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Pot Leader Mad at NDP
Pubdate: Thu, 16 Sep 2004
Source: Georgia Straight, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 The Georgia Straight
Contact: http://www.straight.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1084
Author: Charlie Smith
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)
POT LEADER MAD AT NDP
B.C. Marijuana Party president Marc Emery has told the Straight he is
unhappy with federal NDP leader Jack Layton's silence over Emery's
imprisonment for sharing a joint. On August 19, a Saskatoon Provincial
Court judge sentenced Emery, founder of Pot-TV net, to 92 days in jail
for "trafficking".
In a telephone interview from the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, Emery
said that the conviction was in connection with smoking marijuana in a
park with university students after a speech.
Emery praised NDP MP Libby Davies as the only politician who has
spoken publicly on his behalf since he was imprisoned. "Jack
Layton--his silence is amazing," Emery said.
Emery claimed that marijuana activists signed up more than 3,000 NDP
members across the country and delivered 150,000 votes in the last
federal election. He said that he also visited 22 university campuses,
mostly at the invitation of NDP student clubs, and printed 100,000
brochures outlining Layton's position on marijuana. In addition, Emery
said, he paid $5,000 to buy two tables at a Jack Layton dinner, and
donated between $500 and $1,000 to eight different NDP candidates.
"Jack Layton came to my home," Emery claimed. "I think there is a
special obligation when you come to somebody's house. You ask him for
a favour, and then they deliver. And then you remain silent when they
get incarcerated for the very thing the leader pledges that he is
addressing, and that he himself has done."
Emery claimed that Layton won't speak up because the federal NDP
leader doesn't want to alienate older voters. "The people over 65 are
the vanguard of the prohibitionists," he said. "The people who are
sympathetic to legalization--[those] under 40 and the baby
boomers--don't vote in nearly the same percentages and numbers."
Emery also said that even though he supported NDP in the federal
election, he will run a full slate of B.C. Marijuana Party candidates
in the next provincial election. The only exception is if an
"anti-prohibitionist" runs for the NDP or B.C. Liberals in any
constituency.
In the 2001 provincial election, the B.C. Marijuana Party won 3.22
percent of the popular vote, according to Elections BC. Emery
suggested that the B.C. Marijuana Party could attract enough votes to
prevent the NDP from winning in between five and 10 of the province's
79 constituencies.
Layton did not return a call by the Straight's deadline. In a
September 10 news release, Layton and Vancouver East NDP MP Libby
Davies urged Prime Minister Paul Martin to reintroduce marijuana
reforms into Parliament. In the same news release, Davies criticized
the current federal law for enabling Emery to be convicted of
"trafficking" for sharing joints.
Emery has been writing a "jail blog" on the B.C. Marijuana Party Web
site ( www.bcmarijuanaparty.ca/ ) since he was incarcerated.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake