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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Facing extradition and jail, Marc Emery plans “farewell tour”
Libertarian publisher and activist Marc Emery has been under an extradition order since 2004 when U.S. authorities, assisted by the Vancouver Police, arrested him on charges related to selling marijuana seeds. In May, Emery announced he would be pleading guilty to the charges in order to secure a deal that would see him face five years in a U.S. jail.
Today, Emery announced his “farewell tour” that will take him through Alberta in what could be his last heroic effort to legalize marijuana.
Marc Emery's Farewell Tour Calgary
July 5th / 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Location: Scarboro Community Association
1727 14th Avenue SW
Free event sponsored by The Next Level Inc.
Marc Emery's Farewell Tour BanffJuly 6th
Sponsored by Hempire Canada (Banff & Canmore)
Marc Emery's Farewell Tour LethbridgeJuly 7 / 6:00 PM
Sponsored by Southern Alberta Cannabis Club
Tickets $10.00
Location: University of Lethbridge Ballroom BMarc Emery's Farewell Tour Edmonton
July 9th
Sponsored by Edmonton 420 Cannabis Community
(Picture: Marc Emery)
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on June 25, 2009 in Marc Emery | Permalink
Comments
The true crime is that it takes five years to extradite someone when they've already confessed to the crime.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 6:35:03 AM
Heroic effort to legalize marijuana?
Spare me.
The heroic effort to make weed more accessible to generations of youth who'll fry their brains on drugs?
This is heroic?
Posted by: SUZANNE | 2009-06-25 6:45:16 AM
Heroic effort? Heroic? What the hell?
"Hero:
1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child"
There's nothing noble or courageous about Emery's past deeds. Hell, instead of saving drowning children, Emery sells them dope.
As for Emery being "libertarian", well, you're off base there too... He wants the freedom to sell his dope without accepting the associated responsibility while leaving the rest of us to pay for the social costs. That's not "libertarian", it's new-age dipper-doper which, I guess, explains Emery's endorsement of the NDP in federal elections. The last time I checked, libertarians don't cheer for socialists.
Posted by: Richard Evans | 2009-06-25 7:25:59 AM
All this money and effort for a pot smoker. Meanwhile, the meth labs and crack houses roll on. It's a plant, people.
If your faith or personal beliefs command you to be anti-drug, so be it. But focus on REAL drugs.
Emery just isn't worth the effort.
Posted by: Leigh Patrick Sullivan | 2009-06-25 7:47:01 AM
Suzanne, He did encourage people to grow their own. Better than supporting gangsters. I suppose you may not care where people get their drugs, but in that case, you'd obviously oppose pharmaceuticals, alcohol and tobacco.
Unfortunately, he also worked to normalize what most people would consider to be an excessive amount and irresponsible timing for consumption. Like drinking beer first thing in the morning, smoking pot all day isn't exactly the high road to success.
Richard Evans,
"Hell, instead of saving drowning children, Emery sells them dope. "
I think that tells a lot about your priorities. Children are drowning, and you're worried about someone selling them pot. Ha!
Posted by: Timothy Shaw-Zak | 2009-06-25 7:54:18 AM
"All this money and effort for a pot smoker. Meanwhile, the meth labs and crack houses roll on. It's a plant, people."
You mean like the opium poppy (opium, morphine, heroin) and the coca leaf (cocaine) are plants? Lots of plants are illegal to cultivate, including many non-native species that do harm to local flora.
"Emery just isn't worth the effort."
Well, the Americans say he is. It's their business, not yours. And many Canadians say that it WOULD be worth the effort to use legal manoeuvres to keep Emery in Canada in spite of the treaty and the fact that the U.S. has never lost an extradition request.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 7:59:53 AM
"Suzanne, He did encourage people to grow their own. Better than supporting gangsters. I suppose you may not care where people get their drugs, but in that case, you'd obviously oppose pharmaceuticals, alcohol and tobacco."
The same old canard of comparing pot to non-psychotropics and genuine medicines. When are you going to realize they're not the same thing? And the fact that the gangs proliferate demonstrate that most people do NOT grow their own.
