Pubdate: Fri, 30 Sep 2005
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2005, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Camille Bains, Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery (Emery, Marc)

POT ACTIVIST TO FACE CHARGES IN CANADA

Private Citizen Hopes His Legal Move Will Prevent Emery's Extradition
to U.S.

VANCOUVER -- A private citizen says he is filing charges today
against pot activist Marc Emery and two of his associates, partly
because that will throw a wrench into U.S. plans to extradite them to
face drug charges in that country.

"If he gets charged in Canada that will have major legal consequences
for that extradition request," said David McCann, a Vancouver
philanthropist and businessman.

Mr. McCann said he has hired prominent lawyer Peter Leask in filing
three charges of conspiracy under the Controlled Drugs and Substances
Act and the Criminal Code of Canada.

Mr. McCann says Canada has been hypocritical in allowing Mr. Emery to
sell marijuana seeds and collecting thousands of dollars in taxes from
him, and in the City of Vancouver giving him a business licence for
his pot paraphernalia store.

"We have let him operate and now we let the Americans walk into our
country and charge a man who they will probably lock away for the rest
of his natural life in the United States for doing something that the
government of Canada condoned. And you know, I got a problem with that
as a Canadian."

Mr. Emery, along with co-accused, Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and Gregory
Keith Williams, were arrested July 29 after police raided Mr. Emery's
store as part of an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.

"He broke the law in Canada, and so if we are going to let him be
charged, he should be charged here, where he did the offence," said
Mr. McCann, adding he has never met Mr. Emery.

Mr. McCann noted that Health Canada has even referred patients, many
of them terminally ill, to Mr. Emery for medicinal marijuana.

Kirk Tousaw, one of Mr. Emery's lawyers, said it is possible that the
U.S. attempts to extradite his client would be thwarted.

Section 47 of the Extradition Act says the justice minister may refuse
extradition if he is satisfied that the same conduct is the subject of
criminal proceedings in Canada.

"If Canada is trying someone for the same crime then certainly one
would think it makes sense to keep them here in Canada rather than
send them somewhere else," Mr. Tousaw said.

Mr. Emery, leader of the Marijuana Party, said he sees Mr. McCann's
private prosecution attempt as something positive because he has
always felt he should be charged in Canada for his activities.

"His intent is to stop the extradition and have me charged under
Canadian law in a Canadian courtroom," Mr. Emery said. "I'd much
rather be in front of a Canadian jury in a Canadian court. It'd
probably still keep me out of the seed business for the rest of my
life, alas, but it certainly would lay people's fears of a sovereignty
intrusion to rest."

Mr. Emery said all Canadians will be complicit if the United States
succeeds in extraditing him to face drug charges because he has been
doing it for years without anyone raising a fuss.

He said he attended a public forum called the Cannabis Conundrum at
the Vancouver Public Library on Wednesday, where a former police
officer said the Crown refused to lay charges against him after his
department conducted an investigation 2 1/2 years ago.

Mr. Emery's extradition hearing continues Oct. 21.

His supporters have requested that Justice Minister Irwin Cotler step
in, but he has said the matter is now before the courts.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake