Three members of Parliament from three political parties have introduced in the House of Commons petitions signed by 12,000 people opposed to the extradition to the U.S. of Vancouver-based marijuana activist Marc Emery.
The stacks of petitions were tabled today (March 15) by Conservative MP Scott Reid of Ontario, Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies, and Vancouver South Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh.
“These are petitions from Canadians across the country who draw to our attention a matter of great urgency concerning the U.S. call for extradition of Mr. Marc Emery, as we’ve heard just earlier,” Davies told the House. “Many dedicated individuals have collected approximately 12,000 petitions reflecting a strong belief that Mr. Emery or any Canadian should not face harsh punishment in the U.S. for selling cannabis seeds on the Internet, when it is not worthy of prosecution in Canada.
“And the petitioners call on Parliament to make it clear to the minister of justice that such an extradition should be opposed,” Davies added.
According to Davies, the petitions offer a “very strong reflection of Canadians’ view on this matter”.
Last summer, Emery agreed to a plea bargain with American authorities that will probably see him land in a U.S. jail for at least five years for distributing marijuana seeds.
Emery, also known as the Prince of Pot, is the president of the B.C. Marijuana Party.
You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.
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Comments
dea are war criminals!!!
Nobody is above the law. Lock him up for the sake of all law abiding Canadians.
You realise he was selling seeds to consenting adults, right? Why should non violent "criminals" be punished, he hasn't harmed anyone here, he's actually HELPED a great load of people. Perhaps if you understood the full situation you'd think otherwise.
Having said that I hate what is happening to him even more. The US has absolutely no business in this. How dare they come to Canada, arrest one of our citizens for something that is basically legal in Canada, and demand his extradition.
Do you folks know that if the situation were to be reversed the US would not turn him over? It is clearly written in all the extradition agreements the US has ever signed, that if an American is charged with a crime in a country other than the US, and whatever he/she did is not a crime in the US, they will not extradite. Period.
To me, this is a far greater issue than Marc Emery. Marc, to me, you are a drug dealer in a nice suit, but the issue here is one of national soverignty.
Miguel
http://pushedleft.blogspot.com/search/label/Mike%20Wallace
The longterm and sensibly unelected house in our Parliament had these recommendations based on research and a modicum of critical thinking apparently unavailable to plumbers named Joe (or at least to those who identify with the "voice of America" during their last election):
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ille-e/rep-e/sum...
Protect Canadian sovereignty and keep the DEA out of Canada.
Devise Canadian solutions to Canadian issues (already done).
Any other international drug dealers you losers think should be above the law?
Good luck to everyone--good courage for standing up to Ujjal Dosanjh (Liberal) Libby Davies (NDP) and Scott Reid (Conservatives).
Prime Minister Harper deserves credit too---he obviously did not push Scott Reid off his position on the Petition.
Extraditing Marc Emery to the United States for a crime whose legal precedent is a $200 fine in Canada against 5 years in a federal jail in the States---will cost the Conservatives more politically than they might be estimating.
I think most Canadians would want Americans punished if they were selling assault rifles piece by piece to Canadians and allowing people on this side of the boarder to assemble them.
Aside from that, the most important issue is pot is not a harmless recreational drug. It has severe health consequences over a long period of time.
"Marc Emery used a loophole to sell drugs to Americans, he should be punished by thier laws. Both countries have an extradition treaty with each other"
First, there are no such things as "loopholes". Its called the law.
Extradition treaties are intended to send back people from nation A, that fled to nation B, for crimes committed in nation A.
Emery broke no Canadian laws, and any American laws he did break, he broke in or from Canada.
If an American breaks a Canadian law in or from America, are you suggesting that he should be extradited here for what he did there ?
Should we ask for the extradition of Rev Fred Phelps ? By Canadian standards, the lunatic commits hate speech everyday, broadcast into Canada from America ? How about Glenn Beck ? Or Rush Limbaugh ?
By your logic, we must. Does this really make sense ?
Even a Third World Dictatorship on ANY BOGUS CLAIM AGAINST ANY CANADIAN AT ANY TIME!!!
WE SHOULD ALL PETITION OUR GOVERNMENT TO CHANGE THE LAW TO PROTECT ALL CANADIANS FROM BOGUS, POLITICALLY MOTIVATED EXTRADITIONS.
Source cbc news article...http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/crime/extradition.html
But the Department of Justice says the role of the extradition judge is to determine if there is enough evidence presented that, if the "conduct had been carried out in Canada, the judge would order the person to stand trial in Canada." In other words, the [Canadian] Judge cannot test the quality or reliability of the evidence – that is the job of the trial judge [where-ever that is, Mexico?, Columbia, Cuba, US] and/or jury.