"I think that tells a lot about your priorities. Children are drowning, and you're worried about someone selling them pot. Ha!"
Actually, teaching a kid to swim is a lot easier than convincing him to stay off pot, especially if it's widely available.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 8:02:19 AM
"The heroic effort to make weed more accessible to generations of youth who'll fry their brains on drugs?"
Weed is already accessible to generations of youth. You can get weed anywhere. The question is whether we want to continue having violence associated with the sale of weed.
As for Emery, he's no hero. I have my doubts as to whether he is a libertarian as well. Is anyone aware of his opinions on other matters?
Posted by: Charles | 2009-06-25 8:11:55 AM
Charles: Emery is a libertarian through-and-through. Take a look at his old activities with the Freedom Party when he lived in Ontario.
When the garbage strike started in London, Ontario, Emery drove around picking up garbage for them.
When Emery ran the City Lights Bookstore, he used to go to the U.S., purchase what were then banned-in-Canada books and CDs, and then take out full-page ads in the London newspapers to advertise that he has those books and CDs for sale.
He also, as I recall, kept his store open on Sundays when the Sunday laws were still in effect.
There is some evidence that Emery's activities played a role in ending the censorship of gay and lesbian books, and ending the Sunday laws in Ontario. He also was enemy number one for the London union responsible for garbage pick-up.
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 2009-06-25 8:22:45 AM
I hope Marc is planning a Manitoba stop on his tour, if he does he will get the hero's welcome he deserves. At great risk to his own personal freedom, Marc Emery stands up to the state and defends the right of free men and women to have sovereignty over our own bodies. If we do not have control our own bodies and the state does, then we are nothing more than slaves, no matter how much money we've got we still ain't shit but owned cattle. Marc is a hero even if the usual idiots on this forum can't see that, because they are blinded by their ideology and hatred.
Evans who do think libertarians SHOULD support? Harper, the authoritarian dick-tator? When the NDP is the ONLY party in the House that stands up for individual liberty in a meaningful way then it makes absolute sense for libertarians to support the NDP. Any self-proclaimed libertarian that supports the conservative party in its current incarnation is an idiot. The Conservative party is the enemy of freedom in Canada.
Coca and poppy ARE plants and should absolutely be legal. Making nature illegal is about as stupid and arrogant as humanity can get. Prohibition is motivated by greed and corruption. Synthetic opiates and stimulants are fed like candy to our children by the state and its "doctors" at an alarming rate. No "drug" in its naturally occuring form should EVER be made illegal, especially when pharma companies are allowed to legally sell synthetic forms of that same substance. The state sells cesamet, marinol and other synthetic forms of cannabis that are 100% sythetic THC, and then lectures us about the dangers of the "new pot" because it has 15-20% THC instead of the 5-10% it had on average during the 60's and 70's. The same goes for poppies. Natural opium is illegal, yet pharma companies are allowed to rake in billions of profits every year selling synthetic forms of opium like oxycontin, tylenol 3, morphine, etc.
The only people that support this kind of nonsense are uninformed idiots, or those that profit from prohibition.
Thank you Marc Emery for being a true freedom hero and for the immense personal sacrifice you have had to make to stand up for the millions of people who are too afraid of the state to stand up for themselves.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 8:24:26 AM
Wrong, Shane. It is my business just as it is yours. With all due respect, if this was almost any other issue would you be as willing to spread-eagle on the floor for American authorities in Canada? Really?
The paranoia against pot is based on lies and falsehoods from decades ago. Learn the history and you will see that you've been taken for a ride. Or, continue to pull a Nixon and simply ignore the facts when they are presented.
Posted by: Leigh Patrick Sullivan | 2009-06-25 8:26:50 AM
Shane: Other "natural" products: Cyanide. Which you can find in any apple seed.
The fact that something is a plant and natural tells us nothing about whether or not it is dangerous, harmful, or deadly.
So I'm in full agreement with you on that point -- the fact that marijuana is a plant is irrelevant to whether or not it is dangerous.
But you did say this: "Well, the Americans say he is," and I have to quibble. I'm not sure if Americans want Emery extradited. We know that the Drug Enforcement Agency wants Emery extradited, but we also know that many Americans oppose the DEA, especially in regions where referendums have been passed on medical marijuana (like in California), which the federal government ignores.
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 2009-06-25 8:29:40 AM
This is just another classic example of American interference in our POT-litical affairs...!!!
Posted by: Barney Google | 2009-06-25 8:30:22 AM
Timothy that's the "let's give women safe abortions instead of having them done with rusty coat hangers" argument. It's really really bad, so let's just make is less bad.
As if society's sanction makes it less bad. It doesn't make it less bad, it makes it worse!
At great risk to his own personal freedom, Marc Emery stands up to the state and defends the right of free men and women to have sovereignty over our own bodies
Speaking of the abortion argument...
Sovereignty over the body should not be the ultimate argument. When millions of people do something that affects millions of others-- such as getting stoned-- it's not a private act any more. It has social repercussions that we all have to deal with.
Posted by: SUZANNE | 2009-06-25 8:30:43 AM
As an aside, this is one of the only issues that puts me at odds with my rightwing friends, due to my libertarian views.
And as a libertarian, that last thing in the world I could ever do, for any reason, would be to vote NDP no matter what their policy on drugs is.
Posted by: Leigh Patrick Sullivan | 2009-06-25 8:37:44 AM
"Sovereignty over the body should not be the ultimate argument. When millions of people do something that affects millions of others-- such as getting stoned-- it's not a private act any more. It has social repercussions that we all have to deal with."
If we are going to call ourselves free, then sovereignty over our own bodies IS the ultimate argument. Getting stoned only affects millions of others in your tiny little mind, in reality my smoking a reefer and playing xbox with my buddies affects nobody but myself(in a way I find absolutely positive BTW).
Alcohol on the other hand which is completely legal DOES have a tendency to affect others when someone consumes too much of it.
While I am firmly pro-choice when it comes to abortion, your analogy is faulty. Growing or smoking a plant has no effect on anyone other than the person directly involved in that activity. Abortion (if you believe that an embryo is a potential person) does affect more than the person having the procedure.
It seems we have two deffernt sets of opinions on the issue. The opinion of free men and women who value liberty, and the domesticated cattle who bow to the whim of their masters.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 8:51:52 AM
We were disappointed that the Marc Emery Farewell tour wasn't booked into any casinos..
Posted by: 419 | 2009-06-25 8:59:22 AM
Greenthumb,
I'll start by saying I agree with you about the conservative party, libertarians should not be associating with them.
But come on. How in the world can you possible justify a libertarian supporting the NDP? Other than pot, how is the NDP pro liberty? Property rights and all other economic liberties: against. Free speech: against. Insane nanny statism: for. Forcing environmentalism down our throats: for.
Posted by: Charles | 2009-06-25 9:09:20 AM
SUZANNE,
You like social consequences I see. What about all the people dying because of drug laws?
Posted by: Charles | 2009-06-25 9:10:17 AM
PM,
So far I've only taken a look at his web site which only deals with pot. For now I'll take your word for it ...
Posted by: Charles | 2009-06-25 9:11:12 AM
"Marc Emery stands up to the state and defends the right of free men and women to have sovereignty over our own bodies."
This empty argument has been used to justify everything from getting high on crack to flushing inconvenient unborn. It is a fundamentally selfish and sociopathic argument that reeks of entitlement and narcissism. It is not therefore surprising that Marc Emery would champion it.
"If we do not have control our own bodies and the state does, then we are nothing more than slaves, no matter how much money we've got we still ain't shit but owned cattle."
The state cannot buy nor sell you. Restricting access to undesirable or dangerous materials does not enslave the nation.
"The Conservative party is the enemy of freedom in Canada."
Most of the laws concerning marijuana were passed by the Liberal Party.
"Coca and poppy ARE plants and should absolutely be legal. Making nature illegal is about as stupid and arrogant as humanity can get."
