Pubdate: Thu, 27 Jul 2000
Source: Hour (CN QU)
Website: http://www.afterhour.com
Address: 4130, St-Denis, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2W 2M5
Contact:  http://www.afterhour.com/columns/c_forum.asp
Copyright: 2000, Communications Voir Inc.
Fax: (514) 848-9004
Author: Charlie McKenzie

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

Canada's Marijuana Party will take on Canadian alliance leader Stockwell Day
in federal by-election

Watch out Stockwell Day!

Ontario Provincial Police have in their possession, a recent photograph of
the Canadian Alliance leader and what appears to be a marijuana joint. The
photo will be "Exhibit A" when Bloc Pot head and Interim-leader of the
fledgling federal Marijuana Party, Marc-Boris St-Maurice, and a colleague,
face marijuana possession charges in an Ontario court later this year.

If St-Maurice has his way, it'll be in the court of public opinion long
before.

"I'm just waiting for Jean Chretien to drop the writ and call a
by-election[this summer]," he said confidently, "then I'm off to
Okanagan-Coquihalla [in British Columbia] to go mano a mano with Stockwell
Day."

"We're putting marijuana on top of the agenda and I'm itching for a debate."

The Okanogan-Coquihalla by-election will be the first federal test of both
leaders, both of whom sprang from provincial politics; Day, as Finance
Minister to Ralph Klein's Alberta Conservatives, and St-Maurice, founder and
leader of Quebec's Bloc Pot which garnered over 10,000 votes in the last
provincial election.

Okanagan-Coquihalla is said to be a right-wing stronghold and likely shoe-in
for the Canadian Alliance. The same terrain, however, also hosts some of
BC's best marijuana growing country where the herb represents more than a
significant slice of the local economy. Stockwell Day's "law 'n order" bent
versus St-Maurice's "take no more prisoners" attitude could make for an
interesting and colourful debut for both leaders.

"We have to put marijuana at the top of the national agenda," affirms
St-Maurice. "Canada is the key to ending prohibition -our advancements in
dealing with medical marijuana and steady progress through the courts for
recreational users make this the most likely country to lead the way on
global marijuana reform."

As for the controversial Day photo, which led to a police search and
subsequent charges against he and Bloc Pot colleague, Hugo St-Onge,
St-Maurice insists it was all a joke. They had been invited to a benefit
festival near Sault Ste-Marie for a medical marijuana defence fund
administered by Osgoode Hall law professor and noted pot crusader, Allen
Young.

"After twelve hours on these roads," St-Maurice explained via cellphone from
somewhere outside of Sault-Ste-Marie, "you need a little humour. [so] We
stuck Stock's photo on the dashboard - sort of a 'Zen-focus on your
adversary-thing' along with a rolled cigarette made-up to look like a joint.
It's just tobacco -we weren't wasting a good joint."

At a police roadblock outside the festival entrance, St-Maurice was asked if
he had any narcotics. "I don't think I have to answer that," he replied.

The cop was not amused. He promptly seized Stockwell Day's photo and the
ersatz-joint as "probable grounds for a search of their vehicle and person"
which eventually yielded less than an ounce of marijuana.

This was not St-Maurice's first run-in with Ontario Provincial Police. While
recruiting candidates and campaigning for The Marijuana Party, he has had a
number of police encounters, most notably in the past two months.

The first occurred near Kirkland Lake, Ontario, when police pulled
St-Maurice over for a speeding violation. The cop couldn't help but notice
that St-Maurice's car was covered with pro-marijuana stickers. He asked
permission to search the car, which St-Maurice refused. The cop then
threatened that if he wouldn't comply, he would be stopped every 100 hundred
miles throughout Ontario.

St-Maurice stood his ground, and so did the cop. Over the next 48-hours,
Ontario Provincial Police stopped and hassled him on four different
occasions. It was so stressful, he has filed a formal complaint with the
Ontario Police Commission.

"I demand an apology. Someone has to let the police know they can't get away
with hassling people on suspicion of marijuana," he said. "I was hurt and
stressed -I'm only 31 and I've never had a heart attack, but they gave me
some idea what it might feel like."

St-Maurice also faces marijuana possession charges stemming from a police
raid on Montreal's compassion club last February and openly wonders why his
political adversary -who acknowledges past marijuana use - didn't receive
similar attention.

"So far as I'm concerned," says St-Maurice, "Stockwell Day confessed to a
criminal act, that makes him a criminal. I've only been accused of alleged
crimes."

St-Maurice wisely side steps other contentious issues which have marked
Day's appearance on the federal scene. Gay rights, abortion, and flat-taxes
hold no immediate interest.

"We're a one issue party," he said, "and make no apologies for it. We're
here to discuss and debate marijuana -c'est tout."

He's anxious to face Day on the hustings.

"I have serious reservations about his citizen-initiative program,"
St-Maurice says of Day's plan to hold issue-oriented referendums. "It's been
tried in the States with mixed results; California's medical marijuana
legislation is a case in point where the federal government refuses to
acknowledge the will of the people."

"Still," he adds, "If Stockwell Day wants citizens' initiatives here in
Canada, I think that we in the marijuana lobby have a duty to accommodate
him."

St-Maurice and St-Onge have a September 11 court date in Sault-Ste-Marie
where the OPP must produce Stockwell Day's photograph as evidence of a
crime.
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