Marijuana activists “shut down” Conservative MP’s office over Marc Emery extradition

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      A peaceful protest held today (May 14) in North Vancouver in support of freeing marijuana activist Marc Emery had a wider effect than expected.

      A group of 15 activists intended to occupy the constituency office of Conservative MP Andrew Saxton in protest of Emery’s pending extradition to the United States. However, when the activists arrived at 10:30 a.m., they found the office locked and empty.

      According to Jacob Hunter, policy director for the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, Saxton’s wasn’t the only Conservative office darkened on the sunny Friday morning.

      “The Conservative party decided to shut down what we’re hearing is five offices around the Lower Mainland because they heard we were going to be protesting inside one of them,” Hunter told the Straight at the protest. “They just go home because they don’t want to face protesters.”

      Subsequent calls by the Straight to the offices of Conservative MPs Alice Wong (Richmond), John Weston (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country), Dona Cadman (Surrey North), and John Cummins (Delta-Richmond East) weren’t returned this afternoon.

      Two legal observers from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Ian Kennedy and Safia Lakhani, were on-hand to witness any confrontation between the protesters and police. However, only one North Vancouver RCMP officer came to the scene and departed right after turning off the alarm in Saxton’s office, which had been tripped by an activist when he attempted to open the front door.

      “The cops didn’t seem to be very interested in a confrontation today,” Kennedy said.

      Hunter, who participated in the occupation of Conservative MP James Moore’s office in Port Moody earlier in the week, stressed the importance of citizens taking direct action.

      “Whether or not it’s for Marc Emery, whether or not it’s for marijuana legalization, we want everyone to know that it is fully legal to protest inside your member of Parliament’s office,” Hunter said. “Go to their offices, occupy, sit in, let them conduct business—but let everyone who goes in there know why you’re there.”

      Rallies in opposition to Emery’s extradition are scheduled to take place around the world on May 22, with protests planned across the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Australia and Denmark. Vancouver’s rally will take place at Victory Square (Cambie and West Hastings streets) starting at 2 p.m.

      A group of activists gathered at the office of Conservative MP Andrew Saxton (North Vancouver) on May 14 to protest Marc Emery's extradition to the United States. When they arrived, the office was empty and locked. That didn't stop them from getting out their message, however.


      Follow Miranda Nelson on Twitter @charenton_.

      Comments

      36 Comments

      GLENDA RESENER

      May 14, 2010 at 5:06pm

      Awesome work!!!! What are they gonna do; Lock the doors, forever?

      Good work

      May 14, 2010 at 6:13pm

      Pretty funny that they can't even stand behind their work. If they can't stand behind their work or are afraid to show their faces, maybe they need to do a little introspection and ask if this is really the road they should be going down.

      Bending over to America of all countries looks really bad. After the last admin. I don't see how anyone could listen to the U.S. They aren't exactly a shining star of Democracy if you think about it. Most of the previous administration should be tried on for War Crimes and both parties played a part in the financial meltdown of the world economy.

      Kennedy Rochafeller

      May 14, 2010 at 7:08pm

      It is painfully obvious to the public what is going on in true 'politics', special interest groups control everything! This is the disgusting reality that we all live with. Free Marc Emery! No prison for pot. Cannabis is a natural plant which evolved in symbiosis with humans, it does infinitely more for humans than we've ever done for mother nature. Hemp seeds are more nutritious than ANYTHING ELSE! they SHOULD be a staple diet world wide!! Hemp can be used to prevent almost all landslides, and should be!

      Spanner McNeil

      May 14, 2010 at 8:09pm

      The Conservatives are hiding. They are hunted. Funny feeling isn't it? Feel marginalized, criminalized and stigmatized? Now they prorogue their offices. They can hide from our native brothers and sisters too. They can hide but they thank goodness for automatic deposit.
      The Crown is positively clear and unwavering that these marijuana protests must absolutely continue to take place. It is legally binding to smoke pot in your MP's office. It is the law. Obey the law.
      I remember when Pierre Trudeau was being confronted by a nation of incredibly angry truck drivers. They had gathered and struck and came to Pierres' front door to express their feelings. Unprotected by security the Prime Minister walked into a thick angry crowd, pushed his way up to a rolled down window, gave the trucker the finger and told him 'fuddle duddle.' Now regardless of what you thought about the policy regarding the truckers there was something there to admire. It was felt we had a Prime Minster who could stand up in broad day light to his critics on the front lawn and so clearly he could stand up to world leaders on behalf of Canada when it counted. History shows that was indeed the case as he told Nixon 'fuddle duddle' as well, when it came to discussion of Canadas' arctic.
      The next time Harper and his pals go to the G-20 beach blanket bingo they'll be talking to big boys who know they can't even yell at their own people to get off the front lawn. Sacrificing our troops to keep the value of marijuana and opium artificially high is wrong. Prohibition never should have been passed.
      If you are making deals with the Harper Valley PTA then you need to anticipate that everything this cabal did will fall under a festival of amazing and vast scrutiny bridging a variety of Senate Commissions. The five million Canadians who will overnight finally be accepted and no longer underground plus their twenty five million neighbours, friends and parents will hold a magnifying glass to any deals with the Conservatives from this point past and forward. The Conservatives will only get 56 votes in the coming election. They are too ashamed to even vote for themselves. I hope the Speaker of The House is preparing a sincere, understanding and compendious apology to those who smoke marijuana. I expect Marc and his wife Jodie Emery and the nation to be formally apologized to for this multi-generational outrage.
      Weak. Harper is weak. Marc Emery is strong. Jacob Hunter - wow! Little women smoking pot on the front lawn are strong. Harper, Jaffer, Nicholson, Towes , the whole lot of them are pathetic, weak, helpless sad people who need hugs and to be pensioned off with no delay. They can go sell incense in airports and shave their heads like the other cults. Then the rest of us will solve the mess together as a nation less divided. And probably as history will one day point out, less deliberately divided. We are Canada.