If you're seriously arguing that heroin and cocaine should be available over the counter, Poison Pill, then nothing more can be done with you. Even Marc Emery likely wouldn't go to that extreme.
"Synthetic opiates and stimulants are fed like candy to our children by the state and its "doctors" at an alarming rate."
Oh, so you know better than the doctors now? Is there no limit to the infinitude of wisdom that is yours alone? I know--you discovered the secrets of stellar fusion while hang-gliding stoned!
"No "drug" in its naturally occuring form should EVER be made illegal, especially when pharma companies are allowed to legally sell synthetic forms of that same substance.
WITH A PRESCRIPTION. These are powerful medicines. They are not party favours. And a substance's naturalness has no bearing on how dangerous it is. But hey, go out and start kicking cobras or chowing down on hemlock leaves if you're all that confident in Nature's harmlessness. Or will you go for broke and flick a lion in the nads with a wet towel?
"The state sells cesamet, marinol and other synthetic forms of cannabis that are 100% sythetic THC, and then lectures us about the dangers of the "new pot" because it has 15-20% THC instead of the 5-10% it had on average during the 60's and 70's."
In controlled doses, for specific conditions. Synthetic THC is chemically identical to natural THC. A chemical is a chemical. The belief that it is impossible to duplicate organic compounds in the laboratory was debunked at the start of the 19th century.
"The same goes for poppies. Natural opium is illegal, yet pharma companies are allowed to rake in billions of profits every year selling synthetic forms of opium like oxycontin, tylenol 3, morphine, etc."
That's because natural opium varies widely in potency and is unpredictable. Pharmacy-bought drugs can be trusted to give consistent doses optimized for medical effect.
"The only people that support this kind of nonsense are uninformed idiots, or those that profit from prohibition."
The opinion of a lifelong outlaw and poison pill is less than nothing. You have the reflexive disobedience of a ten-year-old delinquent. You'd shoot your own pecker off if someone passed a law saying you couldn't.
"Thank you Marc Emery for being a true freedom hero and for the immense personal sacrifice you have had to make to stand up for the millions of people who are too afraid of the state to stand up for themselves."
Or are smart enough not to do drugs in the first place. A category that will never include you, Poison Pill.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 9:12:23 AM
Bye Bye goof
Posted by: epsilon | 2009-06-25 9:17:08 AM
"Wrong, Shane. It is my business just as it is yours. With all due respect, if this was almost any other issue would you be as willing to spread-eagle on the floor for American authorities in Canada? Really?"
Cut the sovereignty shtick, Leigh; it was a pathetic old saw when Atlantis sank. Marc Emery broke an American law that has a direct counterpart in Canada. Under the terms of our extradition treaty, we are bound to extradite him if requested, just as the Americans are bound to extradite an American who commits a crime on Canadian soil. It is NOT your business, because you are not the aggrieved party.
"The paranoia against pot is based on lies and falsehoods from decades ago. Learn the history and you will see that you've been taken for a ride."
Really? And listening to potheads' lurid tales of corporate and media conspiracies, denial of marijuana's effects and gateway status, denial of the blood on their hands for buying blood pot, and neurotic and obsessive attempts to blame the lawman for their own law-breaking, we're supposed to take their word over that of three generations of doctors, scientists, and politicians?
"Or, continue to pull a Nixon and simply ignore the facts when they are presented."
What facts have presented, e.g. the U.S. incarceration rate and the fact that cannabis is a plant, are irrelevant to the discussion. And even those are greatly outnumbered by unsubstantiated opinion and moral outrage masquerading as wisdom.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 9:18:28 AM
"I'm not sure if Americans want Emery extradited."
A poll taken shortly after Obama's ascension confirmed that 61 percent of Americans are in favour of keeping marijuana illegal (California does NOT represent the values of the entire country, their delusions to the contrary notwithstanding), and Canada has a very unenviable reputation as a source of illegal drugs to the U.S. A recently released U.N. report confirmed this, and actually gave stricter U.S. laws credit for curtailing the drug industry there.
Let's see: We're the most notorious for piracy of intellectual property; most notorious for health-care wait lists; and now, most notorious for illegal drugs, the number-one exporter of synthetic drugs to the U.S. and several Pacific Rim countries and the number-one consumer of marijuana in the developed world. Forgive me if I'm not bursting with pride.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 9:21:52 AM
"If we are going to call ourselves free, then sovereignty over our own bodies IS the ultimate argument."
This is your opinion. No more than that.
"Getting stoned only affects millions of others in your tiny little mind, in reality my smoking a reefer and playing xbox with my buddies affects nobody but myself(in a way I find absolutely positive BTW)."
Doesn't that depend on where you get the pot? How do we know it isn't blood pot? You're so damned bitter, and have revealed such a long history of lawbreaking, for no better reason that the laws were on the books, that why should we believe you incapable of buying blood pot?
"Alcohol on the other hand which is completely legal DOES have a tendency to affect others when someone consumes too much of it."
The pot-alcohol canard again. Just more proof that one's own vices are always exempt from censure, but the vices of others are fair game.
"While I am firmly pro-choice when it comes to abortion, your analogy is faulty. Growing or smoking a plant has no effect on anyone other than the person directly involved in that activity."
And the grow-rips, electricity thefts, ruined houses, fires, and increased crime are caused by, what, the fact that Nixon and Bush are still alive? Or is it those aliens at Roswell again?
"The opinion of free men and women who value liberty, and the domesticated cattle who bow to the whim of their masters."
The excuse offered by every forest bandit and highwayman who ever walked the Earth.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 9:26:23 AM
I can't blame you for not being proud mathews, if I were you I'd be ashamed. Call jenny craig yet? Seems you have trouble controlling your own consumption, and therefore think everyone else needs the state's help to control theirs. Seriously dude, put down that chicken wing, and pick up a piece of celery.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 9:34:43 AM
We nominate Dr Greenthumb as the new Prince of Pot-
- he has all the qualifications as the abdicating Prince of Pot -
Besides, the BCMP headquarters in the Vancouver slums could use a complete renovation as soon as present tenant relocates
Posted by: 416 | 2009-06-25 9:37:46 AM
Still throwing fat jokes around, eh, Poison Pill? Pathetic. I've seen better performances from grade-schoolers--a place where you seem to have peaked emotionally and intellectually. Good with a hammer and nails, maybe. With the mind--not so much. Of course, you've been pickling it with that "harmless plant" for 30 years...
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 9:59:29 AM
Greenie sez: "When the NDP is the ONLY party in the House that stands up for individual liberty in a meaningful way then it makes absolute sense for libertarians to support the NDP."
That made me laugh... Are you stoned or just completely ignorant? The marxist NDP is the antithesis of freedom. Libertarians who vote and cheer for the marxists aren't libertarian at all. They're pretenders. Might I suggest you put the joint away, take a good hard look in the mirror and recheck your premise...
Posted by: Richard Evans | 2009-06-25 10:06:18 AM
Let's be honest here, there is scientific evidence to support both sides of the argument.
That then leads us to use other aspects in order to shape our opinion. I know that many of the anti-pot studies have been proven inaccurate, just as I know there is enough embellished stats and propaganda on the pro side to fill the Hudson. So for me, it comes down to a government control issue.
Whether it be left or right, I am against big government which, IMO, has been the root cause of many of the entrenched problems Canada suffers from today.
Those who condemn casual pot use while sipping their after-work Chivas are hypocrites.
Posted by: Leigh Patrick Sullivan | 2009-06-25 10:14:44 AM
'you'd obviously oppose pharmaceuticals, alcohol and tobacco'.
In 2007, The Lancet Journal published an article that concludes that Alcohol and Tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs ie. marijuana and ecstasy.
Heroin and Cocaine were rated the most dangerous, followed by barbituates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth most harmful and tobacco the ninth.
Marijuana was 11th and near the bottom was ecstasy.
Tobacco causes 40 percent of all hospital illnesses, while alcohol is blamed for more than half of all visits to hospital E.R.'s. The substances also harm society in other ways, damaging families and occupying Police Services.
