night, and it confirmed his cynical belief that people in London just didn’t care about something/someone he thought they should care about. The play Citizen Marc went on to win "Best Actor" (for the lead star) and "Best Director" in that year’s Brickenden Awards for theatre, and could probably be mounted as a successful stage play across Canada to great success today.

Many times I have wished I had lied to Chris and told him "It’s a bit rough, Chris, I think you need to work on it more to really get it right, then maybe it will be more popular." Telling him it was perfect was his moment to decide that "Citizen Marc" was the last great project he wanted to complete. Chris began his career in documentary with me, the 1993 documentary film "Marc Emery: Messing Up The System" and it won an award too, and got him his first full time job in documentary films. He believed, I think, that his life had come to its terminus, full circle from beginning to end, literally with my life story.

Today I was so sad because I had a disappointing weekend with and without you, my wonderful wife, but now I’m crying in the corner of my computer room here in the FDC because Chris Doty gave his life to get my life story out there, and I had better live up to his ultimate investment in me. Chris Doty, a great talent, gone, who got so bound up in my life that he took on an unfair, unexplainable burden of what he saw as a rejection of what I stood for, and saw the world in the wrong perspective for just as much time as it took for him to take his own life. And he so loved and respected my work and me after spending so much time in my original bookshop City Lights so many years ago.

I’m sorry I was mean and angry in my earlier messages, Miss, and I really should be braver and better. I just think of Chris Doty and his love for me and I am so grateful to be alive and to have your love, and so grateful that I have lived amongst friends who loved me so much.

I will call you in the morning, my dearest! Finally my phone is restored after running out of minutes last Thursday! Those 300 minutes we are limited to each month sure don’t go far. But Tuesday is the 7th and my commissary limit and my phone minutes get restored on the 7th of each month, so I will call you around 9:00 am to wish you my love and apologize for any harsh words I wrote to you when I was so overwrought with frustration and sadness at our visit not happening.

Goodnight, sweetheart. I can’t wait to hear your voice!
Your Humbled Prince,
Marc

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Prince of Pot’s prosecutor declares prohibition a bust

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By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
 
Canada’s prince of pot, Marc Emery, spent Labour Day in a U.S. prison reading a newspaper column by his former prosecutor saying anti-cannabis laws are "dangerous and wrong."
 
In an insult to injury that should cause Ottawa to blush, the man who hounded Emery to face American drug and money-laundering charges declares the pot prohibition should be ended.
 
John McKay, now a Seattle University law professor, argued in the weekend article that the war against marijuana has failed, actually threatens public safety and rests on false medical assumptions.
 
"I DON’T smoke pot," Seattle’s former U.S. attorney insisted. "And I pretty much think people who do are idiots."
 
But McKay added: "As Emery’s prosecutor and a former federal law-enforcement official, however, I’m not afraid to say out loud what most of my former colleagues know is true: Our marijuana policy is dangerous and wrong and should be changed through the legislative process to better protect the public safety."
 
The DEA insisted in 2005 Emery was one of the world’s "most wanted international drug trafficking organizational targets." Today McKay admits "our 1930s-era marijuana prohibition was overkill from the beginning."
 
What a travesty of justice!
 
"The hypocrisy of him being my prosecutor and still supporting my sentencing (he doesn’t condemn it) while admitting that the law is wrong and counterproductive is unsaid -but it needs to be," Emery complained in an e-mail from jail where he is awaiting sentencing.
 
"I am victimized by the law for hurting no one."
 
From the moment of Emery’s 2005 arrest, I have said his extradition was wrong.
 
He openly sold seeds in Vancouver for more than a decade and no one was willing to enforce our law — the underhand tactic by Vancouver cops to outsource justice to the Americans was offensive.
 
In response to the outcry following Emery’s arrest, police did lay a couple of other charges.
 
A 36-year-old Courtenay man was given a month in jail for the identical offence. In March 2008, the Court of Appeal said that was an appropriate punishment for selling seeds.
 
In Montreal, Richard Baghdadlian of Overgrow. com and Heaven’s Stairway, was also busted shortly after Emery and given a conditional sentence of two years less a day — that is, no jail time.
 
Hundreds of Canadian seed companies still sell into the U.S. market.
 
Emery, of course, was targeted by the DEA because he was out to end the cannabis prohibition.
 
The Americans said Emery earned $5 million from his illicit catalogue business and channelled hundreds of thousands to pro-marijuana groups.
 
"Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on," the DEA punned in its press release. How funny.
 
"If changing U.S. marijuana policy was ever Emery’s goal, the best that can be said is that he took the wrong path," was McKay’s attempt to put him down.
 
Wrong: It looks to me like Emery lost the battle and won the war.
 
In November, California will vote on a new legal tax-and-regulate proposition. Similar initiatives are planned for Oregon and Washington in 2011, and Colorado in 2012. More than a dozen states with medical marijuana programs are following California’s path.
 
Too bad Emery’s paying a far too hefty price for his prescience — having promoted a more sensible public policy and a more truthful debate around cannabis — while the intellectually dishonest gloat that, well, okay, they are wrong and the law’s an ass, but Emery still should be punished.
 
I remain ashamed that Canada handed him over to the U.S. rather than react to their concerns by prosecuting him.
 
On Friday Emery is to be sentenced to five years in a U.S. penitentiary under a plea bargain. Five years! In Canada you can kill someone and not do that kind of time.
 
"My incarceration costs taxpayers money they don’t have to perpetuate a policy that doesn’t work in a state where the majority say they want marijuana legal," Emery said. "So who are the idiots?"
 
Regrets?
 
"I do have regrets," he confided. "I regret that my methods of selling seeds to Americans put me in jail and took me away from my wife. I miss her dearly and think of her every day. I cry over it frequently in my cell or when I speak to Jodie on the phone. But then I have to consider what became of the $4 million I gave away to American and Canadian activists and lobby groups."
 
Emery can hold his head up; it’s a shame those who prosecuted him can’t do the same.

“Prince of Pot” Marc Emery To Be Sentenced Friday, September 10

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CANNABIS CULTURE
 
Marc Scott Emery, the leader of the BC Marijuana Party and well-known marijuana activist and businessman, will be sentenced in a US Federal Courtroom in Seattle, Washington on Friday, September 10.