      J-Bone

      May 14, 2010 at 9:07pm

      Keep the protests simple and to the point... don't smash shit, and don't unduly harass people and I support you.

      Gunnar

      May 14, 2010 at 9:50pm

      I hope they never re-open.

      malcolm kyle

      May 15, 2010 at 4:55am

      Prohibition is a sickening horror and the ocean of incompetence, corruption and human wreckage it has left in its wake is almost endless.

      Prohibition has decimated generations and criminalized millions for a behavior which is entwined in human existence, and for what other purpose than to uphold the defunct and corrupt thinking of a minority of misguided, self-righteous Neo-Puritans and degenerate demagogues who wish nothing but unadulterated destruction on the rest of us.

      Based on the unalterable proviso that drug use is essentially an unstoppable and ongoing human behavior which has been with us since the dawn of time, any serious reading on the subject of past attempts at any form of drug prohibition would point most normal thinking people in the direction of sensible regulation.

      By its very nature, prohibition cannot fail but create a vast increase in criminal activity, and rather than preventing society from descending into anarchy, it actually fosters an anarchic business model - the international Drug Trade. Any decisions concerning quality, quantity, distribution and availability are then left in the hands of unregulated, anonymous, ruthless drug dealers, who are interested only in the huge profits involved.

      Many of us have now, finally, wised up to the fact that the best avenue towards realistically dealing with drug use and addiction is through proper regulation which is what we already do with alcohol & tobacco, clearly two of our most dangerous mood altering substances. But for those of you whose ignorant and irrational minds traverse a fantasy plane of existence, you will no doubt remain sorely upset with any type of solution that does not seem to lead to the absurd and unattainable utopia of a drug free society.

      There is an irrefutable connection between drug prohibition and the crime, corruption, disease and death it causes. If you are not capable of understanding this connection then maybe you're using something far stronger than the rest of us. Anybody 'halfway bright', and who's not psychologically challenged, should be capable of understanding that it is not simply the demand for drugs that creates the mayhem, it is our refusal to allow legal businesses to meet that demand.

      No amount of money, police powers, weaponry, diminution of rights and liberties, wishful thinking or pseudo-science will make our streets safer, only an end to prohibition can do that. How much longer are you willing to foolishly risk your own survival by continuing to ignore the obvious, historically confirmed solution?

      If you still support the kool aid mass suicide cult of prohibition, and erroneously believe that you can win a war without logic and practical solutions, then prepare yourself for even more death, corruption, terrorism, sickness, imprisonment, unemployment, foreclosed homes, and the complete loss of the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.

      "A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."
      Abraham Lincoln

      The only thing prohibition successfully does is prohibit regulation & taxation while turning even our schools and prisons into black markets for drugs. Regulation would mean the opposite!

      Daniel Leclair

      May 15, 2010 at 6:03am

      It was awesome! I want to do it Again and Again!
      I even took my mother with me and met up with Jacob in North Van... and it was her B/Day she wanted to take part...and i gotta listen to Momma lol
      Peace!

      Sorry

      May 15, 2010 at 7:41am

      Sorry that my country has committed this evil on your country, but that's how they roll man. A few at the top decide the fate of the rest of us and as vial as it sounds we bend over and take it every time. Just look around you and see for yourself. Name me one individual who will protect you when they come knocking at your door. Because we (world) have been socially engineered to back off when presented with official credentials! A badge is made by some lame motherfucker in some metal shop. The people who wear that badge are not suddenly given super powers but judging by how much they oppress and given we behave as lambs going to the slaughter you'd believe they were gods when in fact they wouldn’t make a pimple on a Goa'uld System Lords a double ss!

      Why do you smoke pot?

      May 15, 2010 at 11:41am

      Why do you smoke pot?
      Because you are not completely satisfied in your life, because your life is not fulfilled.
      Because in Canada, people who don’t have government jobs or connection on government-federal, provincial, municipal levels or connection to union or don’t have any grant for researches are SECOND-DEGREE CITIZENS.
      Talented scientists work for $8 CAD/hour and untalented people with grants and connections earn 10 times more.
      It is a slavery. It is pain.
      You feel pain and you smoke pot.