Pubdate: Sun, 26 Nov 2000
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2000, Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  380 Hunt Club Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 5H7
Website: http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaSun/
Forum: http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/home.html
Author: Ann Marie McQueen

POT PARTY SUPPORTERS ROLL UP TO HILL PROTEST

It's not the kind of smell a visitor would think they'd encounter while 
walking up to Ottawa's majestic Parliament Buildings.

Nor would anyone expect to see people taking deep hauls on joints outside 
the nerve centre of Canada's top law makers. Which is probably why tourists 
who walked past a Parliament Hill demonstration to legalize marijuana 
yesterday laughed nervously and stared openly.

"Let's get high," joked one woman, as she made her way up the steps.

But for those 75 Canadians who have been exempted from federal marijuana 
laws, and others who want to be, the government's take on the issue isn't 
funny. They are ailing, suffering from a painful range of diseases.

Yesterday's event was organized by Rick Reimer, a Pembroke lawyer who is 
one of the select group allowed to grow and possess pot for medicinal purposes.

"I'm allowed to have this," Cobourg resident Steven Bacon told an RCMP 
officer, in the first of two incidents.

Bacon spent several minutes arguing with the officer about the legality of 
bringing a pot plant to the Hill before backing down and putting it in a 
nearby car.

In the incident, a protester tried to throw a cream pie at a statue but 
ended up pegging an RCMP officer in the face as he tried to intervene.

Marc St. Maurice, 31, was charged with assaulting a police officer.
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