Marc Emery is expected to be formally sentenced to the 5-year term he agreed to in his plea deal. If the judge sentences him to more or less time, the deal will be null and void, and a trial will ensue with the possibility of 30 years to life in prison.

Jodie Emery, wife of Marc Emery, will be at the US Federal Court (700 Stewart Street, downtown Seattle) at noon on Friday to meet with supporters and media.

“It’s nerve-wracking to go through this process,” Jodie said, “but Marc and I are both doing our best to stay strong. We know he is a political prisoner and, no matter the outcome on Friday, we just want him to be brought home to serve his sentence in Canada.”

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is responsible for Marc’s repatriation to Canada. He has received hundreds of letters and phone calls asking him to approve Marc’s transfer treaty request to come home, as required by law and the Charter.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, on the day of Marc’s arrest in 2005, said that he was targeted as “the founder of a legalization group” and it was “a significant blow to the marijuana legalization movement” because “hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery’s illicit profits were channeled to drug legalization groups active in the United States and Canada”.

(The press release can be found online at www.FreeMarc.ca under “Who Is Marc Emery” or by downloading the original file at http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/files/Tandystatement.jpg)

Though the DEA and the media have reported that Marc “made millions of dollars”, Jodie Emery insists the money was all given away to activism groups and events.

“Marc started selling seeds with the explicit goal of funding the marijuana legalization movement, which he did tremendously well, to the tune of $4 million dollars over the decade he was in business," she said. "He paid his income tax on seed sales, and operated openly and transparently. Marc and I have no savings, bonds, stocks, property, cars, homes, or anything of value. On the day of his arrest, he had $11 in his bank account. Marc Emery sold seeds not for personal profit, but for drug policy reform and progress that has, since he started in 1994, been very successful.”

On Saturday, September 18, rallies are being held in over 57 cities in North America and abroad. This is the fourth Worldwide Rally to Free Marc Emery since 2005. Thousands of people support Marc Emery and have participated in activism to raise awareness of his history and current incarceration.

Marc is currently imprisoned at the maximum-security SeaTac Federal Detention Centre. He was subjected to three weeks in solitary confinement for a “prison podcast” recording, but has been in general population since.

Broken borders: Marc Emery’s extradition a violation of Canada’s sovereignty

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By: Maria Cichosz, The Varsity
 
Marc Emery, Canada’s self-proclaimed “Prince of Pot,” is set to be sentenced in a United States Federal Court on September 10. Emery was extradited to the U.S. on May 20, 2010, to serve a five-year prison term for the sale of marijuana seeds over the Internet. Canadian police worked with the U.S.’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to have Emery extradited and charged under America’s vastly more severe drug laws rather than having him serve his prison term in his home country. Emery’s extradition to a foreign country to serve a sentence for activities that took place on domestic soil raises questions not only about prohibition and drug policy issues, but also about Canada’s ability to act as a sovereign nation and protect its own citizens.
 

Marc Emery Direct Marijuana Seeds openly sold seeds through online mail order from 1994 to 2005. Emery practiced a great deal of transparency in his business, accurately declaring the source of his income and paying all provincial and federal taxes. Though Emery’s store was raided for selling seeds on multiple occasions, Canadian courts repeatedly sentenced him only to fines and no prison time. In Canada, seed sellers face a $200 fine and one month in jail. U.S. penalties are much harsher, and if Emery is not sentenced to the five-year prison term agreed upon in his plea bargain, he faces 30 years to life in the American prison system.
 
Though the distribution of seeds is illegal in Canada, no case has been prosecuted for decades and Canadian businesses similar to Emery’s are allowed to operate with little state interference. What makes Emery’s case unique is the fact that the profits from his business were routinely used to fund anti-drug war and anti-prohibition activism worldwide and within the U.S. The DEA press release issued upon Emery’s arrest confirmed that the motivation for his arrest and extradition was mainly political and intended to deal a “significant blow” to “drug legalization lobbyists.” Emery’s admittedly illegal business had no American branches, no American employees, and he never set foot in the U.S. Despite this and despite being a Canadian citizen, he is being extradited to a foreign country to serve a prison term far harsher than any he would have received in a Canadian court.
 
Whether or not one agrees with Emery’s practices, activism, and drug law reform efforts, it remains clear that his extradition represents our country’s failure to protect its citizens and administer its laws within its own borders. Bending under American pressure to make an example of Emery in the political context of a costly, ineffective, and increasingly unpopular war on drugs, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson’s extradition order is representative of Canada’s inability to stand independently of U.S. policy and pressure. If Emery is to serve time for his seed sales, he should do so on Canadian soil and under Canadian law, not as a “criminal alien” who has limited rights within the U.S. prison system.
 
Emery’s extradition is unnerving because it demonstrates our government’s willingness to hand over its citizens to a foreign country when their actions and beliefs are not in agreement with that country’s policies. Clearly, the safety of citizens is not as important to the Canadian government as compliance with American ideology and policy. This is a case in which the alleged legality or illegality of Emery’s actions is far less relevant than the Canadian government’s response to them. Our justice system should not be outsourced on demand.If Emery has committed illegal actions in Canada, he should be prosecuted under Canadian law. Ultimately, Emery’s extradition is a gross injustice done to a Canadian citizen who has never harmed anyone, and a clear violation of the rights and protections promised to citizens by our government. At this point in time, only Emery’s repatriation can serve as a sign of respect for Canadian sovereignty and the right to choose how laws are enforced within our own borders.
 

Wife of B.C. marijuana activist optimistic about recent legalization developments in U.S.

submitted by on
Business in Vancouver
 
With Marc Emery, B.C.’s leading marijuana activist, expected to receive a five-year jail sentence in the United States this Friday, his wife and fellow activist Jodie Emery is pointing to recent developments in the U.S.A.’s legalized marijuana movement as further evidence of the hypocrisy of the American and Canadian criminal codes.
 
“Five years after his initial arrest you have California looking to legalize marijuana this fall [and] you have the original prosecutor in his case saying that marijuana should be legalized,” Jodie told Business in Vancouver on Tuesday morning.
 
Jodie, who is the director of Cannabis Culture magazine and director-at-large for B.C.’s Green Party, also continues to claim that Marc’s arrest, which stemmed from the online sale of pot seeds from Canada into the U.S., was largely politically motivated.
 
“You have marijuana seed sellers going in and out of the U.S. to trade shows and talking about how many seeds they sell, but they aren’t being arrested or facing any lengthy prison terms.”
In a release Monday, Jodie added that though the Drug Enforcement Administration and the media have reported that Marc “made millions of dollars,” all of the money generated through seed sales was given away to activism groups and events.
 
“Marc started selling seeds with the explicit goal of funding the marijuana legalization movement, which he did tremendously well, to the tune of $4 million dollars over the decade he was in business,” she said. “He paid his income tax on seed sales, and operated openly and transparently.”
 
She said that “Free Marc Emery” rallies are being held in up to 60 cities around the world on September 18.
 
While Marc’s earlier plea bargain will likely result in his receiving a five-year sentence this Friday in a U.S. federal court in Seattle, Jodie Emery is looking to maintain public awareness of his plight in order to have him promptly transferred to a Canadian prison to serve his time.
 
She said if Emery, who is the leader of the BC Marijuana Party, can return to Canada to serve his sentence, he could be released on full-parole as early as November 2011.
 

Marc Emery US Prison Blog #12: Letter to Jodie

submitted by on September 2, 2010
By Marc Emery, Cannabis Culture
 
Oh dear, my sweet Jodie, I feel wobbly today. I’ve a sore throat, a woozy head and a stuffy nose. I’m drinking hot liquids and lots of water, getting sleep, but these next few days will be trying. And I’ll admit, I’m a bit nervous about sentencing coming up on the 10th. Most inmates do get jumpy because its the biggest uncertainty of any prisoner, the sentencing! Even though I have an agreement in principle on a 5-year sentence, I’m still nervous that the judge could make it a longer sentence. So the next 10 days will be a little unnerving.
 
My Transfer application to the Canadian corrections system goes in on that day too, I hope, through the Canadian Consulate here in Seattle. Then, about 6-8 weeks later, I’ll be sent to my designated prison somewhere in the US Bureau of Prison system, it could be Lompac or Taft Correctional Institution in California, or a place even as far away as Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, New Mexico or Texas. I’m going to request Lompac, because it will be the low-security prison you can get to with the least difficulty, my sweetheart, to visit me; and even then, you’ll only be able to afford, barely, to see me every second weekend if people are still sending support and the store is doing well. You’ll fly to Los Angeles and then take a commuter flight to Santa Maria, and then a shuttle bus or taxi to Lompac. If I get sent to Taft, you’ll need to get someone to drive you to Bakersfield, so we’ll need to find some female supporters who live in Bakersfield who can help you out on those visit weekends.
 
I’m excited that there are many individual and group actions going on in the many corners of North America and even abroad for the world-wide Marc Emery Support Day on Saturday, September 18th. Loretta Nall is going to march up Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, Alabama to the statehouse with some supporters. Dexter Ave. is where Martin Luther King’s Dexter St. church was, and she knows how much MLK’s example and work has impacted on my life. The Clemons family of Silver Spring, New Mexico are going to wear their Free Marc shirts and take signs to the Telluride Blues Fest on that day. There are correspondents of mine who are putting king size bed sheets on bridges over the main highway by their town in upstate New York. Barry Cooper in Austin, Texas will be organizing an action down by the Texas legislature. Numerous other people are doing activities, which are listed at www.WhyProhibition.ca/FreeMarcRally and www.FreeMarc.ca.
Anyone who cares about my fate who wants to add their light to the sum of light to urge my return to the Canadian Correctional system can easily take a sign and just hold it up, wearing their Free Marc t-shirt if they have one, at their nearest busy intersection. You don’t have to go far. Three hours at a busy place in their hometown or city will been seen by thousands of people. Canadians, I hope, will also write Public Safety Minister Vic Toews before or after they go out on the streets and urge him to bring me back to Canada, as is the obligation of the government under law.
 
I hope you’ve got a good informative list of suggestions at the www.FreeMarc.ca website and on my Facebook fan page. I bet many of my close friends have not even sent Vic Toews a letter in the mail yet. Friends should get each member of their family to write and ask him to approve my transfer request to serve my sentence in Canada. It’s easy to take it for granted that someone else will write on my behalf, but I bet even you, Mrs. Emery, haven’t written Vic Toews yet! So many tens of thousands of people who’ve met me, and I know care about me, have still not written a simple 4-paragraph letter on their computer, printed it out, put it in an envelope (no stamp required in Canada!) and dropped it in a letter box to Mr. Toews. I’ll need him to get thousands of letters to assure my repatriation, especially from older people with children, the people who vote.
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.
 
The Hon. Vic Toews
Parliament Hill
Suite 306, HC Justice Building
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
(No postage required in Canada)
You can also call or email Vic Toews:
204-326-9889
613-992-3128
Toews.V@parl.gc.ca
toewsv1@mts.net
I’ve sent out over 300 letters to correspondents since May 20 when I arrived here at FDC Sea-Tac. That’s a lot of letters written with these painful six-sided Bic pens; as you know, I’ve got a big callous on my right hand middle finger now. I try to write every single correspondent who writes me a quality letter.
I have written many chapters of my autobiography, Jodie, and I know you haven’t seen any yet, but I have sent my editor all the corrections I identified and hopefully you will have several chapters to read by the weekend. I think my early life stories are a lot of fun, and they clue people in to the person I am today. Some, of course, are quite revealing and maybe even controversial, but I don’t like the idea of hiding anything in my past. There are even some parts of my life I’m embarrassed about, but even that will be written about. Fortunately, my history with you is a very honourable time in my life, and as we approach our 9th anniversary of our friendship – December 4th, when you first joined the Cannabis Culture online forums and we began to correspond – I will have our history written by them.
 
I want to whole book to be completed by November when I expect to get designated to my next stop on this prison journey, which will send me much further away from you. I have written 40 pages in longhand that I haven’t sent to my editor yet, to go along with the great burst of material about my early years in 1958 to 1974 that he has now. The good thing about reaching my designated prison is that it’s the earliest opportunity for me to put in my application for transfer to the US Bureau of Prisons. I need their approval also, along with the Canadian government, in order to be moved into the Canadian corrections system.
 
Of my autobiography, I want you to take a few chapters when you get them, and put them on Facebook and CC to get feedback, to hear what people think. None of the earlier years are about politics; it’s about my personal development and adventures, as the politics doesn’t start until about 1979, and I’ve got many chapters of material written before that time.
I also am working on the Canadian Voters Guide to help people understand this next Canadian election and what’s at stake. The cannabis culture is the pivotal target of the Conservatives’ push to create a prison security state. History shows that by following the persecution of one group in a country, it is possible to chart in exacting detail the gradual self-destruction of that entire country. As the scapegoating and oppression get worse and the laws become corrupt, the police become cavalierly abusive and corrupt, then the judicial system and the entire structure of institutions in the country becomes fraudulent too.
 
My persecution is emblematic of this decline in democratic values in Canada. What’s being done to me is the road map for what will be ahead for millions of Canadians. This includes the elimination of basic rights and protections now that passing a joint is deemed a "serious crime". It includes draconian 5-year penalties for minor drug offenses, massive police surveillance, and a host of police state measures for virtually any marijuana offense.
 
The two main election issues have to be, as defined by the media over the last 3 months:
1) prisons & the ideology that motivates the vast expansion of them in Canada, and
2) the loss of democracy in Canada.
 
Consider that the prisons only need expansion to accommodate the huge expected increase in marijuana "offenders". There is no other section of the Canadian population that is affected by all these laws the Conservatives have changed or want to change, and the explanation of "unreported crimes" as the reason for the multi-billion prison expansion plans clearly means the many thousands of people growing, sharing and using marijuana. Five to seven million Canadians smoking, possessing, growing, selling, passing joints, using as medicine, growing as medicine, the hundreds of seed sellers – they are all now targets of police surveillance, arrest, stringent bail conditions, longer jail terms. Police can now spy on Canadians without court permission if they suspect any marijuana infractions are taking place. Soon there will be mandatory minimum jail sentences, new factors under law to mandate longer than minimum jail time, an end to compassion clubs, possibly an end to April 20 and Cannabis Day celebrations, and ultimately, even an end to the medical exemption program.
 
As to the rapid erosion of democracy, look at the one thousand peaceful demonstrators rounded up in Toronto in late June during the G-8 without Habeus Corpus, a call to a lawyer, or due process, for no other reason that they were standing on a Canadian street peacefully, possibly holding a sign. Rounded up, stripped down, abused, and held in instant cages erected like it was East Berlin or Moscow in the 1950s and released under intimidating conditions while no one knows where you were or what happened to you!
 
All the power of Parliament is in the hands of the Prime Minister’s office; every day he appoints more reactionary judges, commissioners, generals, Senators, privy councillors, bureaucrats. Though the Prime Minister’s party was elected by only 16% of the Canadian population, he governs with impunity. The opposition is, inexplicably, cowed even though 70% of Canadians find Harper and the Conservatives loathsome!
 
Police are illegally vetting juries for "unorthodox" views, to deny any accused a true jury of his peers. Senior bureaucrats are being intimidated by the PM’s office, several have resigned, but unfortunately only to make room for some compliant lackey of the Prime Minister. Senators have been appointed to toe the official government line, but Senators are supposed to be appointed for their independence because they serve terms of 10, 20 or even 30 years, and they are supposed to be guardians of Canada’s long-term interests. Elected politicians look at nothing more than the consequences of their actions in view of the next election one to three years away. The PM has even resurrected the spirit of Richard Nixon and his old "enemies" list. The following headline comes from the front page of the Ottawa Citizen of August 19: "Harper’s growing ‘black list’ a threat to democracy: critics".
 
We have to make it impossible for candidates of all political parties in the next election to discuss issues without addressing the cannabis culture. That’s because the cannabis culture is the group most affected by both these issues of prisons and the theft of our democracy. We are these issues. We’re the ones who will be filling the prisons. We’re the ones who represent the biggest majority in Canadian history that has ever lost its democratic rights. The cannabis culture is Canada’s single largest voting block.
 
Try to imagine any other rational issue where 53% of the voters have been ignored in Canada. Try to imagine any "crime" other than marijuana that could generate the numbers needed to fill Canada’s new multi-billion dollar prison empire – look to the United States, where the war on marijuana users has packed the prisons beyond capacity.
 
Crime rates, excluding marijuana offenses, have been going down for decades. If we eliminated prohibition, we could close prisons and SAVE billions and dramatically reduce crime and criminal organization enrichment, but the Conservatives give not a whit of thought to that.
 
There is simply no way to fill these prisons without marijuana prohibition. Thousands of jobs and contracts, unimaginable sums of money (in a time of record deficits in the government budget) and tons of political power have already been committed to Canada’s new incarceration industry. It is all totally dependent on marijuana prohibition.
 
That is why my election guide will be important. That is why we must, my dear wife, set up a Canadian cannabis culture ‘Register To Vote’ website, all in the hope of igniting a return to 1960s spirit of civil rights workers that I have been so inspired by in my books ‘Parting the Waters’ and ‘Pillar of Fire’ about Martin Luther King, Jr., the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Voter registration and desegregation (legalized participation in society) was the main aim of these civil rights workers, and voter registration and integration (legalized participation in society) is the main aim of the cannabis culture.
 
It is true the Harper government is a threat to democracy in a myriad of ways (which make many allies for our 53% of Canadians who support the legalization of marijuana), but cannabis prohibition and the increased persecution of our culture is the dominant impetus of this government. No other group claims anywhere near 53% pf the Canadian population. This number has been going up since 1992, it never goes down.
When I am sentenced on Friday, September 10th, a majority of Canadian citizens, and a near majority of American citizens, are being sentenced with me. On September 10th, I become the first of tens of thousands, perhaps over a decade hundreds of thousands, of taxpaying Canadians the Harper government plans to send to prison under these new extraordinary measures. The only difference between myself and millions of other Canadians threatened with five years in prison is that I’m being sent to an American prison initially, while Canadians will be sent to the new Canadian prisons (as, in fact, I might too end up in one).
 
What I was doing, which now gets 5 or more years in prison, was only worthy of a fine in the 1990s and unworthy of any criminal prosecution while the Liberals were in power in Canada from 1999 to 2005. That is changed now. Canada has become a prison nation overnight. Now the 53% won’t need to sent to the US gulag for severe punishment; it can happen right here at home in Canada in a prison especially built for the cannabis culture. The Conservatives are advocating and making the most repressive and undemocratic laws in Canada’s history outside of wartime, with myself and all my fellow people as the specific targets of their persecution.
 
The Harper government recently and arbitrarily rewrote Canada’s marijuana laws. Handing a joint to someone can now qualify as a "serious" crime offense in Canada. I went to jail for a three month sentence for passing one joint in 2004 under the old laws; they have since been made far more severe by an order-in-council out the Prime Minister’s office on August 17, with no Parliamentary awareness or input. Now you get years for doing the same, especially if it is a second or third cannabis offense on your "permanent" record. Medical growers are not protected. Compassion clubs are not protected. They are, in fact, the targets. Harper, nor any Conservatives, have ever publicly acknowledged any value or legitimacy to medical marijuana, even though it is supported by 82% of the Canadian population, and countless medical studies and court rulings!
I became the first Canadian to be jailed for openly working for marijuana legalization. Nobody before me was prosecuted for working to legalize marijuana. Upon my arrest, DEA Administrator Karen Tandy reiterated numerous times it was all about my legalization efforts. The word "seeds" is not mentioned even once in the DEA press release from her desk on the day of my arrest in 2005, but my politics are brought up several times!
 
I am the first person sent to a penitentiary for selling marijuana seeds, in the US or Canada. That is because I am the recognized leader by both countries in ending marijuana prohibition. That is why I seek your support on Marc Emery Support Day on Saturday, September 18th. Standing up for me, is standing up for you. We are all on the bus to heaven or hell in Canada and the United States; there are people facing 5 or 10, or even 20 years and more for medical marijuana in Texas and Alabama, just as there is one Canadian facing 5 years or more for selling seeds – the same seeds George Washington planted every year for 30 years at his Mount Vernon plantation, the same seeds Thomas Jefferson used on his plantation at Monticello in Virginia.
 
We’ve got to get out and vote! In California, people must vote Yes on Proposition 19 this November, to legalize marijuana for all adults. Ignore our enemies who sow dissent by telling you to support prohibition and vote no, especially the evil ones who are doing it from within the cannabis culture. You’ve got to register to vote in Canada and the United States. It’s got to be done. The paramount issue in both countries for every candidate at every level is "what are you going to do about marijuana prohibition?" My dear Jodie, I am truly looking forward to being with you again, so we can continue to push for a change in the laws and work on your political career aspirations. People will follow your example just as they follow mine, and we will be able to reach victory together.
 
Sending love, from your hard-working prince,
Marc Emery

Marc Emery US Prison Blog #11: Letter to Jodie

submitted by on August 26, 2010
Dearest Jodie: It was a tremendous visit with you on Sunday morning. I am so proud of you for doing such a great job speaking at Hempfest. I know Jeremiah is uploading the videos of your speeches to Youtube (found here), then shared on the Cannabisculture.com and FREEMARC.ca websites. I can’t wait to hear the feedback!

I had a challenging week as you know. The no-flesh diet they give me is so terribly poor, of the 14 meals I get here weekly, 5 of them substitute the meat of the others with a packet of peabnut butter, that’s it. And as you know, I don’t eat peanut butter. So I go hungry 5 meals out of 14. Then on two of the other remaining nine meals, they give me a 5-spoonful carton of cottage cheese. The other seven have soy or cheese substitutes, almost always very poorly prepared and simply reheated. It’s so discouraging. I eat all the apples, oranges, bananas I can get, sometimes the other inmates give me theirs but I have to eat them right away because we are not allowed to have food from the "kitchen" in our rooms, which causes a massive amount of waste as so much fruit & food is just thrown out because if you don’t eat it in 15 minutes at sit-down, into the garbage it has to go. The rules are absurd and cause so much waste and, in my case, hunger and malnutrition.

 

This past week we were locked down for 36 hours because one of the inmates’ stash of alcohol hooch was discovered. I’ve been breathalyzed four times since I’ve been here; the first time in my life I’ve had a breathalyzer test of any kind. That was Wednesday and Thursday morning, so I couldn’t shower, exercise or use email or the phone during the constant lock-down.

On Friday, when I expected you to be here at 2:00 pm for our long-anticipated visit that day, I did not get the call to visitation and as the hours went by I got extremely anxious about you being in an accident, or hurt, or worse, or held-up at the border. All sorts of terrifying things went through my head because you are never late or miss a visit. Yet all day the phones and internet were disabled because inmates were being moved that day and as a security measure (so they say) all phone & emails go down when a bus or planeload of prisoners is on the move; that’s BOP (Bureau of Prisons) policy. So I had no idea what happened to you, or way to contact you. I was so torn up by anxiety that I had to go and throw up and then cry around 5:30 pm, 3.5 hours after you were due here. By 6:00 pm I was pacing the track upstairs looking pale and distraught when the C.O. (Corrections Officer) called me to his office and said he saw you at 2 pm, first in line, at the front entrance when he came to work on his shift. He said that all visitation was canceled, but the inmates weren’t being told! I was the first to know! Then I cried in relief you were alright but stunned they would let me and others here go all afternoon terrified something had happened to our loved ones without informing us visitation was canceled. It seems incredibly heartless and so unnecessary. One fellow inmate had his wife drive three hours from Blaine, but she was turned away and had to drive three hours home. Others came from Portland, 5 hours away, and were rejected. And of course we get no explanation. Finally phones came on at 7 pm and I was able to call you to breasth a sign of relief. Then email came on and got your note about how crushed you were to have our visits canceled without explanation.

Of course, it was probably because the scheduled airlift of a huge number of inmates on Con-Air broke down and the inmates all had be returned for the weekend to Sea-Tac. I have never seen this place as crowded as it was this past weekend, with some serious bruisers and hardened types among the temporary residents. I have never been so anxious here as in those 4 hours when I was wondering what could have happened to you.

