'NOT THE TIME' TO DEBATE LAW

Pot Party Founder: 'What Happened Has Nothing To Do With Marijuana'

OTTAWA - Four police officers exit the Ottawa Congress Centre, the site of
the Liberal party's policy convention. They are just a stone's throw from
where Marc Boris St-Maurice, the founder of the Marijuana Party of Canada,
is smoking a cigarette.

"There's the boys in blue right now," he says, "for whom I have tremendous
respect."

His face is caked with television makeup -- the kind they use in funeral
parlours.

Four days ago, Mr. St-Maurice took to a podium on Parliament Hill to
announce his defection to the governing Liberals -- to better push his
marijuana agenda -- a controversial issue that has become even more
passionate with the shooting deaths of the four RCMP officers in northern
Alberta.

"What I am happy about is, I'm here to try and bring a balanced, sensible
reaction and approach to this as opposed to getting all whipped up in a
frenzy and going off on a witch hunt. It's a counterbalance to what we've
had so far."

Mr. St-Maurice, 36, is quick to push his message that this is not the time
for politics. Not even the time for debate over the evils of marijuana, he
says.

The reaction was different -- almost defensive -- when news of the murders
in Mayerthorpe started to emerge on Thursday evening.

Michael Ignatieff was giving a speech to the party faithful. Mr. St-Maurice
walked through and paused to tell a reporter the tragedy highlights the
dangers of pot prohibition. He said it was like Al Capone, the mobster who
built an empire running illegal liquor from Canada to the United States.

"Having spent the evening thinking about it, and talking to a few wise
advisors, I have come to the conclusion that what happened yesterday has
nothing to do with marijuana," he said yesterday. "It has to do with the
security of police officers on the job."

It is a deft political manoeuvre from a relative political novice, who, a
week ago, had been an activist on the fringes.

"Is he still a single-issue person?" asked Karl Belanger, a senior advisor
for the NDP. Mr. Belanger was standing not three metres from where Mr.
St-Maurice, who is from Montreal, was being interviewed by the francophone
media.

"Having him in here at this time could cause some controversy because of
what happened," Mr. Belanger said. "Controversy is usually never positive."

But Mr. St-Maurice is getting used to it.

"Today I'm really not in the most comfortable of positions to be discussing
this. It's not the time. It's not where the problem is. The problem is
we've got four dead police officers. It's horrible and we have to try and
solve that problem in the future and it's not at lashing out at marijuana
growers."

Policy resolutions urging the decriminalization of marijuana and stiffer
penalties for grow-ops will be debated today and could become official
Liberal policies.

"Obviously, with the deputy prime minister whipping up support for stiffer
penalties, I dare say that in the Liberal party that's got to count for
something more than my newly arrived, freshly minted Liberal position. But
that's OK. I didn't expect an overnight resolution to this, so I'll stick
with it and I'm paying close attention."