Comments on: Emery's side

Emery's side

btwillig — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 07:54:57 -0800

Marc Emery speaks out about his activism, recent arrest and possible extradition to the US. A follow up to this post.

By: btwillig

btwillig — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 07:55:49 -0800

A couple highlights: Revenue Canada received $578,000 in personal income taxes (1999 to 2005) on income that was explicitly from the sale of marijuana seeds, and they ALWAYS were aware of it. It said "Marijuana Seed Vendor" on my tax returns...The government of Canada received about $378,000 of this money; the provincial government of British Columbia received about $200,000. The DEA even has a subscription to Cannabis Culture, with their money orders on US Department of Justice stationery. I figured if the US government was that pissed off, they'd just ask the Vancouver Police to raid me like in the 1996 to 1998 period.

By: caporal

caporal — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 08:00:50 -0800

Of course this is politically motivated. I mostly blame the Canadian government for being so two-faced about it. If you knew about it, and it was wrong, why didn't you do something about it? If it wasn't wrong, why kowtow to American interests now? Pure double-standard B.S.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 08:38:01 -0800

They're arresting him because his seeds are totally shit right?

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 08:41:26 -0800

I'm sorry, but it's been firmly established that marijuana is a gateway issue. Kids start off protesting this, then they move onto bigger things, like offshore pollutants and the WTO. Do you know what your kids are protesting now?

By: hortense

hortense — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 08:56:57 -0800

Anyone know to what state he is being extradited? I hear Louisiana has a wonderful prison system.

By: wakko

wakko — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:07:58 -0800

I donated. Despite the $12 shipping charge for a donation.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:09:13 -0800

Anyone know to what state he is being extradited? Federal.

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:15:41 -0800

I'd like to be serious about this but -- what can be said? This sucks. It's stupid, it reeks of vindictiveness, and history will view this age will embarassment, at best. And I don't suppose given our record that we'll try terribly hard to keep him.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:39:31 -0800

If our minister of justice actually goes along with this he's no less than a traitor to his country.

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 10:15:05 -0800

Well, he's a huge human rights advocate, but he's up against the intransigence of our SolGen and our States-loving PM. It's not clear that his voice is always the one being heard.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:25:18 -0800

He has the option of resigning in protest. Frankly if the extradition occurs the Solicitor General and the PM should both be considered traitors. And here I was, thinking that the era of Canadian PM's bending over and taking it w/o lube from Uncle Sam ended with the famously-corrupt Mulroney cabal...

By: angrybeaver

angrybeaver — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:36:50 -0800

This is nothing new. Once again Canada has forfeited their sovereignty in favour of corporate interests. The government did not stand up for Maher Arar, they did not stand up for Marc Emery, and they will not stand up for you and me. Write letters to the editor, write your federal MP and write your provincial MLA. Tell them to stand up for Canada.

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:21:16 -0800

Right on, people need to stir it up. There's absolutely no way on God's green earth that American police would arrest American citizens and extradite them to other countries on foreign charges. This stinks worse than any skunkweed I've ever smelled.

By: dobbs

dobbs — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:39:16 -0800

The government did not stand up for Maher Arar Don't forget Leonard Peltier. Extradited from Canada to the USA on false testimony obtained by duress.

By: chococat

chococat — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 14:33:29 -0800

WTF America? On CBC radio last week a listener had a pretty apt comment, I thought. He said that if the Americans extradite Emery then Canada should extradite every American who sold a gun that was illegally brought into Canada. Between this and the recent softwood lumber ruling that the US is COMPLETELY IGNORING, things are looking grim. Remember a few years ago when Chrétien called Bush a "moron" and it was such a huge deal? I thought it was awesome. We need more of that.

By: mek

mek — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 15:35:25 -0800

excellent read. thanks for posting this. If Emery is extradited I'll be joining the riots.

By: angrybeaver

angrybeaver — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 17:33:47 -0800

mek, if you wait until then it will be too late. The time for action is now.

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 21:00:20 -0800

The government did not stand up for Maher Arar, they did not stand up for Marc Emery, and they will not stand up for you and me. No, they won't, and it's been one of the disappointing facts that has led me to decide against spending time as an aid worker overseas. But then I wouldn't have trusted Graham with a broken shoelace. I don't know if Pettigrew is better. Once again Canada has forfeited their sovereignty in favour of corporate interests. Oh hell. We can't sell off our interests fast enough. And besides, we love to deport our least popular citizens. Zundel, not a great guy, but deported on a security certificate?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 07:44:22 -0800

Penniless after losing all my money on an ill-advised house building project in Indonesia, I arrived for the first time in my life in Vancouver, British Columbia, determined to build a movement that used a retail model to generate money that would feed a vast network of activism. good thing he didn't do the whole pot activism over there