PIE-ING THE MOUNTIES IMAGINE

Marijuana Party leader, Marc-Boris St-Maurice is considering asking
for police protection. From the police.

Since launching the provincial Bloc Pot three years ago and it's federal
counterpart this autumn, cannabis crusader St-Maurice has, not
surprisingly, drawn the attention of the authorities.

"Not counting undercover cops," he said, "I've been arrested and charged
three times and pulled over and hassled on at least a dozen occasions."

Last winter, while doing volunteer work for the Montreal Compassion Club,
he and party cohort Alex Neron were busted for trafficking marijuana. They
face a february court date.

Recruiting federal-election candidates last September in Ontario, he was
arrested and charged with marijuana possession. There is allegedly a bench
warrant for his arrest.

His last police encounter, however, concerns him most.

"The next time they pull me over," he says, "the police computer is going
to come up 'assaulting an officer' -- it won't mention cream pie."

Details are foggy -- this is the marijuana party -- but to the best of his
recollection, St-Maurice was winding up a campaign rally with about 300
supporters on Parliament Hill. His final commitment was to cream-pie the
statue of feminist-activist Emily Murphy.

Murphey is one of the "Famous Five" Canadian women who led the fight to
have women included as "persons" under Canadian law. She was also a rabid
racist. In 1922, using the pen name Janey Canuck, she wrote a best-selling
book called The Black Candle, which described marijuana smokers as "raving
maniacs."

According to the late Chief Supreme Court Justice, Gerald Ledain, her
writings were the reason marijuana prohibition was introduced in 1923.

"The RCMP wouldn't allow access to the statue," explained Mike Foster of
Ottawa. "They were saying, 'you never know what whip cream can do to a
statue.' As Boris [St-Maurice] attempted to bypass them, they physically
began ushering him away. He did the only thing he could do and threw the
pie into his own face; some cream ended up on the officer's uniform."

At his Dec 15 court appearance, St-Maurice plans to offer full restitution.

"The Marijuana Party will pay to have the officer's uniform cleaned," he
said. "We meant no disrespect to the uniform of the officer."

Foster thinks that no matter how St-Maurice's case unfolds, Emily Murphy
can expect more of the same.

"It will be interesting to see how many more people try to pie that statue
now," he says. "They might as well set up a time for us to return to the
hill and do it officially."

For those of you who can't make it to Ottawa, Foster knows of a website in
the works that will soon allow everyone a chance to cream-pie Emily Murphy.