Pubdate: Fri, 21 May 2010 Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC) Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/surreynow Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1462 Author: Tom Zytaruk SPACED INVADERS Pot Supporters Light Up, Lay Siege To Surrey MP Dona Cadman's Office SURREY - Supporters of Vancouver pot activist Marc Emery laid siege to Tory MP Dona Cadman's office in Surrey North Thursday afternoon to protest the "Prince of Pot's" extradition to the U.S. earlier that day. Emery, 52, is accused of shipping marijuana seeds to Americans and faces five years in a U.S. prison as part of a plea agreement. Protesters here noted that such a conviction amounts to a $200 fine in Canada. The five protesters occupied the lobby of Cadman's Whalley office for several hours as part of a concerted effort targeting Conservative MPs. "They're just going to all MPs offices and protesting," Cadman said. "I told them they're welcome to stay as long as they behave themselves and they don't cause trouble with anybody coming in or disturb the office. "They were getting very boisterous there for a little while until we told them that they had to calm it down. They're pretty civil right now." Cadman's office assistant Meaghan Weise called the Surrey RCMP. "They have been rolling marijuana joints," Weise said. She noted one of them, 17-year-old Vancouver resident Hayley Rose, has a medical permit to possess marijuana. "They said they're going to be playing music and coming through any doors that are unlocked. They asked for tape and thumb tacks to hang stuff on the wall, and they're video-recording everything." Two Surrey Mounties showed up and spoke to the protestors and advised them to "remain at peace." Nobody was arrested. "We have been very loud about the fact that this will not stop until Marc Emery is back in Canada," said protester William Austin, of Burnaby. "If this turns out not to be effective then we will find other ways to draw attention to it." As for the RCMP, Austin said, "they asked us to leave but they didn't make us leave - they can't make us leave. They continually tried to tactfully convince us that going outside the office would be in everybody's best interest but that impedes on our right to protest so we let them know they couldn't do that. A short time later they agreed, so they must have found out." Austin said protesters are not occupying Liberal or NDP MPs offices because "they've gone on record saying they would not allow the extradition to go through if it was up to them." On Wednesday, protestors invaded Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office in Calgary Southwest. "They rolled a massive amount of marijuana on Stephen Harper's desk," Austin said. "Stephen Harper said to remove them and the police came in and said they weren't going to remove them because they had a right to be there. In that case they were actually smoking in Stephen Harper's office because there's no anti-smoking laws in Alberta." Nobody sparked a joint at Cadman's office, though. "Even a medical user can't smoke indoors because of the smoke laws in B.C.," Austin said. Rose, who has used marijuana legally since she was 15 to treat a rare form of epilepsy, stepped outside of the office for a few hits off of a hand-held medical contraption. This generated a polite debate with police concerning whether she was exhaling vapour or marijuana smoke too close to the office. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart