NationalPost.com Published: Monday, March 31, 2008
Andy Clark/Reuters
This editorial board has more than once presented its strongest moral case for the Canadian government to block the extradition of Marc Emery, the West Coast marijuana advocate who faces a possible life sentence south of the border for operating a mail-order seed business out of his Vancouver headquarters. It is our view that the differences in the two countries' handling of seed vendors make extraditing Emery a shameful abdication of judgment by the Canadian authorities. Others have argued that (after a fair trial) he deserves whatever punishment the Americans choose to slap him with. Some take this view because they regard marijuana as dangerous and destructive, others because the result of Emery's open goading of the Americans was quite foreseeable and they find it hard to sympathize.
But now there is a fresh wrinkle in the proceedings, one that even those most hostile to Emery's cause should be able to see the absurdity of. Earlier this year Emery was able to arrange a plea bargain with U.S. prosecutors that would see him accept a 10-year sentence on their charges, of which he would serve half. Under the deal his co-accused colleagues would go free and Emery would serve the first 45 days of his sentence in the U.S., after which he would be returned to Canada to finish his stretch in a more comfortable Canadian prison.
All that was needed was the agreement of Canada's department of justice. But last week, after a month of pessimistic media reports, they gave a final "No." The Americans insisted on guarantees against Emery being released before his five years was up, and such arrangements are forbidden in Canadian law, so no Canadian judge can order the application of such a sentence. That means Emery will have to go ahead with the extradition proceedings that were held over in the face of the plea-bargain, and face a possible life sentence down south. Catch-22: because Canada is too humane and liberal to apply the punishment that the Americans would like -- a punishment Emery has voluntarily agreed to -- there appears to be no option but to hand him over to the Americans without protection against much worse treatment!
It is time for the Minister of Justice to exercise his prerogative and end an extradition farce that has become tainted with illogic as well as inhumanity. If we have a legitimate social interest in seeing Emery arrested, tried and imprisoned, why don't we do it ourselves? Why was he permitted to run his business freely and openly in Vancouver for years (a business recommended to legal users of medical marijuana by Health Canada) and to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and provincial taxes? How can a provision in the criminal law be taken seriously when it's applied only upon the urging of a foreign government?
Canadian police, conscious of the awkwardness, are in fact starting to take belated and perhaps slightly shamefaced action against Emery's fellow seed dealers. Earlier this month the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a sentence imposed on Vancouver Island vendor Daniel Konstantin, who owned a prizewinning mail-order business advertised in High Times magazine and had been caught with about three pounds of seeds. Prosecutors had appealed the decision of the trial judge, who had given Konstantin a month in jail plus probation. They thought the sentence should have been all of 15 months. That's how seriously Canadian justice takes this crime. And it is still a good deal more seriously than many Canadians, presumably including the 10 million among us who have tried marijuana at least once, would like.
Why should the Canadian taxpayer be saddled with the costs of housing Emery in a Canadian jail. If the Americans want to put him in jail then they should pay for it. I for one don't want my tax dollars wasted on an unnecessary scheme like this. Our prison system is messed up as it is.
It doesn't matter if he didn't set foot in the States. He is charged because his seed-vending operations in the U.S. crossed state lines, making it a federal issue and thus a bigger fish for authorities to set an example. If his operations were in a single state, the issue would be dead in the water already - the ideal situation the National Post describes would have become a reality.
Until then, it's time for the pothead to face the consequences of his actions. Whether or not you want to decriminalise pot, the fact is the laws still exist, so he is STILL breaking the law and should be sentenced.
If he broke a Canadian law, why would he be extradited? Wouldn't he face prosecution here in such a case?
So it's interesting he was never arrested or charged or convicted in Canada. Mailing seeds isn't illegal because seeds aren't plants and it's plants that are illegal.
Should anybody ever be extradited? Not Canadian citizens unless its a capital crime commited by a Canadian in the US. Emery was never in the US, he mailed his seeds, a petty crime at best to be dealt with if he ever sets foot in the US
I'm not a pot smoker and never have been. If he had done a real crime in person on American soil and ran home like a coward so he wouldn't go to jail, then I would be less upset about our own government voluntarily sending a Canadian citizen to another country to serve 5 full years no parole for a petty "crime" like this. Cowardly is what it is.
One similar situation a few years ago was a telemarketing company based in Canada who was calling seniors in the US exclusively and selling them bogus lottery schemes and sucking away their life savings. US officials tracked the telemarketing owner down in Canada even though the guy never set foot in the US and never committed a crime in Canada he was extradited to the US and jailed in a US jail.
Canada could request the same back if someone in the US was distributing handguns in Canada that were legal in the US but illegal in Canada and committing a Canadian crime.
Emery probably should have had the brains to not distribute seeds into the US until it was legal down there.
Maybe a bit of brain fade on his part but what the heck he could have been high at the time.
One similar situation a few years ago was a telemarketing company based in Canada who was calling seniors in the US exclusively and selling them bogus lottery schemes and sucking away their life savings. US officials tracked the telemarketing owner down in Canada even though the guy never set foot in the US and never committed a crime in Canada he was extradited to the US and jailed in a US jail.
Canada could request the same back if someone in the US was distributing handguns in Canada that were legal in the US but illegal in Canada and committing a Canadian crime.
Emery probably should have had the brains to not distribute seeds into the US until it was legal down there.
Maybe a bit of brain fade on his part but what the heck he could have been high at the time.
My bet is the telemarketers were NOT required to serve 5 full years no parole. My bet is they have served NO time. Hoodwinking seniors out of life savings is light years more serious the selling seeds to adults who choose to buy them.
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