As you know, I am looking forward to getting my sentencing out of the way on Friday, September 10th in downtown Seattle at the federal court. If all goes as expected, I will be sentenced to the 5 years I agreed to in my plea deal (I have almost 6 months in already in accumulated time served in Canadian & US jails on the sentence) and that day I hope to submit my Treaty Transfer application to the Canadian government via the Canadian Consulate here in Seattle. Then, following that application, I am hoping my loyal supporters will show up on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 at hundreds of busy intersections, football or baseball stadiums, or in front of Member of Congress or Member of Parliament local offices, at Canadian and US Embassies and Consulates throughout North America and the world, or just at busy intersections in your town, urging my imminent transfer back to the Canadian correctional system to serve out my sentence.

I am hoping individuals, pairs or groups of four will go to busy places anytime from noon to 5 pm with signs saying "Return Prince of Pot Marc Emery to Canada from US Prison" or "Google Marc Emery – Political Prisoner – Bring Him Home" or "FreeMARC.ca – Return Marc Emery to Canada" or "Vic Toews: Approve Prison Transfer for Marc Emery" and that sort of thing. Big king-size sheets with these messages at bridge overpasses are great too, so traffic on the highway below can see it. Wherever there will be lots of eyeballs to view the signs is a good place. I’d prefer groups of two or four spread out over several busy places, rather than one group of 10 or 20 in one mass. Encourage people to sign up at WhyProhibition.ca and use my Facebook fan page, Facebook.com/PrinceOfPot, to publicize where they will be. Have people take photographs of their action on what I am calling the Marc Emery Support Day Mobilization (though my supporters are calling it the "Free Marc Emery" worldwide rally).

I am keeping busy with letter writing, I have written 25 letters in the most recent 3 days, and am writing my 2010 Canadian Voters’ Guide and great lengths of my autobiography for Dana Larsen, who is putting it together for me. I am very prolific and busy and it’s because of you, my dear wife, and your endless love for me, and the support you generate for me, that inspires me to keep producing under this incredible adversity.

I Love You,
Great job at Hempfest sweetheart!
Marc

Part 2:

Part 3:

Free Marc Emery September 18 World-Wide Rallies Confirmed Cities

submitted by on August 24, 2010
 
 
Canmore Free Marc Emery Rally
Trans- Canada Highway Bridge Canmore

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 10:00am Canmore
Free Marc emery rally & march
march to and from gov of nc mansion and federal court house

200 N Blount St, Raleigh, NC 27601

Raleigh, NC 27601

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 10:00am Raleigh, NC 27601
Alabaster/helena/pelham Free Marc Emery rally
alabaster promenadealabaster

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 11:00am alabaster
Free Marc Rally – Second Life
Second Life Online

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm slt Second Life, Online
Free Marc Rally at Federal Building in Atlanta
Atlanta Federal Building

75 Spring Street

Atlanta, Georgia

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 3:00pm Atlanta, Georgia
Free Marc Emery Austin, TX
Wooldridge Square Park

900 Guadalupe Street

Austin, TX

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Austin, TX
FREE MARC RALLY
Bridge above 151 NorthBeaver Dam

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 10:00am Beaver Dam
RALLY TO RAISE AWARENESS OF MARC EMERY’S PLIGHT AT 2010 FOSTER’S BELMAR PRO
2010 Foster’s Belmar Pro & Fins A.S.P. Junior Pro

16th and Ocean Ave. New Jersey, 07719

Belmar

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 8:00am Belmar
America! Free Marc Emery!
BSU area

23rd & Paul Bunyan

Bemidji, MN

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Bemidji, MN
Freiheit für Marc Emery – Freedom for Marc Emery
rally starts at embassy of Canada, ends in front of US embassy

vom Leipziger Platz zum Pariser Platz

Berlin

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm Berlin
Free Marc Emery Demo
Canadian Embassy

Leipziger Platz 17 Downtown

Berlin

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm Berlin
21st Annual Boston Freedom Rally
Boston Freedom Rally

Boston Common Massachusetts

Boston

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Boston
Worldwide Rallies to Free Marc Emery – Saturday, September 18
Harry Hays Building

220 4 AVE SE

Calgary

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Calgary
Free Marc Emery March
WV State Capital Complex

Greenbrier St

Charleston

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm Charleston
Free Marc Emery Rally
Custom House

east bay str.

charleston,sc

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm charleston,sc
Free Marc Emery/Legalize Cannabis Rally
Clock side of Trade and Tryon

100 S. Tryon St. North Carolina

Charlotte

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Charlotte
Free Marc Emery – Chatham
Dave VanKesteren’s constituency office

6 King St West

Chatham

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Chatham
Free Marc Emery – Chilliwack
5 Corners

Yale Road and Young Street

Chilliwack

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Chilliwack
Free Marc Emery – Chinchilla Australia
Chinchilla

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Chinchilla
Free Marc Emery
Vine Street overpass outside the Freedom Center

Vine Street Vine Street overpass outside the Freedom Center

Cincinnati

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Cincinnati
Free Marc Emery – Copenhagen
Copenhagen

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Copenhagen
Free Marc Emery – Denver
Federal Courthouse in Denver

18th and Stout St

Denver, Colorado

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 1:00pm Denver, Colorado
Free Marc Emery
Edmonton

Downtown and Whyte Ave

Edmonton

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 10:00am Edmonton
Edmonton’s ‘Free Marc Emery’ Rally
McIntyre Gazebo Park

104 Street 83 Avenue

Edmonton

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm Edmonton
Free Marc Emery World-Wide Rallies: September 18
Office of Essex MP, Jeff Watson

186 Talbot St. South Office of Jeff Watson, MP for Essex

Essex, Ontario

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:45pm Essex, Ontario
FREE MARC EMERY FORT LAUDERDALE FLORIDA
Fort Lauderdale Federal Court House

299 Easy Broward Blvd

Fort Lauderdale

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm Fort Lauderdale
Free Marc In Gravenhurst!
Giant Tiger Parking Lot

Main street

Gravenhurst

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 10:30am Gravenhurst
FREE MARC EMERY RALLY IN GREENVILLE, SC
Falls Park at the Reedy River

Main Street and Camperdown Way

Greenville

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm Greenville
Free Marc Emery
guilford

guilford any where

guilford

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:30pm guilford
FREE MARC EMERY WORLDWIDE RALLY (HAMILTON)
HAMILTON FEDERAL BUILDING

55 BAY STREET NORTH

HAMILTON

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm HAMILTON
Hamilton Free Marc Rally
Federal Building

