PERSECUTING THE PRINCE

Whatever you may think of the United States' persecution of marijuana
loudmouth Marc Emery, try to bear in mind it's about more than just pot.

Admittedly, it's pretty hard to separate that stem from those leaves
when it comes to Emery, B.C.'s self-anointed Prince of Pot. He revels
in the U.S. government's claims he's responsible for an estimated 1.1
million pounds of marijuana grown illegally in the states and brags
to the CBC that he's responsible for more of the pot being smoked on
earth than anyone else but God. He's gotten high on the steps of
police stations, he's staged rallies, he founded the Marijuana Party,
started the magazine Cannabis Culture and, of course, set up a
marijuana seed-selling service that ended up doing $15 million worth
of business in Canada and the U.S.

Nevertheless, the key p-word here isn't pot, but persecution. Emery
persecuted two governments -- in the second sense of the word,
annoying persistence -- through his life-long quest to produce so
much marijuana and so much public pressure the police would be
overwhelmed and forced to make it legal across North America. In
turn, the U.S. persecuted Emery -- in the first sense of word, by
making him suffer for beliefs.

Now, that's not to say this country should blindly give shelter and
support to Emery, regardless of what he's done. But what's galling in
this is the disproportion of the U.S. response and Canada's wholesale
acquiescence.

Take away all the words -- the War on Drugs, decriminalization, the
children, oh, the children -- and concentrate on the acts. Emery sold
the seeds of a plant that, the rights and wrongs of it aside, is
neither as dangerous nor as addictive as, say, over-the-counter
codeine-laced cough syrup or a bottle of wine. He's just noisy about
it -- burdened with an ego one reporter says "must make up 40 per
cent of his body weight," Emery thinks he's Gandhi in a nice suit
carrying a full bong on a mission to "overgrow" the United States
through peaceful political means.

He succeeded and the DEA, embarassed by Emery's blaring appearances
on CNN, Rolling Stone and the Wall Street Journal, slurred him by
saying he's worse than the murderers and thugs of the Hells Angels
and Triads. It forced the Vancouver police to interfere in his place
of business, livelihood and political activism. It then attempted to
bleed him financially by setting in motion the complex legal
mechanism of extradition.

At the root of the DEA charges was a blatant act of extortion:
voluntarily accept exile from your country and a lifetime of
imprisonment in the U.S. or two of your closest friends will share
the same fate. The reason was political -- even then DEA boss Karen
Tandy bragged about it, calling his arrest in a now notorious press
release: "a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking
trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also the marijuana legalization
movement . . . Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of
money to rely on."

Basically, the DEA wanted to shut up a Canadian because it didn't
like what he was saying and the causes he supported -- and Ottawa
helped stick a fist in his mouth by supporting the whole thing.
That's the problem and the outrage. This country chose the interests
of a foreign power over protecting its citizens not because it was
right, but because it was more convenient. It's a frightening,
loathsome truth that's played out too many times to be denied, from
Maher Arar to Afghanistan to the Avro Arrow.

Basically, if it's a choice between you and mildly offending the
U.S., don't count on Canada. That's unacceptable.

In the end, with him and his two friends facing extradition, a deal
was reached last month: his friends should avoid jail, Emery will
serve five years in Canada and the DEA gets a conviction against a
lone stoner they've deluded and lied themselves into thinking is one
of the 46 most wanted criminals on earth.

But at least he's still here -- and at least there's one person who
isn't afraid to be Canadian, no matter what the U.S. says.