Oooopppps.
3 Sudbury ON Teenagers Dead as a dircet result of a Drunken Driver.
Ironic, that the Failed USA Drug War was initiated by a disgraced Drunk aka Tricky Dicky.
Shane Matthews, Edson AB's most improved Cow Tipper for 2005.
Posted by: jeff franklin | 2009-06-25 10:17:20 AM
The laws against pot are a form of terror. Taking kids out of their family because of pot is terror. Hunting people like dogs in the street over pot is terror. Threatening domestic politicians with foreign jails is terror. Threatening civilians with incarceration and bankruptcy because of pot is terrorism.
Posted by: Assembly Line Worker | 2009-06-25 10:44:22 AM
"And the grow-rips, electricity thefts, ruined houses, fires, and increased crime are caused by, what, the fact that Nixon and Bush are still alive? Or is it those aliens at Roswell again?"
No they are caused by people like you asking for laws that make a weed literally worth its weight in gold.
The conservatives and Liberals both support the extradition of Marc Emery. Both have abdicated their responsibility to charge Marc Emery for the crimes he has been accused of in Canada because they don't like the kind of sentence Marc would likely recieve in Canadian courts. They would rather Marc face these charges in another country where the punishment for selling plant seeds is more to their liking. The NDP opposes the extradition because they feel that Marc's supposed "crimes" were all committed while on Canadian soil that he is entitled to be tried for these "crimes" in Canada. Forget your bugaboo's about pot for 5 seconds and think about what is happening.
Is it the responsibility of a businessman to know and cater to the laws of every country when filling online or mail orders? Isn't it the responsibility of the buyer to know and obey the laws of his own jurisdiction? In this age of international trade and internet business, we can't expect the business owner to liable if a customer uses his product to break the laws of their own jurisdiction.
Canadians may only be extradited in cases where the crime they are accused of is also a crime here. They cannot extradite someone who has been tried and sentenced by our own courts for the same crime. If Marc has committed crimes in Canada then Canada should charge him. Not doing so sets a dangerous precedent. What if your child downloads a song, then someone in another country downloads it from your child. In Canada you would not likely be prosecuted for the crime of filesharing, but in some countries the punishments are outrageous, by our standards. Should your child be extradited to another country because the government of the day wishes that Canadian courts would treat copyright infringement more seriously?
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 10:48:03 AM
Unfortunately, Leigh, the fact that you distrust big government does not, in itself, constitute justification for anything. It is a reason neither to eliminate laws, nor to make more. It is your opinion, and that's all it is.
Alcohol, by the way, is not a fat-soluble psychotropic hallucinogen, but a simple blood-borne depressant.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 10:54:44 AM
So Richard Evans who would YOU have libertarians support?
The paternalistic authoritarian Harper conservatives?
Ignatieff?
I certainly don't support all the NDP's current policies, but they are head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to individual rights.
The NDP is being taken over by younger people who have joined because of our opposition to Harper and his authoritarianism. We are setting party policy at conventions. Tell me what party is a better vehicle to freedom, and give me an example of what they have done for individual rights. In the case of the conservatives weigh anything they have done in comparison to intention to give more power to the state to imprison people.
Remember that any powers granted to the state are payed for with the freedom of the citizens.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 10:57:53 AM
"In 2007, The Lancet Journal published an article that concludes that Alcohol and Tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs ie. marijuana and ecstasy."
In terms of potential harm to each individual, or in terms of total harm done to society at large? In the latter case, you could argue that conventional bombs are more dangerous than nuclear bombs, because conventional bombs kill more people.
The tunnel vision exhibited by the pro-pot side is astounding. They lock onto a few gnarly old trees with Hubble-like clarity, but in the process miss the forest. It's a classic example of how you can convince yourself that black is white if your approach is creative enough.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 10:58:21 AM
"No they are caused by people like you asking for laws that make a weed literally worth its weight in gold."
Hardly; gold currently costs nearly $1100 CAD per ounce, five times more than B.C. Bud. We don't cause grow-rips, Greenthumb; their direct cause is their direct operators. The indirect cause is those who provide them with a market. Quit blaming the lawman for being an outlaw. It was your choice.
"The conservatives and Liberals both support the extradition of Marc Emery. Both have abdicated their responsibility to charge Marc Emery for the crimes he has been accused of in Canada because they don't like the kind of sentence Marc would likely recieve in Canadian courts. They would rather Marc face these charges in another country where the punishment for selling plant seeds is more to their liking."
Can you prove any of this?
"Is it the responsibility of a businessman to know and cater to the laws of every country when filling online or mail orders?"
Of course it is, you moron. But then, you don't know much about obeying laws, do you?
"Isn't it the responsibility of the buyer to know and obey the laws of his own jurisdiction?"
Also true. Holy shit! There's responsibility on BOTH sides! I'll pause a moment so you can digest the implications of the fact that EVERYONE is required to obey the law, not just "cattle bowing down to their masters."
"Canadians may only be extradited in cases where the crime they are accused of is also a crime here. They cannot extradite someone who has been tried and sentenced by our own courts for the same crime."
Marc Emery thus far has not been convicted of exporting drugs out of Canada. He will shortly plead guilty to importing drugs into the U.S. Possession of marijuana or viable seeds for the purpose of export or import is a crime in both the U.S. and in Canada, and in both countries the maximum penalty is life in prison.
"What if your child downloads a song, then someone in another country downloads it from your child. In Canada you would not likely be prosecuted for the crime of filesharing, but in some countries the punishments are outrageous, by our standards."
Children do not normally face prosecution in any event, and my child is no less subject to the law than someone else. Everyone is someone's child. Playing the "your child" argument is a cheap emotional ploy. Moreover, in Emery's case, the maximum penalty for his crime is the same in both countries. He should be grateful he's only getting five years.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 11:08:02 AM
"I certainly don't support all the NDP's current policies, but they are head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to individual rights."
Like the right to seek employment without having to join a union? How are they on firearms ownership? Pit bull ownership? Armoured car ownership? Or are the only rights that matter those traditionally claimed by fringe groups and baby seals?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 11:11:28 AM
"The pot-alcohol canard again. Just more proof that one's own vices are always exempt from censure, but the vices of others are fair game."
"Alcohol, by the way, is not a fat-soluble psychotropic hallucinogen, but a simple blood-borne depressant."
LOL, on the same page even. I don't even for a second suggest that alcohol should be illegal, but you dominate every thread on pot with your condemnation of people who use pot, calling for their arrest or worse. Then you have the audacity to claim that I demonize others vices while justifying my own?
Are seriously too friggin slow to realize what a hypocrite you are? I've seen you make excuses for your vices on this so many times on this forum yet you are the first one to condemn others for theirs. You defend tobacco
You defend alcohol
You probably defend overeating.
You continue to be a joke. People aren't laughing WITH you mathews, they are laughing AT you.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 11:12:18 AM
"The NDP is being taken over by younger people who have joined because of our opposition to Harper and his authoritarianism."
The NDP is being taken over by young people who think that the best way to pursue democracy is to establish closer ties with the latest generation of street protesters. Think Svend Robinson, not Taliban Jack.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 11:12:48 AM
"LOL, on the same page even. I don't even for a second suggest that alcohol should be illegal, but you dominate every thread on pot with your condemnation of people who use pot, calling for their arrest or worse."
And you're right there along for the ride, calling for the execution of people who don't use pot and don't want others using pot, aren't you, Poison Pill?
"Are seriously too friggin slow to realize what a hypocrite you are? I've seen you make excuses for your vices on this so many times on this forum yet you are the first one to condemn others for theirs."
Name one.
"You defend tobacco."
I don't smoke.
"You defend alcohol."
I hardly ever drink.
"You probably defend overeating."
"Probably" is not a statement of fact. Do I or don't I? Prove your answer.
"You continue to be a joke. People aren't laughing WITH you mathews, they are laughing AT you."
Who's laughing? Well, I am, I suppose, because Emery is going down and all you can do is sit and fume and toke your defiance, so does that count?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 11:16:10 AM
"Like the right to seek employment without having to join a union? How are they on firearms ownership? Pit bull ownership? Armoured car ownership? Or are the only rights that matter those traditionally claimed by fringe groups and baby seals?"
No NDP MP's voted to enact the gun registry, the NDP favoured the old FAC system. My NDP MLA owns a hunting lodge and is an avid hunter, I'm pretty sure he supports gun ownership. We've never had a pit-bull ban in an NDP controlled province, nor an amoured car ban, that's the Alberta Conservatives I thought? There they go taking away people's rights in the name of the drug war again. I assume they say this armoured car ban is designed to hurt "drug dealers" and "gangsters" right?
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 11:21:48 AM
I notice you haven't actually answered any of the questions, Greenthumb. I didn't ask you what they hadn't done. I asked you what their positions were now.
As for Ed Stelmach, his policies and attitudes are closer to Grit than to Tory. I'll take a true Tory like Mike Harris any day.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 11:27:31 AM
Slow day on the home improvement front, Poison Pill? I can afford to post in one- or two-minute windows between jobs, but I work on a computer, so it's just a matter of clicking an icon. How about you?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 11:29:00 AM
Good riddance to a drug dealer who thinks he's Rosa Parks. I hope he returns from prison bow-legged.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-06-25 11:42:43 AM
I work when I feel like it, one of the perks of being your own boss. In fact I usual take most of the summer off. Taking the kids to Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec city this year. An NDP MP's assistant is going to give us a tour of Parliament.( the kids have the MP as a friend on their facebook, and told her they were going to Ottawa) I think the kids are far more excited about Canada's Wonderland though.
If you were my employee I'd fire you for spending too much time on blogs when you are getting paid to work.
"I hardly ever drink"-mathews
Its still your vice which you defend while slamming others for theirs. Most people hardly ever smoke pot. What is your point?
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 11:44:18 AM
"I work when I feel like it, one of the perks of being your own boss. In fact I usual take most of the summer off."
But it's MY work ethic that's lacking. Interesting. Yes, that's another thing I've noticed about pot smokers; their curious allergy to work.
"If you were my employee I'd fire you for spending too much time on blogs when you are getting paid to work."
If you were my employee I'd have you arrested. For not, I think, the first time.
"Its still your vice which you defend while slamming others for theirs. Most people hardly ever smoke pot. What is your point?"
Most people have the sense not to smoke it at all. And occasional social drinking is not usually considered a vice.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 12:07:25 PM
I want Emery to hang himself in prison with a hemp rope, if only for the irony.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-06-25 12:18:16 PM
If he had a hemp rope, he'd probably smoke it instead, Zeb.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-25 12:22:39 PM
You are the one wasting your employers time on blogs, you are wasting time at your employers expense. My time is my own.
There is nothing wrong with my work ethic. I make plenty enough money to live comfortable and provide my family with everything they want. My properties will continue to provide me an income when I retire, probably by the time I'm 50. If you want to spend all your time being a wage slave to someone else, instead of enjoying life and time spent with your family be my guest. I know what's important to me and aquiring a whole lot of wealth by sacrificing the best years of my life to wage slavery is not high on my list. I make more money while working less and having more time to actually live than I ever did when working 50-60 hours a week for someone else.
I just bought another farm house last week for 100 000 that came with a long time tennant that covers the mortgage payment plus pays me an extra 300 dollars per month on top. It came with a quarter section of land, and I'll probably sell it within the year for a profit of at least 60 000. Have fun manning that desk and expanding your waistline. I'm gonna go fishing, and smoke several joints while I lie on the beach and wait for a bite.
BTW a vice is a vice no matter how often or how much you indulge yourself. Drinking is a vice, and YOU defend it at every opportunity. Hypocrite.
"If you were my employee I'd have you arrested. For not, I think, the first time."
I'd never work for a dickhead like you in the first place. I've never been arrested and have no criminal record.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-25 12:38:55 PM
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