55 Bay Street North

Hamilton, Ontario

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Hamilton, Ontario
Hartford, CT Marijuana Law Reform Rally
Streetside Capital Building

210 Capitol Ave. Bring signs and loud voices!

Hartford

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Hartford
Free Marc Emery Indianapolis
The Magic Bus – Indianapolis

1073 Broad Ripple Ave

Indianapolis

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Indianapolis
Free Marc Rally Sept 18
Free Marc Emery

Smokey the Bear Park (across bridge from Rainy River Ont, Canada)

International Falls, Minnesota

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm International Falls, Minnesota
Free Marc Emery by the 70!
Autoroute 70

Autoroute 70 / St-Hubert / St-Dominique

Jonquière

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 1:00pm Jonquière
((WakeUp!!)) REPEAL PROHIBITION – Free Marc Emery
Downtown

442 Victoria Street (sidewalk) British Columbia

Kamloops

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 3:30pm Kamloops
Free Marc Rally / KC HempFest
Swope Park, Shelter 3Kansas City, MO

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Kansas City, MO
Free Marc Emery Rally
Queensway Transit Loop (across from Fed Building)

Queensway Street BC

Kelowna

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Kelowna
Free Marc Emery – Kelowna
Kelowna Federal Building

471 Queensway Ave

Kelowna, BC

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Kelowna, BC
Worldwide Rally to Free Marc Emery
Kitchener City Hall

200 King st W

Kitchen Ontario

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Kitchen Ontario
Free Marc Emery Rally for Solidarity
Girard Park

500 Girard Park Drive

Lafayette, LA

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Lafayette, LA
Free Marc Emery UK Leeds Rally
Leeds City Square

City Square LS1 2ES

Leeds

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 5:00am Leeds
Free Marc Emery Rally
Reefer Gardens

Mayor Magrath Drive S

Lethbridge

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 11:00am Lethbridge
Freemarcrally
Canadian EmbassyLondon

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 1:00pm London
Free Marc Emery Worldwide Rally
Victoria Park Bandstand

Richmond St

London

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 9:00am London
FREE MARC EMERY MISSISSAUGA
Erin Mills Parkway & Dundas "police station"

Erin Mills Parkway & Dundas St W

Mississauga

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 3:30pm Mississauga
FREE MARC EMERY RALLY MONTGOMERY ALABAMA
Dexter Ave. FountainMontgomery

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Montgomery
FREE MARC EMERY RALLY
Dexter Avenue Fountain

Dexter Avenue

Montgomery, AL

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Montgomery, AL
"Free Marc Emery World-Wide Rallies" à Montréal!
Centre ville de Montréal (point de départ exact à venir)Montreal

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 1:00pm Montreal
Free Marc Rally
bastion street bridge downtown Nanaimo

bastion street bridge downtown Nanaimo

Nanaimo

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Nanaimo
Free Marc Emery Worldwide Rally
Nelson Court House

Ward & Vernon

Nelson, British Columbia (Traditional Sinixt Territory)

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Nelson, British Columbia (Traditional Sinixt Territory)
FREE MARC North Bay ON!
North Bay Ontario

Lee Park at the corner of Judge St and the overpass

North Bay

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 1:00pm North Bay
Free Marc Emery!
Town Park

Hwy 97 and 350th Avenue

Oliver

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Oliver
Free Marc Emery – Oslo
Oslo

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Oslo
Free Marc Emery Rally in Ottawa @ Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill

Wellington st http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121299521252352

Ottawa

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Ottawa
Free Marc Emery
Federal Courthouse Building

100 Monroe St. the corner of Main and Monroe St.

Peoria, Illinois

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 3:00pm Peoria, Illinois
Free Marc Emery Peterborough Rally
Victoria Park

Corner of Water St & Brock St

Peterborough

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Peterborough
Marc Emery Freedom Day – South Australia
The Bridgeway Hotel

Bridge Road Head East, into the valley.

Pooraka

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Pooraka
W.E.E.D JAM ft. EMULSIPHIERE
The Cave

660 Emma Street RSVP GLEN SMITH CAVE PRODUCTIONS

Port Elgin

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 6:00pm Port Elgin
FREE MARC EMERY
Cornerstoned

15th St. E

Prince Albert, SK

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 1:00pm Prince Albert, SK
True north strong and free Marc Emery
Prince george

Caunnaught Hill

Prince George

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 3:00pm Prince George
Providence, RI "Send Marc Home to Canada" Rally – RI State House 12:00 Noon
Providence, RI

1 Capitol Hill RI STATE HOUSE

Providence

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 9:00am Providence
"SEND MARC HOME TO CANADA" Day of Activisim: Sept. 18 *ALL DAY*
Corners of Thayer Street & Angell Street (Brown Univeristy)

Thayer Street & Angell Street

Providence

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 9:00am Providence
Free Marc Emery Rally in Red Deer @ City Hall Park
Red Deer City Hall Park

4914 – 48 Avenue

Red Deer, Alberta

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Red Deer, Alberta
Free Marc Emery 2010 Regina
Victoria Park, downtown

12th ave/Scarth

Regina

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm Regina
Free Marc Emery Support Rally/Campaign Fundraiser for Jay Selthofner
Classics Sports Bar

101 Blackburn Street Wisconsin, 54971

Ripon

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:00pm Ripon
FREE MARC EMORY!
Oregon State Capitol

900 Court St. NE

Salem

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Salem
Free Marc Emery World-Wide Rallies
2 News Studio

299 S. Main St. UT

Salt Lake City

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:30pm Salt Lake City
Crusin in the ’54 Cadillac with FREE MARC EMERY plastered on the side.
All Over This Damn CitySan Diego

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm San Diego
Free Marc Rally SASKATOON CITY HALL/ LIBRARY
Saskatoon City Hall/ Public Library

300 23rd St East Saskatchewan

Saskatoon

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Saskatoon
Free Marc Emery – Seattle
Seattle

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Seattle
CHINA FREE MARC PROTEST
Futian

jintian road

Shenzhen

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:30am Shenzhen
FREE MARC! @macalester college
macalester college

Cross-section of Snelling and Summit

st paul

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 1:00pm st paul
FREE MARC EMERY RALLY
Courthouse

Water Street

St. John’s

Sat, 09/18/2010 (All day) St. John’s
Free Marc Emery – Stockholm
Stockholm

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Stockholm
FREE MARC EMERY Rally Tacoma WA
56th st./I-5 park&ride lots

56th and I-5 wa

Tacoma

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Tacoma
Marc emery extradition! medical marijuana in Florida petition!!
Adventure Island Tampa, FL 33617

E Bougainvillea Ave You may contact me for more info at ebwrightjr@gmail.com

Tampa,FL

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:30pm Tampa,FL
Free marc emery! Adventure Island parkinglot!! medical marijuana in florida signings Be heard!!
"Adventure Island parkinglot" Tampa, FL 33617Tampa,FL 33617

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 4:30pm Tampa,FL 33617
Telluride Blues and Brews Festival
Telluride, CO

in the park, in the campground….

