FACES EXTRADITION
BY KEITH FRASER
VANCOUVER * The B.C. Marijuana party leader being sought for extradition to the United States on drug charges was granted bail yesterday in B.C. Supreme Court.
But due to difficulties securing the necessary sureties, it remains unclear when Marc Emery might be freed. The 47-year-old activist was arrested in Halifax on Friday for allegedly selling marijuana seeds for use in U.S. grow ops. He also faces a charge of money-laundering.
Dubbed the Prince of Pot by U.S. authorities, he was transferred to Vancouver and appeared in court along with co-accused Gregory Keith Williams. B.C. Supreme Court associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm ordered Mr. Emery released on $10,000 in cash and four sureties of $10,000 - at least three of them from B.C. property owners.
Late Tuesday, Kirk Tousaw, campaign manager for the party, said the judge had approved one surety from a relative of Mr. Emery in Ontario, but they were having trouble finding three B.C. landowners.
"It's not easy, especially when you've got the [U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration] pulling the strings on the investigation. People tend to get a bit nervous." He said he expected Mr. Williams, 50, a resident of North Vancouver, to be released on five sureties worth $5,000 each.
Under the conditions of his release, Mr. Emery must cease operations of his marijuana seed-selling business, which is partly operated through the Internet.
Outside court, his lawyer, John Conroy, noted Mr. Emery had been in business for nine years, and Canadian authorities had done nothing to stop him. "Here we have a situation where they turn a blind eye locally and now they turn around and assist the U.S."
He added that Health Canada has been councelling people seeking marijuana for medicinal purposes to check out the Internet, where Mr. Emery's site has been offering the seeds for sale.
If convicted, Emery faces up to 21 years in a U.S. prison. He and Williams are to appear next in court Aug. 25 to fix a date for extradition.
CanWest News Service (NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, August 3, 2005).
B.C. pot activist granted bail
Lawyer says activities were tolerated for years
U.S. wants three Canadians extradited in case
AMY CARMICHAEL
CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER - Canadian justice officials can't turn pot activist Marc Emery over to the United States to face possible life in prison after ignoring his sale of marijuana seeds in this country for nearly a decade, his lawyer said yesterday.
"For nine years he's been doing this quite openly," John Conroy told a news conference after Emery was granted bail. "They've known about it; the local authorities haven't done anything about it."
Emery is accused of selling seeds out of his bookstore in downtown Vancouver and over the Internet. He also runs Cannabis Culture magazine and is the leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party.
Conroy said Emery has long had tacit permission from Canadian authorities to sell seeds, adding that even Health Canada has directed people who are allowed to possess pot for medical conditions to the Internet to buy seeds. "Here we have a situation where they turn a blind eye locally and now they're in a position of assisting the U.S. to try to have him extradited to the U.S., where the penalties are substantially greater than here," Conroy said.
Bail was set at $50,000 for Emery, who faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison if convicted in the U.S. Emery's co-accused, Greg Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, were also granted bail. They face charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds and a third of conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
The U.S. wants the trio extradited after they were indicted by a federal grand jury in May following an 18-month investigation by American police into the sale of marijuana seeds on the Internet and by mail.
The pot paraphernalia store that Emery runs was raided on Friday by Vancouver police after a warrant was issued at the request of U.S. justice officials. Supporters, who regularly come together in rallies to support Emery's political and legal causes, packed the gallery seats around his wife, Cheryl, during Emery's court appearance.
Outside the court, one demonstrator waved a massive Canadian flag bearing a marijuana leaf instead of a maple leaf. Others criticized the extradition request. Emery's lawyer agreed:
"It seems to me if you do anything on the Internet that's illegal in the U.S., or that they don't like, you do run the risk of the U.S. federal government taking a position that you're doing things that somehow impact on their sovereignty," Conroy said.
"In effect, they have some power over you no matter where you are." But a spokesperson for Justice Minister Irwing Cotler brushed aside the suggestion from Emery's supporters that Ottawa is taking its orders from U.S. justice authorities, pointing out that a process exists for law enforcement officials on both sides of the border to seek the apprehension of suspects.
"A foreign country is allowed to make a request for arrest and extradition of people who are sought in criminal cases ... That's why we have extradition treaties like the one we have with the United States," said Christian Girouard, adding he couldn't discuss the detail of Emery's case.
WITH FILES FROM SEAN GORDON (TORONTO STAR, Wednesday, August 3, 2005).
Profits drive drug prohibition
Why should seeds made by God be such a big problem?
It is obvious that North American drug policy is not about the well-being of the individual but about corporate or physician profits.
The present system of prohibition causes more violence, pain, suffering and death than do the drugs themselves. Leaders responsible for promoting the present nonsensical policy will answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity.
Colleen Minter, Stephenwille, Texas (NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, August 3, 2005).
No sympathy for the Prince of Pot
IF EMERY HAD LIMITED HIS BUSINESS TO CANADA, HE LIKELY COULD HAVE ESCAPED PROSECUTION
The last time Marc Emery was put behind bars, we had sympathy for him. The prominent marijuana activist commonly referred to as Canada's "Prince of Pot," had been sentenced to three months in prison by Saskatchewan provincial court judge Albert Lavoie for passing a single joint to someone else at a Saskatoon rally. Even those who don't share our enthusiasm for legalizing the substance must surely have recognized Mr. Emery's trafficking conviction and sentence were absurd reactions to a very minor offence.
If American allegations against Mr. Emery are accurate, however, we are less sympathetic this time around. Arrested last Friday in Lawrencetown, N.S., on the request of U.S. authorities, and released yesterday on bail, the British Columbia Marijuana Party leader - along with the party's financial agent, Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, and Pot-TV employee Greg Williams - faces U.S. charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, distribute seeds and engage in money laundering. If extradited south of the border, as U.S. officials are hoping, he could face convictions ranging from 10 years to life in prison.
The allegations mostly centre around Mr. Emery's sale of marijuana seeds on the Internet and by mail. Following an 18-month police investigation, the Americans allege he's sold as much as $3-million in seeds.
We have no idea whether that figure is accurate. But there seems little debate that Mr. Emery has been selling and shipping seeds both north and south of the border. And that being the case, the shock and horror of his supporters at the U.S. charges seem a little misplaced.
While selling or even possessing marijuana remains illegal in Canada (pending legislation that stands to decriminalize possession of small amounts for personal use), we treat the substance far less seriously than do our neighbours. So if Mr. Emery had limited his business to Canada, he likely could have escaped prosecution, or at least avoided any serious jail time. (Of his 11 previous convictions for marijuana-related offences, only last year's in Saskatchewan saw him imprisoned.)
But by knowingly selling pot seeds in the United States, which everyone knows takes such matters far more seriously, Mr. Emery left himself vulnerable to grave consequences. Despite what his supporters claim, the U.S. is not attempting to punish him for what he does in Canada; it's aiming to crack down on what it considers to be drug dealing on its own turf.
Many Canadians share our view that America's War-on-Drugs approach to marijuana - a mostly recreational substance that is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco - is pointless and ill-advised. But that doesn't mean we can violate commonly known, rigidly enforced U.S. laws at will. If that's what Mr. Emery did, he's a poor candidate to play the victim card (NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, August 3, 2005).
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