ACCUSED JUST TRYING TO AVOID TAXES

A B.C. man says he was trying to dodge taxes, not the law, when he
decided to help a group of people grow "Indian hemp medicine" on a
Saskatchewan First Nation.

Taking the witness stand in his own defence Thursday, 58-year-old
Nelson Edward Northwood said he sought adoption by the Anishinabe
Nations of Turtle Island to gain a tax advantage and agreed to build
greenhouses to pay off his adoption fee. He brought his 55-year-old
brother Jack Allan Northwood, who is also on trial, along to help
because he too was interested in adoption.

"We were just on a roadtrip, a holiday sort of thing," Nelson
Northwood testified.

That "holiday" landed him and his brother in court. They along with
Chester Fernand Girard, 59, and brothers Lawrence Hubert Agecoutay,
52, Robert Stanley Agecoutay, 48, and Joseph Clayton Agecoutay, 47,
are charged with illegally producing marijuana and possessing the drug
for the purpose of trafficking.

All but Nelson Northwood and Lawrence Agecoutay elected not to call
any evidence. The case will likely go to the seven-woman, five-man
jury on Tuesday.

The charges stem from an RCMP raid on Aug. 21, 2005 that uncovered
6,000 marijuana plants growing in greenhouses and plots near the homes
of Robert and Joseph Agecoutay on the Pasqua First Nation. Had the
RCMP not nipped the plants in the bud, they carried a potential value
in the millions, a drug expert testified.

Lawrence Agecoutay, who identifies himself as the grand chief of the
Anishinabe Nations of Turtle Island, earlier testified that he was
instructed to grow "medicine" for his people, not pot for profit.

Northwood worked as a carpenter for B.C. Ferries and operated a
hardwood flooring business until he suffered a head injury on the job
in 1990. With the help of alternative therapy, he eventually resumed
his hardwood business, but to this day still suffers from short-term
memory problems and insomnia that limit his work, court heard.

By the mid-1990s he was in financial trouble and stopped paying his
income tax. Searching for anything that might help, Northwood attended
a meeting and joined the "de-tax" movement. He began to believe there
was no income tax law.

"I think it's crazy. I think it means they're not going to pay taxes,"
his wife Karen Egland testified. "It's a whole other world," she said,
describing her husband's tax advisers as "strange-O's."

Northwood fell further into tax arrears.

His tax fight repeatedly took him into court, to jail for three weeks,
and hit the news in Victoria.

A man who had read the article, contacted Northwood and suggested his
tax woes might be solved if he was adopted by an Indian band, court
heard.

Northwood said he eventually talked to Lawrence Agecoutay, who said he
belonged to a sovereign nation that didn't have to pay tax.

"I'm trying to figure out how can I not pay our friends at Canada
Revenue Agency (CRA) lawfully," Northwood said, adding that he
understood his adoption would wipe out his past tax debt as well.

Northwood paid $5,000 for his adoption but still owed $15,000, which
he planned to work off with his brother by constructing four
greenhouses.

He said Lawrence Agecoutay told him of a five-year plan to open a
centre that would produce seeds, clothing and medicine. At one point,
he suggested raising money for the centre by selling the "hemp
medicine" seeds to legal compassion clubs -- but Agecoutay insisted
the "medicine" was for his people and not for sale, Northwood said.

In cross-examination, Northwood was asked why he would pay about
$34,000 for greenhouse supplies, if he owed only $15,000 for his
adoption. Northwood said the money was a loan.

Also quizzed about a document with figures that the Crown contends
showed a planned three-way split of a $3 million profit, Northwood
said he didn't author the document but believed it was about the
compassion clubs.

Egland said since 2005, Northwood hired a lawyer, settled with the
taxman, and now files his tax return.