Telluride, CO

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 11:00am Telluride, CO
Free Marc Emery – Tempe Arizona
Tempe, Arizona

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Tempe, Arizona
Free Marc and Get Him Home
to be announced soonThunder Bay

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 1:30pm Thunder Bay
Free Marc Emery – Toronto
US Consulate

360 University Street

Toronto

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Toronto
Free Marc Emery – Trondheim Norway
TrondheimTrondheim

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Trondheim
Free Marc Emery and Smoke The Vote in Tucson
Cheba Hut Tucson

1820 E. 6th Street Near the corner of 6th street and Campbell ave

Tucson

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 5:00pm Tucson
Free Marc Emery World-Wide Rallies: September 18
Your Town

Victory Square Park

Vancouver

Sat, 09/18/2010 (All day) Vancouver
Free Marc Emery – East Vancouver
Commercial and Hastings

Commercial Drive and Hastings St

Vancouver

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Vancouver
Free Marc Emery World-Wide Rallies
The 2 Corners of Kingsway and Rupert

Kingsway at Rupert

Vancouver BC

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 11:00am Vancouver BC
Free Marc Emery World Wide Rally Sept. 18th 12pm Venice Beach, Ca.
Venice Beach, Ca

1800 Ocean Front Walk

Venice Beach

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Venice Beach
Free Marc Emery – Victoria
Victoria City Hall

1 Centennial Square

Victoria

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Victoria
Free Marc Emery – Fredericton
Waasis, NB

Waasis

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Waasis
Free Marc Emery Waterdown ON
Memorial Park

Hamilton St. N. L0R 2H5

Waterdown ON

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 2:00pm Waterdown ON
Free Marc Emery Rally Whitby
M.P. Jim Flaherty’s office / Durham Region Headquarters Office

701 Rossland Road East meet at 12 pm. find the event on facebook too!

Whitby

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 12:00pm Whitby
Free Marc Emery rally in Windsor, Ontario
Ouelette and wyandotte

Ouelette and Wyandotte

Windsor

Sat, 09/18/2010 – 8:00am Windsor
Free Marc Emery & Bring Him Back To CANADA
Coming SoonWinnipeg

Sat, 09/18/2010 (All day) Winnipeg
 
 
 
 

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO ON SEPTEMBER 18 TO SUPPORT MARC EMERY

submitted by on August 21, 2010
Marc Emery will be sentenced by a US Judge on September 10, 2010.

On Saturday, September 18, there will be worldwide rallies and protests in support of Marc Emery’s immediate return to Canada.

On this day, one or two people can create a lot of awareness:  just by holding up a banner or sign at a busy intersection, 2 people can tell thousands that Marc Emery should be freed.

 
Saturday, September 18, hold a sign/banner over a bridge overpass, high foot traffic pedestrian intersections, or by a busy highway, anywhere lots of people and cars go by.
 
This is an effective way to reach large numbers of people and maximize our impact! We also gain efficiency when we use simple slogans that are easy to read, remember, and will redirect people to the FreeMarc.ca site. See our suggested slogans below. Remember, repetition works, so don’t be afraid to have lots of ‘Free Marc Emery’ signs!
 
Take some photos, indicate where you are and put it on facebook, tagging ‘Marc Scott Emery’ or send it to nicole@nicoleseguin.com so she can put it up at freemarc.ca
 
One person can make a difference! We have some suggestions for making sure you are as effective as possible in letting people know we must free Marc Emery, have a look:
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Tips for Maximizing Group Distribution:
  • If you have 10 people, put 5 pairs of people into 5 good locations, not all together in one spot. Two people can raise as much awareness as 10 or 20, so spread out throughout the community.
  • Two to four people per intersection (one on each corner) is a suggested maximum. (This kind of support maximizes the message and the individual’s ability to get it out.)
 
  Suggested Locations:
 
  • Near the entrance of baseball or football stadiums
  • A University campus Student union building
  • A busy intersection or bridge overpass of a highway
  • A US Congressman’s or Canadian MP’s local constituency office

 

  Sign and Banner Suggestions:

  • Signs can easily be made on large pieces of cardboard or bed sheets.
  • The best for a large sign is King size bed sheet banners from a local thrift store. This is ideal for hanging from bridges and overpasses.
Here’s some suggested slogans for banners and signs. Try to get the freemarc.ca website onto your banner if possible.
  • Google Marc Emery – Political Prisoner
  • Return Prince of Pot Marc Emery to Canada from US prison
 
How to Invite Others, and List your Event on the World Wide Rally Page:

You can put your event online and invite others in your area by going to whyprohibition.ca/freemarcrally to create the event, and whyprohibition.ca/content/shout-out to invite others within 40km to your event! Don’t forget to invite your friends from facebook, email and your other networks once the event is set up.
 
If you have any problems, please contact Nicole (nicole@nicoleseguin.com) or Jacob (jacob@jacobhunter.org). Free Marc Emery!

Free Marc Rally Videos…Which Free Marc Rally Will YOU be at this September 18?

submitted by on August 17, 2010
Marc Emery will be sentenced this September 10, 2010. To raise awareness about the outcome of his sentence, and to pressure the Canadian government to repatriate Marc Emery, there will be rallies held around the world Saturday September 18, 2010.
 
Please take part!
 
To inspire you, we have included previous ‘Free Marc’ rally videos below:
 
 

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Part 7:

Part 8:

Part 9:

Part 10:

Part 11:

Part 12:

Part 13:

Part 14:

Part 15:

Part 16:

Part 17:

Part 18: