Pubdate: Tue, 24 Jul 2001
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2001 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Kim Guttormson

MINISTER TO ARGUE POT IS A GIFT FROM GOD, MUST BE LEGAL

A minister from Edmonton will argue in a Winnipeg court that marijuana is a 
gift from God so it can't be illegal.

Edward Jay Robin Belanger -- who spells his name with hyphens and dashes in 
the style of the so-called Truth Language -- is a minister in the Church of 
Ecumenical Redemption International, the Assembly of the Universe and the 
Edmonton Grove of the Church of Reformed Druids.

While not a lawyer, he is representing a Winnipeg man and his 16-year-old 
son who have both been charged with possession of marijuana and possession 
for the purpose of trafficking. They were arrested in March when police 
found 555 grams of marijuana in their home, along with a 
cannabis-extraction operation with which they're alleged to have made weed oil.

While their Friday court date was simply to set pre-trial dates, Belanger 
kept insisting provincial court Judge Lynn Stannard state whether she's 
taken an active oath of allegiance.

"You must be made aware we cannot recognize the authority of the court 
unless it will acknowledge whether it bears an active oath of allegiance to 
the Queen," Belanger said. "I am hereby commanded as a servant of the Lord 
to state before the court it has no allegiance, the court has no authority ..."

Stannard kept trying to draw Belanger back to the matter at hand, setting 
dates, and threatened to call in sheriff's officers if he wasn't quiet. She 
and the federal Crown attorney ultimately set dates without the man's 
co-operation.

In an interview yesterday, Belanger said the King James Bible is the 
supreme law.

"If something is man's law and does not agree with God's law, God's law 
takes precedence," he said, adding that in Genesis, God gives man all 
seed-bearing plants, which would include marijuana and therefore the plant 
cannot be illegal. "If it's God's gift, who can take it away? If it's God 
against man, which law will prevail? I'll fight all the way to the Supreme 
Court if I have to."

Belanger and his clients are the latest in a procession of non-lawyers 
facing off against Crown attorneys recently.

And it's a trend that has had Queen's Bench Associate Chief Justice Jeffrey 
Oliphant question how the system deals with those who represent themselves.

In an interview with the Free Press in May, Oliphant said they create 
additional stress on an already strained system. He suggested creating 
pamphlets or educational videos, posting information about appropriate 
court conduct and how a person can receive legal advice.
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